Holiday season is here, and you may feel like you need a rest after a long year of work. You’re looking forward to relaxing and doing nothing. At the same time, you now have the time to complete all the tasks that you haven’t done during the year: that painting job you didn’t have time to finish on the house, the garden that needs attention, or whatever else has been on standby. You may be wanting to dive into your hobby or sport, read a good book on the beach, stay up late with friends and family around a good meal. All the while, you’re telling yourself that you also need to recover and sleep. Well, as you feel the tension between activity and rest, you’re experiencing a polarity.
Polarity : definition
A polarity is a pull between two interdependent poles that are connected in time. You can only do activity for so long before you need to rest, push it for too long and you’ll get sick. Too much rest and you’ll start to feel bored, and let’s face it, you can’t just sleep for two weeks and recharge for the whole year, at some point, you’ll need to get up and do something!
Polarities are ongoing, chronic issues that are inherently unsolvable because they involve interdependent poles.
Is your organisation facing recurring issues? You may be dealing with a polarity!
Here are three examples of common polarities that can be found in companies:
1. Centralization and Decentralization
Pain Point: A multinational corporation struggles with decision-making. Centralized decisions from headquarters ensure consistency but slow down responses to local market needs, causing missed opportunities.
➡️ Centralization can bring consistency and control, but may slow down decision-making and reduce responsiveness.
⬅️ Decentralization can increase flexibility and responsiveness, but may lead to inconsistencies and loss of control.
2. Stability and Change
Pain Point : A manufacturing company with established processes finds it challenging to adopt new technologies. Stability maintains quality, but resistance to change results in falling behind competitors who innovate faster.
➡️ Stability ensures reliability and consistency, which can enhance efficiency.
⬅️ Change promotes innovation and adaptability, which are crucial for growth and competitiveness.
3. Employee Well-being and Organizational Performance
Pain Point : A consultancy firm pushes employees to work long hours to meet client demands. This boosts short-term performance but leads to burnout, high turnover rates, and long-term productivity losses.
➡️Focusing on employee well-being can enhance job satisfaction and reduce turnover.
⬅️Prioritizing organizational performance can drive business success, but may increase stress and burnout.
If polarities are inherently unsolvable, what can we do?
Instead of trying to choose one side over the other, we can use polarity management. This is a framework that helps balance both sides and get the advantages of each pole.
The above examples illustrate the challenges companies face when they lean too heavily towards one pole of a polarity, neglecting the benefits and potential solutions offered by the other pole. By identifying these polarities and managing them effectively, organizations can avoid the pitfalls of overemphasizing one side at the expense of the other and instead leverage the strengths of both poles to achieve optimal outcomes. Polarity management can help balance these competing demands to improve overall organizational health and performance.
The training conundrum
Should I sign up for polarity training now or do I conserve cash for later? There you go, a polarity in disguise! It’s most likely you can see the pitfalls of training right now and have trouble seeing the benefits because until a few moments ago, you hadn’t heard of polarities. Just imagine the benefits of avoiding going through the cyclical issues your organisation experiences. Imagine the cost, energy and morale benefit. Can you see it?
You’re well on your way to completing your first polarity map…
This week I taught polarity management to the brilliant members of the Borealis Innovation team. Borealis is an innovation consultancy based in Bogota, Colombia.
The training led them to understand polarities and how to manage them based upon real examples happening in their organisation. The training was aimed at helping them see polarities in real-life situations where there is often tension, conflict and only a partial view of both poles.
The team’s feedback was that they could suddenly see what was playing out at some of their current customers and how they could adapt their strategy to get the best of both worlds.
If you would like to learn more about polarities, discuss your cyclical issues, or set-up a training for your team, contact me!