Introduction

Part I: In the Lab

1. Polarities and Paradoxes: What Are They and How Do They Work?
1.2 Polarities as the Lifeblood of Adaptive Systems
1.2 How to Engage with Polarities
1.3 How Polarities Work in Organizations and Social Systems

2. The Limitations of Either/Or Thinking
2.1 Various Forms of Either/Or Thinking
2.2 Why Is Either/Or Thinking So Attractive?
2.3 Why Doesn’t the Either/Or Approach Work?
2.4 The Challenge

3. Thinking from a Both/And Perspective
3.1. Why Is a Paradigm Shift Necessary and Inevitable?
3.2 Paradoxical Leadership and Both/And Thinking on the Rise
3.3 The Fundamentals of Both/And Thinking
3.4 Principles of Practice

4. How to Balance between Opposite Poles?
4.1 Coping with Our Own Polarities
4.2 Working with the Polarities of Our Organization

Part II: At Work

5. Setting the Strategic Direction and Steering the Business
5.1 Staying on Course and Strategic Agility
5.2 Specializing and Working Together in One Value Chain
5.3 Giving Direction to an Organization without Putting It in a Straitjacket
5.4 The Obsession to Measure Everything and the Limitations of Kips

6. Change
6.1 Change and Continuity: The Old and the New
6.2 Adaptability, Versatility, and Identity
6.3 Polarization and Tribal Wars
6.4 Paradoxical Interventions: Doing the Opposite to What We Want to Achieve

7. Where People and the Organization Come Together
7.1 The Power of What Is Hidden in the Shadows
7.2 How Diversity Can Help Us Achieve Better Results
7.3 Creativity and Innovation: A Winding Road

8. Conducting the Paradoxical Dialogue
8.1 The Inner Compass
8.2 How to Shape the Paradoxical Dialogue in Your Team and Organization
8.3 Caught in the Middle: Reconciling Different Worlds

9. Paradoxically Competent
9.1 The Paradoxically Competent Professional and Manager
9.2 The Paradoxical Skill Set
Where Do We Go from Here? Back to the Basics

Appendix: List of Common Polarities
Index