The opposable mind : how successful leaders win through integrative thinking

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Title:

The opposable mind : how successful leaders win through integrative thinking

Author:

Martin, Roger L.

ISBN:

9781422118924

Personal Author:

Martin, Roger L.

Publication Information:

Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, c2007.

Physical Description:

xii, 210 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

Contents:

Choices, conflict, and the creative spark: the problem-solving power of integrative thinking -- No stomach for second-best: how integrative thinkers move beyond trade-offs -- Reality, resistance, and resolution: how integrative thinkers keep their options open -- Dancing through complexity: shaping resolutions by resisting simplification -- Mapping the mind: how thought circulates -- The construction project: imagining reality -- A leap of the mind: how integrative thinkers connect the dots -- A wealth of experience: using the past, inventing the future.

Subject Term:

Leadership -- Psychological aspects.

Thought and thinking.

Contradiction.

Problem solving.

Decision making.

Successful people -- Interviews.

Electronic Access:

Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0719/2007021447.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168023650332	658.4092 M382.O 2007	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

If you want to be as successful as Jack Welch, Larry Bossidy, or Michael Dell, read their autobiographical advice books, right? Wrong, says Roger Martin in The Opposable Mind . Though following best practice can help in some ways, it also poses a danger. By emulating what a great leader did in a particular situation, you'll likely be terribly disappointed with your own results. Why? Your situation is different.

Instead of focusing on what exceptional leaders do, we need to understand and emulate how they think. Successful businesspeople engage in what Martin calls integrative thinking, creatively resolving the tension in opposing models by forming entirely new and superior ones. Drawing on stories of leaders as diverse as AG Lafley of Procter & Gamble, Meg Whitman of eBay, Victoria Hale of the Institute for One World Health, and Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, Martin shows how integrative thinkers are relentlessly diagnosing and synthesizing by asking probing questions including: What are the causal relationships at work here? and What are the implied trade-offs?

Martin also presents a model for strengthening your integrative thinking skills by drawing on different kinds of knowledge including conceptual and experiential knowledge.

Integrative thinking can be learned, and The Opposable Mind helps you master this vital skill.