What distinguishes a brilliant leader from a conventional one? Prof. Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, will demonstrate that brilliant leaders are skilled at integrative thinking, the ability to hold two opposing ideas in their minds at once, and then reach a synthesis that contains elements of both but improves on each.
When making management decisions, conventional thinkers focus only on obviously relevant features, break problems into pieces and work on them separately, and settle for what they perceive to be the best available options. But truly successful leaders try not to make either/or decisions; instead they look beyond the obvious for nonlinear relationships among the variables and try to view the problem as a whole. This enables them to resolve tensions among opposing ideas and generate truly innovative outcomes.
Is integrative thinking a talent reserved for a fortunate few? Not at all, join Roger on December 18th as he shares stories from his new book The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking, of leaders as diverse as A.G. Lafley of Procter and Gamble, Issy Sharp of Four Seasons, Michael Lee-Chin of AIC and Bob Young of Red Hat, and find out how you too can develop integrative thinking skills.
Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point calls The Opposable Mind, “Brilliant and utterly convincing.” Pre-order an autographed copy with your lunch ticket and save almost 20% off the list price. It’s a terrific holiday gift for you, business colleagues and friends!
