Three Ways to Apply “Both/And Thinking" for Individual, Organizational, and Program Performance

I’d like to tell three stories about applying polarity management or both/and thinking in my work. I’m finding this to be a powerful lens as a leader, coach, and development worker and thought others might benefit.

First, what is polarity management also known as both/and thinking?

Polarities are seemingly opposite ideas that cannot exist without each other. The classic example of a polarity is inhaling and exhaling. We cannot exhale if we haven’t already inhaled and vice versa. And neither inhaling or exhaling are good or bad; both must exist in order for us to breathe and survive. Rather than applying either/or thinking and swinging completely towards one pole (inhaling) or the other (exhaling), the idea is how to apply “both/and thinking” and leverage both (so we don’t faint or worse…). *P.S. Note the intentional avoidance of the words “or” or “vs.” when describing the polarity of inhaling and exhaling; this helps avoid “either/or” thinking and instead “both/and” thinking.

That is polarity management - the act of leveraging both poles for overall effectiveness. Polarity mapping (previously discussed in this blog) is a tool to discover and analyze polarities in order to better manage them. Both/and thinking is the same conceptually and well covered in Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis’s Both/And Thinking. They use the language of paradoxes for polarities and provide examples of these paradoxes in action. And, for those who are visual, the classic depiction of these concepts is the yinyang from Chinese philosophy.?

So, how do we apply this age-old concept to modern-day life? Here are my three stories.

As a Leader: When “every new beginning is some other beginning’s end” (line courtesy of Supersonic’s Closing Time).

In my current role as Chief of Party of the USAID Learns contract implemented by Social Impact, I have the distinct honor of leading an amazing team. Sadly, for us, our contract will come to a close in August 2024 after a solid five-year run supporting USAID/Vietnam and its implementing partners.?

I was reflecting ahead of our annual work plan retreat and asked myself, “what are the polarities we will face in this final year?” What immediately sprung to mind was the polarity of beginnings and endings. We cannot have endings without beginnings or vice versa. The concepts are inherently interlinked like inhaling and exhaling. Our ending as Learns will lead to new beginnings, and even in our final year, we are beginning new and exciting initiatives.?

So then the question became, “how do we make the most of both beginnings and endings?”?

Some answers that emerged were:

• Leveraging the positive energy of beginnings to identify what will be new for each team member in the final year, so we stay motivated and committed
• Celebrating or commemorating the beginning of the end as we head into our fifth year
• Supporting the team in identifying what they want as a new beginning for themselves once Learns ends

As an International Development Worker: When managing polarities is our job.

When I look at the programs I have been involved in over the years with this lens in mind, I see that all development programs are also opportunities to manage polarities and apply both/and thinking.

From 2010-2012, I worked for Partners Global, helping to develop and sustain a local organization that belonged to our network, Partners Yemen. One of our primary areas of programming was tribal conflict resolution. After completing a conflict assessment (one of my favorite assignments ever!), the local team identified strategies for positively engaging in tribal conflict, building on traditional conflict resolution approaches and introducing new mediation skills and techniques.?

When I look back now, I see the polarity that was intuitive for the Yemeni team - tradition and innovation. Our intent was not to dismantle indigenous methods that existed for centuries. We wanted to take the best of those traditions, including some ways that had been lost over the years for women to engage in conflict resolution. We also wanted to bring the best of what was available from the international practice of mediation and provide those skills to younger generations, who would be taking over these critical informal roles from their parents and grandparents.?

Since working on USAID support contracts, I see numerous polarities in our daily work: balancing high quality deliverables and strong relationships; a service-orientation with sustainability. The success of our programs often rests on how well we can manage these polarities to achieve progress. This way of thinking is not only good for individuals, but for the collective - it provides a structured way to engage in complex situations.

As a Coach: Helping a client notice when their superpower is also their kryptonite.?

I recently had a client who identified empathy as his superpower. Through coaching conversations, he came to articulate how his superpower could also be an achilles heel. When overused, he became too emotionally connected to what was happening to others that it started to take a toll on his well-being. And if he wasn’t well, then his empathy diminished. In this case, his kryptonite was overusing his empathy superpower.?

This was a great opening for polarity management. He came to realize that overuse had downsides, and underuse of the other pole, in this case personal well-being, was affecting the positives he typically gained from empathy.?

He worked through a polarity map with the two poles: empathy (for others) and personal well-being. In mapping this polarity and identifying the positives of both poles and the drawbacks of overusing them, he was able to identify action steps that brought both in balance. It was not an either/or, but a both/and. With his personal well-being improved, his capacity for empathy could also improve and be a more reliable superpower in his work.

What polarities are you seeing in your work and life? How can you leverage both/and thinking / polarity management to make the most of the polarity/paradox? For further inspiration, see this article from the Center for Creative Leadership: Are you facing a problem or a polarity??