The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking

I strongly recommend this book as a tool for sharpening one's ability to create value. Martin's model (with examples) for: 1) never accepting existing solutions as permanent, 2) notice a wider rage of desirable benefits as being mandatory to include in the ideal solution, 3) have the temerity to face any complexity in creating a new alternative superior to existent alternatives (to include more of the salient benefits, to resolve more of the previous constraints). A sample: "... integrative thinkers don't take the easy way out and pick the least-worst alternative; they view the creation of a truly attractive option as both their goal and their personal responsibility. They learn from each option without being bound by its limitations, and they use the insights gained to break through to an entirely new model that creatively resolves the tensions between existing models." I also loved his discussion of how one's intellectual "stance" is under one's control and that one can objectively analyze one's own thinking structure/capacity and optimize it. Martin points out that most people rarely analyze their own approach to thinking. Since thought is the antecedent to action, thinking about how to sharpen your thinking (which this book helps you do) will lead to more effective action.

I bought this as required reading for a certificate course in Non Executive Directorship which I am currently working on.I was amused therefore to discover that my tutor has not read it. If you are a clinical psychologist and/or a business man you will find it easy going. If not then the psycho babble and jargon require that you concentrate pretty hard at times. The examples used from the business world are very illuminating

Some of my best experiences in reading books have occurred when someone I trust and respect has said to me: "You need to read this book!" That is how I discovered the marvelous insights that Roger Martin shares in his book, "The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking." One day over lunch, my friend, Rick Cerf, showed me the book and told me that I needed to add it to my reading list. Thanks, Rick! Martin, who is Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, offers as his major premise the idea that the best leaders avoid simplistic binary choices, and put in the extra effort to find solutions to complex problems - solutions that go beyond false dichotomies. The best leaders think in terms of "Both/And" rather than "Either/Or." "As I listened to some of the sharpest minds in business talk about how they thought through the most pressing and perplexing dilemmas of their careers, I searched for a metaphor that could give me deeper insight into the dynamic of their thinking. The skill with which these thinkers held two opposing ideas in fruitful tension reminded me of the way other highly skilled people use their hands. Human beings, it's well known, are distinguished from nearly every other creature by a physical feature known as the opposable thumb. Thanks to the tension we create by opposing the thumb and fingers, we can do marvelous things that no other creature can do - write, thread a needle, carve a diamond, paint a picture, guide a catheter up through an artery to unblock it. All those actions would be impossible without the crucial tension between the thumb and the fingers. . . Similarly, we were born with an opposable mind we can use to hold two conflicting ideas in constructive tension." (Pages 6-7) The language that Martin chooses here is very instructive, and is reminiscent of language I remember being used by one of my favorite graduate school professors - Dr. Gordon Fee. Dr. Fee, one of the translators of the New International Version of the Bible, is a brilliant biblical scholar and communicator. He would often describe difficult portions of Scripture that, on the surface, may appear to contradict each other, and he would declaim: "We hold these truths in tension!" As an example of "opposable mind thinking," Martin offers the legendary choreographer, Martha Graham: "Like Graham, the creative thinkers I interviewed knew they would need plenty of help to reach creative resolutions. They chose their collaboration expressly for what they would contribute to an integrated whole. Bruce Mau, a renowned designer and frequent collaborator with architect Frank Gehry, told me, 'You can't make a renaissance person any more, because the range of what you would need to do is just impossible. But you could actually assemble a renaissance team.' The integrative thinkers rely on their 'renaissance teams' to broaden salience, maintain sophisticated causality, and create a holistic architecture in their drive for creative resolution." (Page 82) Throughout the book, Martin lays out principle for integrative thinking and fleshes out those principles using real world examples: "Nandan Nilekani, the builder and CEO of what is perhaps India's most successful global IT powerhouse, Infosys Technologies Limited, says that when he's confronted with two fundamentally opposed sets of requirements, his first inclination is to ask, 'Are there solutions that satisfy both?' And when asked whether he thought strategy or execution was more important, Jack Welch, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric, responded, 'I don't think it's an either-or.'" (Page 114) Since Rick turned me on to this book and its treasure chest of ideas, I have had occasion to share those ideas with quite a few individuals. In several cases, they called me back a day or two later to thank me for the insights, and to tell me that they had ordered their own copy of the book. In the interest of "paying forward" the gift that Rick Cerf gave me of a marvelous suggestion that I read this book, I recommend that you procure a copy of "The Opposable Mind." Enjoy! Al

The founding idea of this book is interesting. However the attempt to tie the idea to specific business decisions or leader I found weak. It's pretty hard to seperate the opposable mind from innovative thinking. There is a distinct difference between creativity and innovation and it seems that the author attempts to paint innovation (improving someone elses ideas) as creativity (coming up with new ideas). Interesting all the same and worth reading.

I teach an undergrauate course about critical thinking in organizations. This semester, I assigned Professor Martin's book. It was a positive experience, so I recommend that other educators consider using it as well. Roger Martin grounds his book in extensive interviews with acknowledged leaders, primarily in the business sector. Yet he brings a discerning mind to the material, detecting a broad pattern to the way many successful leaders think. From this template, he derives many lessons for prospective leaders who wish to advance. I teach adult students. They could understand his examples quickly. And with some in-class exercises, they got a chance to practice his lessons. In my opinion, the author brings credibility to a realm of management studies that often gets overlooked. The book is relatively inexpensive, accessible, and handy -- traits students really appreciate.

Very interesting and helpful for everyone with the goal to become a better thinker every day! Get this book it will give provide you with the tools needed.

While there are many good books out there that present various notions of "what" to think, this one does an excellent job of describing (showing, really) "how" to think. First as a management consultant, then as dean of a business school, Roger Martin spent 15 years studying leaders who have exemplary records of success. He looked for shared themes. All of them had intelligence, talent, and a bent toward innovation. No surprise, there. But the common trait that rang the loudest bell was what Martin calls "the predisposition and the capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas" at once, "and then, without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they're able to produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea." Martin refers to this as "integrative" thinking. Creating a metaphor from a physical feature that distinguishes human beings from nearly every other creature - the opposable thumb - he says everyone is born with an "opposable mind." And the exciting part, he suggests, is that just as we can become more adept at using our thumbs, with patience and practice we can enhance the ability to use our opposable minds to solve complex problems. Martin provides multiple examples of the mental gymnastics required to strengthen one's problem solving capacity. This book is not easy reading, and it's certainly not the kind of fare that most people would take to the beach. But it's well worth the exercise.

Martin has an interesting thesis here. His whole focus can really be summed up as that the most successful people don't think in terms of tradeoffs. Rather, they can hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads, then produce a synthesis which is superior to either opposing idea. In thinking about this, I've seen a lot of this in life. I think the book gives a great example: - In a quote from A.G. Lafley - successful P&G CEO: "Haven't found a creative resolution that meets my standards. That's not the world's fault. I just haven't thought hard enough yet." - exactly makes this point; he doesn't think in tradeoffs - he looks for a synthesis of what he's seen for a new approach. A lot of what is called "disruptive innovation" today came as this sort of thinking. Hey, you're reading this on Amazon! Do you think Bezos things in terms of tradeoffs - or does he take opposing ideas and blend them into an innovative approach? Food for thought....

The Opposable Mind is also the companion work to the Executive Education Program and EMBA course Integrative Thinking at the University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management. Roger Martin challenges you to develop your Integrative Thinking by exercising your "Opposable Mind". The author walks you through the stages of Integrative Thinking first by making comparisons to conventional thinking and also using real examples of successful Integrative Thinkers. He thoroughly explains the practices of Integrative Thinkers - salience, causality, architecture, and resolution. He then walks you through the steps of becoming an effective decision maker - stance, tools and experiences. Roger Martin also explains the benefits of moving from deductive and inductive logic to abductive logic. Read this this book and stretch your mind forever.

Very Good Book :)

Altamente recomendable, vale la pena para trabajar en un proceso diferente de pensamiento en toma de decisiones

今普及しているセオリーが最適解ではなく、やりやすいだけ。何事も相手の立場に立って考え、何を求めていて、それをいかに満足させ、こちらの理想的状況を実現できるか考えてみる。単純な理論に収斂させずに、絡まっているものは絡まっているなりに根本を見つめていく。そうやって独創的なアイデアを見つけていく。一見相反するものはチャンスの種となる可能性があるから最初から思い込みで否定をするな。こんなことを書かれてます。

Integrative Thinking ist die Mutter aller Kreativität. Man auf die Dinge im Kopf als immanentes Wissen Zugriff haben um Sie dann untereinander und mit der live Wahrnehmung abgleichen zu können. So entstehen überzeugende und fundierte Veränderungen. Jeder der glaubt das KI sowas mal kann, sollte ihr diese Grundlagen beibringen, sonst wirds nix. Sehr lesens- und verstehenswert. Martin zeigt an den Beispielen die mögliche Macht dieser Konstellation auf. Um erfolgreich zu sein reicht es aber nicht aus das Buch zu lesen. Edison wird das Zitat zugeschrieben: „Es reicht nicht etwas zu erfinden. Man muss auch merken, dass man etwas erfunden hat.”