Do you ever feel like your organisation is constantly stuck on a hamster wheel of false choices? Centralised vs. Decentralised? Innovation vs. Stability? Short-term results vs. Long-term vision? People vs. Profit?
We treat these as problems to solve by picking one side. But what if they aren’t problems at all? What if they’re essential polarities, interdependent pairs that need both sides to thrive?
This hit me hard after diving into Dr. Iain McGilchrist’s podcast on Consciousness (in which he talks about his book “The Master and His Emissary”).
He reveals how our brain’s hemispheres are designed for polarity management:
- The Right Hemisphere (The “Master”): Sees the whole picture, context, connection, and the flow between things. It understands the relationship between poles.
- The Left Hemisphere (The “Emissary”): Focuses, analyses, categorises, and manages the individual parts within the context provided by the right.
Here’s the kicker
McGilchrist argues true health and wisdom come from the Right Hemisphere masterfully guiding the Left Hemisphere’s analytical power. They are complementary polarities, not enemies.
So why does this resonate so deeply?
- It’s Literally In Our Wiring: Our brains naturally perform polarity management! This isn’t some abstract theory; it’s fundamental neurobiology.
- Children Get It Instantly: In our LifeLab program, teaching children (5-12 yrs) about life skills, polarities like “Freedom & Responsibility” or “Courage & Caution” is often met with intuitive understanding. They grasp the “third way”, the need for both, far quicker than many adults in boardrooms. Why? Perhaps because they haven’t yet unlearnt this natural cognitive ability.
- The Organisational Blind Spot: If it’s so natural, why is polarity thinking so rare in business? Why do we default to “either/or” thinking, creating winners and losers?
The McGilchrist Lens Explains the Problem: Our modern business world, obsessed with metrics, control, and predictable outcomes, has become heavily dominated by the Left Hemisphere mode. We’ve let the “Emissary” (LH) usurp the role of the “Master” (RH). We:
- Fragment: See only the isolated poles (cost or quality), not the dynamic system.
- Over-Analyse: Try to “solve” the polarity instead of managing the tension.
- Lose Context: Forget the bigger picture and interconnectedness the RH provides.
- Suppress Synthesis: Devalue the intuitive, relational thinking needed to find the “third way.”
The Cost?
Stagnation, disengagement, burnout, missed opportunities, and constant conflict. We fight over the poles instead of leveraging their combined power.
The Opportunity
Recognising polarities isn’t just nice-to-have; it’s a critical leadership and organizational capability. It’s about rediscovering a natural cognitive strength we possess.
It’s time to:
- Acknowledge Polarities: Stop treating complex tensions as simple problems.
- Re-Engage the “Master”: Cultivate right-brain capacities: systems thinking, empathy, contextual awareness, embracing ambiguity.
- Seek the “Third Way”: Move beyond “either/or” to find the dynamic sweet spot between the poles where innovation, resilience, and sustainable performance live. (Think: enough structure for stability and enough freedom for innovation).
Our brains are wired for this. Our children intuitively grasp it. Isn’t it time our organisations caught up?
What polarities are you wrestling with? How can we better leverage this innate “polarity management” superpower?
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Through Yinsight, I support companies, their managers and teams in their development with a view to achieving tangible performance that respects people. Creating strategy, working on collective values, aligning teams, managing complexity and interpersonal dynamics, and providing individual and collective support for transformation are at the heart of my work.