Both/And Thinking Toolkit

Do you want to develop more both/and thinking? Here are some resources.

Leaders frequently ask us… is embracing paradox an ability that people are born with or learn? 

Unsurprisingly… it's both! 

Some people feel more comfortable with tensions and are more adept at both/and thinking. Our research with colleagues Ella Miron-Spektor, Josh Keller and Amy Ingram helps identify those people. Yet people can also learn to embrace a paradox mindset. 

That’s why we do the work we do; to help people lean into creative friction and value tensions.

Building from our research and teaching, we created resources to develop both/and thinking. We hope these help equip you as a both/and thinking champion!  We’ll keep building out new resources, so let us know what works. 

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Check out these tools in the resources section of our website. 

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• A Decision Making Framework - This document walks through how to apply both/and thinking to decision making and is great to use for your own challenges or to help teach and coach others. 

• Building a Both/And Culture - Do you want your group, team or organization to adopt more both/and thinking? Here’s a list of actions you can take to do so. 

• The Paradox System - Leadership Tools - In our book Both/And Thinking, we introduced The Paradox System - a framework of tools to embrace paradox in your organization or in your own life. Feel free to use this on your own or hand this out to your team. 

• Discussion Guide - Are you reading Both/And Thinking in a group at work or with friends? This discussion guide can help deepen your insights. 

• Additional Resources - While our book, Both/And Thinking is a good start to learn more, there’s lots more. This sheet offers a list of podcasts, op-eds, scholarly articles, etc. and is useful whether you want to develop your own learning, teach others, or get up to speed on the academic literature on paradox. 

• Top 10 Tips - With all these tools, sometimes we just need reminders. Here are our top 10 tips to put on your wall, share with your team or your classes.

Here are some resources other colleagues created to advance paradox and both/and thinking. Are there other tools you love using? Let us know so that we can amplify their impact. 

• Polarity Mapping and beyond - Barry Johnson and Polarity Partnerships have great tools for mapping paradoxes. Check out their website for more information.  

• Implement Consulting - We have partnered with Implement Consulting to advance ‘the Power of AND’. Here is a video from them.