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For fifteen years prior to this book’s publication, author Roger Martin studied successful leaders, interviewing more than fifty of them for up to eight hours at a time, trying to find a pattern to their success.  The pattern he discovered was what he calls “integrative thinking.” Such thinkers have the predisposition and capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads.  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 breaks this way of thinking into four identifiable differences from conventional thinking: First, when integrative thinkers face a problem, they include as many “salient features,” or points of consideration, as possible.  They welcome the mess, because it assures them that they haven’t edited out features necessary to the contemplation of the problem as a whole.  This is critical for all the steps, which rely on looking at problems as a whole rather than as component parts.  Relationships between parts of a problem are multidirectional and nonlinear (considering these is the second step of integrative thinking), and considering these relationships and components as a whole avoids the trap of coming up with the perfect solution that’s impossible to execute, or which will solve one part of the problem but worsen another (yep, that’s the third step).  Finally, rather than settling for one option or another, integrative thinkers ?search for creative resolution of tensions, or the best of both worlds, even if it means delays and rework at the last minute.

Martin illustrates this process with a case study of the Four Seasons Hotel, whose founder refused to settle for either large, lavishly-appointed but impersonal hotels or small, cozy motels that lacked state-of-the-art amenities, instead creating a business model that provides both.  Other examples discussed include the Institute for OneWorld Health, whose founder decided it was “unacceptable!” that many lethal diseases afflicting primarily the world?s poor went unacknowledged by traditional for-profit pharmaceutical companies.  She filled the structural gap between companies that developed new drugs they needed to sell at high prices to recoup costs, and non-profit organizations that distributed existing drugs to the world?s poor at subsidized rates, with a not-for-profit pharmaceutical development company.  Have there been instances in your career where you had to choose between the proverbial rock and a hard place?  Then you need to read this book.

As Martin acknowledges, The Opposable Mind largely chronicle[s] the obvious that has been taken for granted.  However, looking at the obvious from new angles and considering new salient features is the first step of integrative thinking.  What better place to start than right at the beginning?

The Opposable Mind
Roger Martin
Harvard Business Review Press, 2009

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell offers leadership advice through storytelling in this collection of anecdotes and true tales.  Each short chapter derives a lesson from an incident encountered in his military and political service, and occasionally from private life.  Often chatty and rarely preachy, the text is as enjoyable as it is informative.

An admitted people person, Powell’s advice concentrates largely on motivating, respecting, and taking care of “the troops,” which he notes can be anything from an Army platoon to sales managers, students to family members (or research assistants!).  He sums up his guiding principle early on: “Kindness connects you with other human beings in a bond of mutual respect.  If you care for your followers and show them kindness, they will reciprocate and care for you.  They will not let you down or let you fail.  They will accomplish whatever you have put in front of them.”  At the same time, he advises, don’t neglect your own development, because “Troops—followers—will only go up the hill for leaders who have character, integrity, and moral and physical courage.”

One of Powell’s specific lessons hinges on the importance of mutual respect.  He illustrates this with several stories, including one about his stint as a battalion commander in Korea in the 1970s.  Because he had laid the groundwork by knowing his soldiers (through talking to them and by keeping a notebook of observations on each one’s performance, conduct, ambitions, strengths, and weaknesses), socializing with them, and earning their trust, when he had to drag them to a pointless lecture on extremely short notice, he heard this from a subordinate: “The troops are fine.  They know you needed them there and you would never have come up with such a nutty thing.  They are with you.”

There’s also the lesson to examine solutions with an eye to the secondary effects rather than just the immediate payoff, embodied in a half-baked idea to install beer machines in Army barracks to keep DUIs down.  Powell writes that he was for the idea (if only to quell the “bitching” from the troops who wanted the machines right then) until a sergeant pointed out that “putting machines in the barracks won’t end the bitching.  They’ll just start to bitch about the brand of beer in the machines, except they will be drunk when they bitch.”

Those are only two of the many stories and lessons included in the book.  Powell’s wit, sometimes gentle and other times trenchant, makes this essential leadership book both fun and funny.

It Worked for Me: Lessons in Life and Leadership
Colin Powell with Tony Koltz
New York: Harper-Collins, 2012