The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking

The world is a complex place with a majority of businesses settling for okay. This book does bring to the forefront that the way a person thinks is vital for creating new and valid options that could make a business flourish.But this book doesn't actually show how this could be done and states plainly that this book will not do that in the opening chapter. There were mention of college students using the methods, but I would have been more interested in those same college students' real world application of developing integrative thinking to prove that you could teach new ways of thinking.If you are part of the kind of people who do business as usual, this book will be good for you. If you think critically, this book will not have anything new.

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.

Great topic. Essentially, Martin argues that leaders need to integrate ideas in order to succeed. Although the author might have conducted considerable research to reach this conclusion, in my opinion much of what is offered in this text really is not ground-breaking material. While Martin does bring some structure to his research by offering numerous examples to support his views along with accompanying models that he has developed, there is not a lot of substance here. It might make sense for the reader to review one of the briefs written up about this book rather than taking the time to digest all of the material, although it is a quick read. The author defines integrative thinking as "the ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas, and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each". Quite frankly, one would think that such an approach is already a common route to take. Procter & Gamble chairman and CEO, A. G. Lafley, is quoted by the author at the start of chapter two as saying that "everybody can do 'or'...you are not going to win if you are in a trade-off game", but regardless of what decision is made, is not one still making an 'or' decision? Of course. The old adage that indicates that one is still making a choice regardless of whether it is a conscious one still applies. It is possible that much of what is being discussed here is the difference of thinking between right-brained thinkers, left-brained thinkers, and what Marti Olsen Laney refers to as "bilateral dominance" in "The Introvert Advantage" (see my review). Is it true that heavily left-brained thinkers are still dominant in business leadership? It would be interesting to hear what Martin has to say on this topic. Unlike other reviewers, I give credit to Martin for giving some thought to his graphical depiction of the thinking process model that progresses through stages of salience, causality, architecture, and resolution, although the names of the stages might be a bit too abstract for some readers. In my opinion, the author's discussion of "reality" is probably one of the best aspects of this book. Martin states that "models are our customized understanding of reality", and he does a good job at introducing examples into the discussion that explain his point that "we filter the data that besieges us in part to protect our brains". Again, the material presented really is not new, but the explanation is well-crafted. The second half of the book concentrates on mapping a personal knowledge system model for the reader, and is a bit more interesting. The philosophy of Bob Young, co-founder and former CEO of Red Hat, is shared through several quotes in chapter five. "There is always more than one way to succeed in any given situation...whatever we adopt as our first answer is bound to be wrong." In addition, "customers are not always right...customers lie or they are wrong". After a brief discussion of the contrasts between engineers and salespeople during the early days of the Internet, Young contributes some of the best content to the book. "Don't think you're any good...and don't get defensive about it. It's not something to be embarrassed by, because the odds are no one else is any good either. That's the big secret. That's what's behind the curtain - no one else is any good." Young goes on to say that getting "a little bit better tomorrow" is how to slowly progress from good to excellent. "That's all it takes, is just this commitment not to be defensive. Don't worry about criticism, because you're not any good, so criticism is always valid". Martin then offers a discussion of sensitivities and skills, which leads up to a graphical depiction of "your personal knowledge system" that shows the flow between stance, tools, and experiences. Stances of the integrative thinker share six key attributes, the first of which is their belief that "whatever models exist at the present moment do not represent reality; they are simply the best or only constructions yet made". Reaching the stance about oneself that one is "capable of finding a better model" is also important. Three tools to create a new model, generative reasoning, causal modeling, and assertive inquiry are then discussed. The last chapter of the book discusses how humans have an inclination to accumulate experiences that reinforce the stance and tools with which they start. However, experiences also in turn influence stance and tools, and can deepen mastery, although "experiences do not necessarily deepen mastery". It would seem that Martin would agree with Gerald M. Weinberg's statement in "More Secrets of Consulting: The Consultant's Tool Kit" (see my review) that "experience is not just the best teacher, it's the only teacher. Experience may be the only teacher, but it doesn't necessarily teach anything". If you don't have time to read the entire book, chapter eight on experience is well recommended.

A selection of business stories and interviews used to rationalize this concept. But little to no direction on how to use / apply this method to situations the reader might face. If you like reading business stories about success, you might find this inspirational. If you are seeking instruction on opposable thinking as a problem solving method, continue looking.

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' discusses integrative thinking as added value for business leaders. In that regard it does a pretty good job.Basically 3 parts are to be found back: The first part is a comparison between conventional thinking and integrative thinking. The second part gives a deeper introduction into a framework covering integrative thinking and the last part provides a knowledge system so you can become a better integrative thinker.To cover the positive, negative and interesting points of this book:- Positive points: The book does give a framework and template to become a better integrative thinker and it leaves you with the taste to explore this thinking even deeper (especially if you think already integrative). It provides a mental attitude setting (stance) and tools so you can start exploring this thinking further.- Negative points: This book has at the start an irritating aspect of "us-versus-them" comparison claiming that integrative thinking is so much more important (I guess it is this part that resulted in lower scores here by other reviewers). Conventional thinking (as well as integrative thinking) has both their benefits and by bashing it you don't make a cause for your own model (though the book later recovers very nicely to illustrate the power of integrative thinking). Integrative thinking is actually just `big picture thinking' (or holistic thinking, ..) so I am not convinced of having it re-labeled. Furthermore some of the content stays a bit too much on the academic level. I guess it is perfect as an introduction manual for the integrative thinking course at Rotman School of Management.- Interesting point: This book is a support for all the managers and leaders who love `big picture thinking' but were often told to stop thinking like that.I am looking forward to read once an extended version on this topic. Interesting!

The author puts forward the idea that if you can combine two things that are difficult to achieve a the same time, e.g., margin improvement and revenue growth, you are set for business success.That is a truism, and has nothing to do with the mind.

Examples are good but the framework is not that clear for reapplication.

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.”

While there are many books in the market that either detail the character of successful organizations or biographies of successful people, this book shows how can one learn to use integrative thinking to become successful. After reading the book, I was able to put the approach into practice immediately regarding a problem at hand.While discussing great leaders, e.g. Martha Graham, George F. Kennan, Isadore Sharp, A.G. Lafley, Lee-Chin, Bob Young, Jack Welch, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, etc., Roger Martin concentrates on the thinking skills rather than the doing skills of leaders. He terms the thinking style of these successful leaders 'Integrative thinking'.Integrative thinking involves four steps: salience (which allows more features of a problem to to be considered salient, thereby introducing complexity), causality (which encompasses multi-directional and nonlinear relationships), architecture (seeing the whole while working on the parts), and resolution (searching for creative resolution of tensions). Each of these is explored in separate chapters. A framework for building integrative thinking capacity is presented involving stance (who am I in the world and what am I trying to accomplish), tools (with what tools and models do I organize my thinking and understand the world?) and experiences (with what experiences can I build my repertoire of sensitivities and skills).The author then presents three tools for integrative thinking i.e. Generative Reasoning (as opposed to commonly practiced Declarative Reasoning (i.e. Deductive and Inductive), Causal Modeling (to get from the current state to the desired end-state), and Assertive Inquiry (seeking information about other people's models). The author discusses how each of these tools can and is being taught for example at Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto.