Polarity Thinking Foundations w/Barry Johnson, PhD & Cliff Kayser, MSOD in Berkeley Springs

Polarity Thinking Foundations w/Barry Johnson, PhD & Cliff Kayser, MSOD

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 Thinking. 

Many chronic and seemingly irresolvable problems can only be leveraged when “both/and” interdependent values or polarities are identified and addressed in pairs. Leveraging 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 leverage interdependent pairs well over time outperform those that don't. The Polarity Thinking Introductory Course is for individuals interested in expanding their thinking and awareness of the phenomenon of interdependent pairs of values and how to leverage them well.  This course is an introduction for those who have had little or no exposure to Polarity Thinking and is both a stand alone introduction and prerequisite for the next step in learning -- the Polarity Assessment, which is a 5-Step transformation tool and process. This workshop helps ensure that participants understand the fundamental principles of Polarity Thinking, how polarities work, and the steps for leveraging 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 Thinking

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

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

Develop skills in:

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

2. Mapping polarities and predicting their movement

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

Schedule:

Participants arrive at Kayser Ridge Retreat & Learning Center at 5:00pm on Friday for a group dinner at 7:00pm. The training and completion/graducation concludes at 4:00pm on Sunday. Price includes all meals, lodging (dorm style), facilitation, workshop tuition and materials. 

Polarity Thinking 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”

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