Vanguard Magazine

34 JUNE/JULY 2018 www.vanguardcanada.com Book REVIEw W e learned in grade school that one plus one equals two. But when we are faced with two choices in decision-making – and usually de- cisions end up framed around two possibilities – our approach might be described as one versus one equals one. We discard the lesser choice and move on with the better one. That defies one of the most interesting things we know about innovation: that often the best solu- tions – the best decisions – come from unique com- binations. In The Medici Effect, which we looked at previously, consultant Frans Johansson discussed Peter's Café in The Azores, a resting place for sail- ors between the continents. The café is filled with ideas and viewpoints from all corners of the world, and as people chat, those ideas intermingle and col- lide with each other. "There is another place just like Peter's Café, but it is not in the Azores. It is in our minds. It is a place where different cultures, domains, and disciplines stream together towards a single point. They connect, allowing for established concepts to clash and combine, ultimately forming a multitude of new, ground-breaking ideas," he wrote. He called that The Intersection. Roger Martin, then dean of Rotman School of Management, wrote in 2007 of The Opposable Mind, again featured in this column, drawn from the fact humans have opposable thumbs that allow us to accomplish things that no other creature can manage, from writing to threading a needle. "Simi- larly, we were born with an opposable mind we can use to hold two conflicting ideas in constructive tension. We can use that tension to think our way through to a new and superior idea," he says. He outlined how some successful businesspeo- ple had used that creative tension to propel a new business ahead. You see an example he cited when you stay at a Four Seasons Hotel. Founder Isadore Sharp refused to accept that only two types of lodg- ing could be built: Small motels with intimacy and comfort, or large hotels with excellent location and amenities. Instead, he decided to create hotels with the intimacy of his original small motor hotel and the amenities of a large convention hotel. The business school Martin headed for many years has taught this approach, dubbed 'integrative thinking', and now a decade later he combines with protégé Jennifer Riel in a new book that shows how to make it work. They point out that typically when making deci- sions, an organization usually charters a team to ana- lyze the issues, potential choices are identified and narrowed, the options are vetted through arguments and voting, supporting arguments are then refined for the favoured possibilities, organizational buy-in is sought, compromises are made, and the final rec- ommendation is delivered. The belief throughout is that there is only one right answer. Sometimes, after all the arguments, all options are wounded and what Martin calls "the least worst option" is selected. You may be familiar with that. "To produce better options, we need a better pro- cess. We need a way of thinking through and creat- ing choices that mitigates, rather than amplifies, the effects of our deeply held mental models and biases. One key step in doing that is to explicitly consider opposing solutions, exploring deeply divergent pos- sibilities for solving the problem," Martin and Riel write in Making Great Choices. Their four-step process begins with defining the problem you face and articulating two opposing models to deal with it. The two options should be extreme and opposing answers to the problem, turning it from a general problem into a two-side dilemma. By focusing on extreme options as a start- ing point, you naturally open up discussion of a large number of other alternatives between them. Exploiting the tensions between the two options will also generate new possibilities you hadn't con- sidered. Indeed, they suggest you might test this approach with some of opposing models common to organi- zations: short-term choices vs. long-term choices, centralization vs. decentralization, customization vs. standardization, specialist vs. generalist, agility vs. stability, and broad vs. deep. For which trade-off do you most wish there was a better answer? Consider how its tensions play out in your department. Try to define how the models you are considering work. Instead of a pro-con list, try to develop a pro- pro list, detailing the positives of each model. In- deed, ban any negative comments. Try to fall in love with each. Sketch the two models, describing them in sufficient detail that an outsider could understand them quickly, through words or drawings. BY hARVEY SChAChTER Creating Great Choices By Jennifer Riel and Roger Martin Harvard Business Review Press, 242 pages Creating Great Choices

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