It’s no secret that there is greater complexity and change in organizations and in our personal lives today.  Leaders need the "HOW" to manage this complexity that goes beyond “flavor of the week” management fads or one-time fixes. Organizations and teams need sustainable approaches to manage both end-goals and the means to those end goals. Individuals need a framework to balance competing tensions such as home and work or activity and rest. An integral framework that helps individuals, teams, and organizations manage competing tensions is Polarity Management®. 

Many chronic and seemingly irresolvable problems only become manageable when “both/and” interdependent values or polarities are identified and addressed. Managing polarities creates positive reinforcing virtuous cycles of high performance that are sustainable over time. When thinking only takes place only in "either/or" terms, zero-sum trade-offs are created and the result is predictable cycles of negative vicious oscillation, stuckness, and dysfunction.  

The research is clear that leaders and organizations that manage interdependency well outperform those that don't. The Polarity Management® Introductory Course is for individuals interested in expanding their thinking and awareness of the phenomenon of interdependent pairs of values and how to manage them well.  This course is an introduction for those who have had little or no exposure to Polarity Management® and is both a stand alone introduction and prerequisite for the next step in learning -- the 4-day Consultant Development Intensive (CDI). This workshop helps ensure that participants understand the fundamental principles of Polarity Management®, how polarities work, and the steps for managing polarities well over time to improve their effectiveness in addressing the “5 C’s”: Complexity, Change, Conflict, and Chronic/Cross-Cultural Issues.

Objectives:

1. Provide a background and context for Polarity Management®

2. Understand the critical importance of managing polarities in complex times

3. Learn the nature of interdependent pairs of values and how all polarities work

Develop skills in:

1. Distinguish between "either/or" problems to solve and "both/and" polarities to manage and the value of using both types of thinking for leading/managing today

2. Mapping polarities and predicting their movement

3. Identfying Action Steps and Early Warning Signs to tap the power of polarities

Schedule:

Participants arrive at the Xperience LLC Retreat & Learning Center, “Kayser Ridge” at 5:00pm on Friday (dinner provided) and the workshop ends at 4:00pm on Sunday. Price includes all meals, lodging (dorm style), workshop tuition and materials. Participants may participate in Tai Chi instruction.

Polarity Management is a theory, tool, and process developed by Barry Johnson, PhD, of Polarity Management Associates and author of “Polarity Management: How to Identify and Manage Unsolvable Problems”