The Four Concepts Of Integrative Thinking

Roger L Martin expanded many notable business concepts used by numerous companies in the world today, including integrative thinking. Martin addressed integrative thinking in his Harvard Business Review article, “How Successful Leaders Think” and in his book “The Opposable Mind”. Defining integrative thinking, it is “the pre-disposition and capacity to hold two opposing ideas at once and creatively resolve the tension between the two ideas by generating a new one that contains elements of the others but is superior to both” (Martin, 2007). It is further defined by the four stages of decision-making: determining salience, analyzing causality, envisioning the decision architecture and achieving resolution. The lesson on integrative thinking has invoked necessary reflection on myself and on the world around me. For this essay, I will not dwell on the technicalities of integrative thinking but refer to integrative thinking as a concept and how it has impacted me and the way I see the world around me.

On a personal level, the topic has revealed certain gaps in my pursuit to be a better leader. Outside of school, I spend a great amount of my time volunteering at Canaan Centre and planning programs for the community such as escape rooms and amazing races. I regularly serve as a Programs Director which puts me in a position where I would have to face many decision-making processes. Most of the time, the final decision involves a great deal of compromise and unsatisfactory results