Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems

Life is full of paradoxes. How can we each express our individuality while also being a team player? How do we balance work and life? How can we improve diversity while promoting opportunities for all? How can we manage the core business while innovating for the future? For many of us, these competing and interwoven demands are a source of conflict. Since our brains love to make either-or choices, we choose one option over the other. We deal with the uncertainty by asserting certainty. There's a better way. In Both/And Thinking, Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis help listeners cope with multiple, knotted tensions at the same time. Drawing from more than twenty years of pioneering research, they provide tools and lessons for transforming these tensions into opportunities for innovation and personal growth. Filled with practical advice and fascinating stories--including firsthand tales from IBM, LEGO, and Unilever, as well as from startups, nonprofits, and even an inn at one of the four corners of the world--Both/And Thinking will change the way you approach your most vexing problems.

About the Author :
Marianne W. Lewis is dean of the University of Cincinnati's Lindner School of Business and a professor of management. She formerly served as dean at Cass Business School in London. Her work has appeared in major outlets such as the New York Times, CNBC, the Financial Times, and Harvard Business Review. Wendy K. Smith is the Emma Smith Morris Professor of Management and academic director of the Women's Leadership Initiative at the University of Delaware's Lerner College of Business & Economics. Her work has won multiple academic awards and been featured in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Organization Science. Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Edmondson, recognized by the biannual Thinkers 50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, teaches and writes on leadership, teams, and organizational learning. Her articles have been published in Harvard Business Review and California Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Academy of Management Journal. She is the author of Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Teaming to Innovate. Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Edmondson, recognized by the biannual Thinkers 50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, teaches and writes on leadership, teams, and organizational learning. Her articles have been published in Harvard Business Review and California Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Academy of Management Journal. She is the author of Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Teaming to Innovate. Stephanie Dillard holds a Master of Music degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, where she trained formally as an opera singer and choral conductor. However, her heart has always been in the world of theater, which is why she began narrating audiobooks from her studio in Tennessee. While she remains active in the world of live theater and music education, Stephanie now brings those talents to bear behind the mic to give a wide range of vocal colors and emotional nuance to her characters. When not in the booth, she can be found gardening, hiking, and camping with her husband and two young sons.