The book starts with the key following sentence: “What distinguishes a brilliant leader from a conventional one?” The essential argumentation revolves around the idea of integrative thinking.
The theory of integrative thinking was originated by Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management, at The University of Toronto, which describes it as "the ability to constructively face the tensions of opposing models, and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generating a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new model that contains elements of the individual models, but is superior to each."
One of the reasons this book is rewarding is Martin uses real life examples of past and current successful leaders in various fields to illustrate his message. The people he describes have the common trait of uncommon decision making. We should not emulate these great leaders because every situation is different but we should understand how they think. Creativity is very important when problem solving. Leaders are faced with increasingly complex situations, choices and conflicts. There can be no one-sided trade-offs, “no stomach for 2nd best”. In order to achieve maximum potential and benefit, they have to see past basic or simplified decisions and keep all options open. Once they have “mapped out” out these multiple routes in their mind, they are able to “imagine reality” and “connect the dots”.
The first five pages give the striking example of Michael Lee-Chin, who became a billionaire entrepreneur through his investment advisory firm by resisting market pressures and expectations. Facing a crisis, Lee-Chin choose neither of the 2 main propositions in front of him, opting rather for an amalgam of the two, “upsetting the applecart” but making him a billionaire and becoming Canada’s largest privately held mutual fund company.
For global professionals of the 21rst century, it is important to analyze the thinking process that went into this “spur-of-the-moment gamble”, to be able to create a strong synthesis between two opposed ideas. This book pushes every individual to question themselves as to how they come up with their decision-making.
Hopefully, integrative thinking can help me improve the way I organize my thoughts, to confront the difficulty of dealing with opposite views on a specific situation, and being able put into use that thought process in order to achieve the best possible decision (one that is more than equal to the sum of its parts). I better understand the importance of “diagnosing and synthesizing by asking probing questions” as well as analyzing relationships between various arguments.
As this is not always evident, I will need to train myself to achieve (“how”) this mental trait all great leaders share today.
The good news, according to Martin, is that by using vast amounts of knowledge (both conceptual and experimental) integrative thinking can be learned by anyone who wants to enhance their careers.
I think the argument this book holds for ALL of us comes down to:
Think outside the box.
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