The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking

In _The Opposable Mind_, Roger Martin argues that what makes a successful businessman isn't a relentless focus on execution but also the ability to employ "integrative thinking" - to find a compromise between two different models, each with its own deficits, and forge a new "middle way". After giving several illustrations of businesspeople who have demonstrated their ability to really think different, he goes into the mindset needed to do integrative thinking yourself.

First, you must accept that existing models do not equate to reality. What we perceive as reality is really one mental construct of many. The second thing is a willingness to leverage on opposing models. Many of us shut our minds to models that don't match our own, because of the mental effort needed to comprehend it, or just because of the disagreeable discomfort of accommodating a model contrary to our own beliefs. But this is not the way of the integrative thinker.

Third, one must believe that better models can and do exist. Where existing models offer negative trade-offs, there should be a different way that leverages on the best that each conflicting model has to offer. Fourth, one must believe that one has the ability to find such a model - self-confidence, in other words. Fifth is a willingness to wade into the complexity of understanding the whole situation and finding a new model, and sixth is simply giving oneself the time to locate a new model rather than reflexively accepting an existing one.

Then he briefly goes into the tools one can use to find new models - generative reasoning, causal modelling and assertive inquiry. I didn't find the exercises he proposed here (that he uses in business school) all that strong, to be honest. And finally he talks about acquiring experiences in such a way to garner both mastery and originality - i.e. not to overly concentrate on mastery to the exclusion of new experiences that can find you new, original alternative paths in life.

So overall, an interesting book that teaches: when faced with an either-or, find a third way, but that I felt was weak in the practical sections.