Be an Integrative Thinker

In his book “The Opposable Mind”, Roger Martin introduces a concept called an “Integrative Thinker.” An Integrative Thinker is a person that strives to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and generate a creative resolution for the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each. Essentially, an Integrative Thinker is someone who can take two or more opposing views on a particular issue and work with these ideas objectively to come up with a solution that encompasses all views but provides a superior solution that none of the individual views could have provided on their own.

Besides the obvious qualities of a person that are required to make this sort of thinking possible (e.g., open mind, patience, lack of ego tied to their position, etc.), one of the most important qualities required by this individual self-esteem. This person needs to have a high level of self esteem in order to be a strong Integrative Thinker. This role will require some interesting and, quite often, heated conversations between meeting participants as each side explains their idea and states their case. The Integrated Thinker must be able to stand tall in the middle of this and stick to the premise that a better answer exists by integrating the views than in any independent view by itself. It takes a confident person with a high degree of self esteem to mediate and make sense out of a situation like this.

What is the best way to build self esteem? It is by building confidence. What is the best way to build confidence? It is by understanding and working in your Strength Zone! When you understand your areas of strength and begin to adjust your approach to every role you have in life to take advantage of these strengths and leverage them, you will see your success factor increase. When your success in everyday life begins to increase you will begin to realize how much potential that you have and your confidence level will begin to increase. As your confidence level increases, your self esteem will increase.

You will find that as this happens you will have the confidence to take on new activities and roles that you were not confident enough to do in the past. As you do this, leveraging your Strength Zone in every situation, your confidence and self esteem will continue to grow. This is positioning you for being an outstanding Integrative Thinker. Someone who is confident enough to wade into tough situations, evaluate the situation and issues at had and then come up with an integrated solution that takes aspects of all ideas and presents a solution better than any of the individual ideas on their own.

…..and you are able to do this simply because you are living in your Strength Zone!!!!