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Total Number of Subscribers: 464 | ||
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Date:22nd Febraury 2009 |
Compiled by Mr. M. Sathya Kumar | ||
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Prof. Roger Martin - Win Through Integrative Thinking
The
ability to creatively resolve opposing ideas by forming new, better ones
sets successful business leaders apart from the rest. The good news is
that you can learn this skill too, and join the ranks of those "thinking
to win".
In his book, The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking, Prof. Roger Martin discovers that great leaders are also great thinkers, mastering the art of integrative thinking. Excerpts from a talk by Roger Martin I wanted to know the thinking behind the doing by successful leaders. I have interviewed mostly North American leaders such as Jack Welch, Michael Dell & Meg Whitman. I have also interviewed business leaders in India and I notice that this phenomenon is not only amongst North American leaders. Leaders in India as well think with integrated thinking mechanisms. Some of the prominent Indian leaders I have interviewed also showed a common pattern of integrated thinking. We
were all born with an opposable mind, a mind that can benefit from tension
between ideas. Integrative Thinking is 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. As learners of business, we all need to change
our thinking styles, and promote this kind of thinking. This reminds me of
a famous quote by F Scott Fitzgerald, which goes "One should be able to
see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them
otherwise". This is the core of the approach of thinking
leaders.
Worldy Models: You need to hold those opposing ideas in your mind and do something useful with them. Why doesn't everyone do this all the time? Why isn't this natural and instinctive? This is because we think about the world in a model that we create in our head. As humans, we try to make sense of the world. We create a unique model of it in our head, but is not the real world. You should understand that the world is an incredibly multifaceted place. That's why we create a schema of it, in our heads.
Many people think that there is no advantage out of a model clash. They tend to take a technocratic approach. They do a quick analysis of the models at hand, pick the least worst model and move on. This approach is opposite to what approach was practiced by the 50+ highly successful leaders whom I interviewed. The Integrators Choice:
Integrative thinkers build models rather than choose between them. Their
models include consideration of numerous variables - customers, employees,
competitors, capabilities, cost structures, industry evolution, and
regulatory environment - not just a subset of the above. Their models
capture the complicated, multi-faceted and multidirectional causal
relationships between the key variables in any problem. Integrative
thinkers consider the problem as a whole, rather than breaking it down and
farming out the parts. Finally, they creatively resolve tensions without
making costly trade-offs, turning challenges into
opportunities.
Nandan Nilekani, once told me that his people asked him to choose whether the customer came first or the employee came first. Nandan's reply was to get a solution where both people are equally satisfied. K V Kamath was the other Indian leader I spoke to. He said that at one point, ICICI had privatized and were in expansionary mode. He had a choice of going global, buying banks, though he didn't have the capital. The other choice was to stay local, for which he had the capital. His stakeholders wanted him to choose. Instead of choosing one option completely, he slowly chose in a way that ICICI expanded in both ways. Probably the moral from both stories are to not choose in haste. Rather, take the best of both options and make them work When making a decision, people proceed through four steps: 1
Salience: what do we choose to pay attention to, and what not? In this
initial step, we decide what features are relevant to our
decision.
2.
Causality: how do we make sense of what we see? What sort of relations do
we believe exist between the various pieces of the puzzle?
3.
Architecture: during which an overall mental model is constructed, based
on what we have arrived at in the first two steps.
4. Resolution: what will our decision be, based on our reasoning? Developing A Knowledge System
If
we want to develop our capacity to think integratively, then we need to
develop a personal knowledge system. This is a system for managing
knowledge and there are 3 keys aspects to this
1.
Stance, which is the self-view of what the world looks like and what my
role in this world is. Stance is what will guide what tools you will get.
The tools could be in the form on engineering degrees, computers and
company experience. 2.
Tools, Frameworks & Models, which are shorthands, which you use to
organize that world
3.
Experiences, which is something you gain depending on your skills and
sensitivity.
On Mastery Vs Originality
The
best way to gain mastery is to repeat a task a 100 times. But mastery
alone is not enough, you also need originality. If you are good only at
mastery, then you end up with diminishing returns. There will be nothing
new to learn. Originality teaches you new things and you will be able to
achieve greater levels of mastery. The great artists of the world were
both masters, and originals. Picasso by the age of 15 was already painting
masterpieces. Then he moved to a more original & new form of art,
which became famous. The fact is that he wouldn't have gone down in
history as a great painter, had he not mixed mastery and originality. My
advise to you is, at the end of very week, ask yourself if you nurtured
your originality. My
Definition Of Success: Are the actions I take, getting me the results I
want? If yes, then I can be defined as successful. People who I have
interviewed have had big dreams. Jack Welch for instance wanted to build
the "most valuable company in the world". And he did. That's called
success!
Common
In The East: Integrated thinking is nothing new to oriental people. The
Japanese are always been known for synthesizing data. MBA programs
originated in To what extent do conviction and inner strength fit
in?
One
of my friends always tells me "You don't need a 10$ packet to cure a child
with diarrhea. All you need is some water and a pinch of salt". This talks
about how much conviction matters in solving a given problem. This model
helps to create a synthesis between thinking and doing. I highly recommend
that all of you read two of my favorite authors Chris Agrys & Don
Chearn.
Can integrative thinking be taught?
Are
people born integrative thinkers or non-integrative thinkers? Some say
yes, but I say no. I would argue that non-integrative thinking is utterly
consistent with the natural tendency toward narrow perfectionism. In fact,
narrow perfectionism reinforces non-integrative thinking. Their own
proclivities drive them away from integrative thinking. In addition, their
educational experiences will give them little help in being more
integrative in their approaches. So to observe that non-integrative
thinkers don't develop integrative thinking skills is no surprise. I would
argue that only the most naturally integrative thinkers survive with their
thinking approach unscathed to adulthood.
Who have you interviewed?
I
have mostly spoken to people from the field of business. I have also
spoken to a number of non-profit leaders. For instance, I have interviewed
a person who started the first free university in Speaker
Profile: Prof. Roger Martin, Dean and Professor of Integrative Thinking,
Rotman Article by Rajiv Mathew for Businessgyan | ||
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