When problem-solving's a problem...
How do you tend to approach the challenges you face?
Often without realizing it, we can develop habits over time regarding how we address any obstacles that arise.
A bit like the saying "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail", if our habits are left unquestioned, we risk applying the wrong tool for the job.
The popular tool of problem-solving - which typically involves trying to figure out the one, right (or best) solution that will make the problem go away (ideally permanently) - can be very helpful.
Except when it's not.
Let's explore how shifting from problem-solving to polarity management may help you more effectively address some of the complex challenges you're facing.
Differentiating between complicated and complex challenges
For complicated challenges - those that have a predictable relationship between cause and effect (ie the correct answer can be known or figured out in advance eg how to fix a car engine, conduct heart surgery, get a rocket into space, or program computer software) - problem-solving is a great tool.
Here we're often well-served by asking questions like:
What's the 'right' answer here?
What solution has been reliably proven to address this problem?
Should I choose either Option 1 OR Option 2?
In the realm of complicated challenges, this either/or thinking helps us narrow down our set of options to identify the best solution to address our problem.
For complex challenges - those where the relationship between cause and effect is not clear in advance (ie what works can only be known in hindsight eg how to raise a child, lead people, change a culture, navigate a pandemic) - applying a problem-solving approach can get us into trouble by framing the challenge as a false dichotomy.
Rather than approaching a complex challenge as a problem to solve, it can be useful instead to view it as a polarity to manage. Here it can be helpful to ask questions like:
What are the outcomes I value and want to uphold as well as the outcomes I fear and want to avoid?
Which perspectives am I privileging and which have I not yet considered?
How can I maximize the upside AND minimize the downside?
In the realm of complex challenges, this both/and thinking helps us broaden the set of options we can try so we can experiment, learn, and discover what works over time.
Both either/or and both/and thinking have their place
Black-and-white either/or thinking can be great for addressing complicated, technical challenges (After all, if I'm about to have an operation, I certainly hope my surgeon knows the 'right' way to do it in order to return me to health!).
But for complex challenges like social justice, organizational transformation, and economic recovery there is no one, 'right' way forward and there is no single, static, utopian destination to reach. These aren't concrete things that can be permanently fixed or solved - they are evolving systems that must be perpetually monitored and managed.
If we mistakenly frame these kinds of complex issues in black-and-white terms like either us OR them; either we all work from home OR we all work from the office; either we protect the economy OR we protect the environment, we're setting ourselves up for power struggles and polarization.
Using polarity management to broaden our perspectives of complex challenges
In complexity, we're often tasked with balancing seemingly competing but necessary qualities (for example, we may want the people in our organizations to innovate (eg to have flexibility) but we may also want them to minimize risk (eg to follow standards)).
Rather than trying to narrow down and force a choice to pursue one at the expense of the other (ie to problem-solve), polarity management is a process that helps us broaden our perspective to acknowledge both the gifts and liabilities inherent in an interdependent pair of value-neutral opposites (such as the prior example of flexibility and standards).
By using a tool called a polarity map, we can begin to see the wider system that's behind our complex challenge. This supports us in creating the conditions to manifest the upsides of both poles while simultaneously minimizing the downsides.
In this way, instead of trying to pick the 'right' one, we can explore how we might:
get the benefits of both centralization and decentralization
support both public health and the economy.
Learning to think in terms of polarities will not only support your vertical development, but it can also help decrease polarization around complex challenges, and create a more sustainable and resilient system over time.
So the next time you face a challenge consider, is this a problem to be solved (complicated) or a polarity to be managed (complex)?
