Roger Martin, "How Successful Leaders Think"

Based on Roger Martin interview more than 50 leaders, most of them share a somewhat unusual trait: They have the predisposition and the capacity to hold in their heads two opposing ideas at once. And then, without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they're able to creatively resolve the tension between the those two ideas by generating a new one that contains elements of the others but is superior to both. This process of consideration and synthesis can be termed integrative thinking.

Opposable Thumb, Opposable Mind

The Four Stages of Decision Making

1. Determining Salience

Conventional Thinkers: Focus only on obviously relevant features

Integrative Thinkers: Seek less obvious but potentially relevant factors

2. Analyzing Causality

Conventional Thinkers: Consider one-way, linear relationships betwwen variables, in which more of A produces more of B

Integrative Thinkers: Consider multidirectional and nonlinear relationships among variables

3. Envisioning the Decision Architecture

Conventional Thinkers: Break problems into pieces and work on them separately or sequentially

Integrative Thinkers: See problems as a whole, examining how the parts fit together and how decisions affect one another

4. Achieving Resolution

Conventional Thinkers: Make either-or choices; settle for best available options

Integrative Thinkers: Creatively resolve tensions among opposing ideas; generate innovative outcomes

The consequences of integrative thinking and conventional thinking couldn't be more distinct. Integrative thinking generates options and new solutions. It creates a sense of limitless possibility. Conventional thinking glosses over potential solutions and fosters the illusion that creative solutions don't actually exist. With conventional thinking, they wear away with every apparent reinforcement of the lesson that life is about accepting unattractive trade-offs. Fundamentally, the conventional thinker prefers to accept the world just as it is, wheras the integratie thinkers welcomes the challange of shaping the world for the better.