Throughout large organizations, leaders are asked to manage any number of challenges on a daily basis. While some of these challenges call for true problem-solving skills with right and wrong answers, many more situations require a perpetual balancing of corporate mandates that, on the surface, seem to be contradictions. Many business challenges in the workplace are conflicting, ongoing, and chronic issues that are both unavoidable and unsolvable. Attempting to address them through customary ‘problem solving’ strategies often only make things worse. These situations are not problems to solve; they are polarities which require effective management. Because the two sides of a polarity are interdependent, one cannot choose one side as a solution while neglecting the other without experiencing negative outcomes. The objective of polarity management is to leverage the best of both opposites, while avoiding the limitations of each.

In this half-day workshop, leaders or in-tact work teams learn how to distinguish between problems and polarities, and how to deal productively with both. Through customized company-specific examples and multiple group activities, participants learn: (1) how to identify  and map conflicting polarities; (2) when and how to initiate change for better balance of  the two poles to gain optimal benefits from each, and; (3) effective communication strategies to address both problem solving (EITHER/OR) decisions and polarity management (BOTH/AND) actions.