Getting Unstuck: Using Leadership Paradox to Execute with Confidence

Ralph Jacobson



Humans are naturally wired to solve problems. Implement the right solutions and the problems generally go away. Paradoxes are quite different. They consist of opposites that do not appear to be able to coexist, but must. Most of the issues that keep organizations from achieving strategic success are not problems, they are paradoxes. Practical approaches to address our most important paradoxes do exist. By reading this book you will learn how to address the paradoxes commonly encountered in organizations and in life.

Getting Unstuck: Using Leadership to Execute Paradoxes with Confidence will teach you how to balance key paradoxes to achieve greater long-term growth and enhanced sustainability than those who rely on financial data and problem solving methods alone. It addresses the issues that are the most troublesome to people and the organizations they work for.

Describing how to think and work more strategically, the book introduces the language and tools you need to share innovative approaches to dilemmas within your organization and to develop better working relationships, both internally and externally. It provides a practical and powerful platform to help you develop new possibilities and achieve your strategic objectives. You will learn how to see conflict with a fresh set of eyes, how to redefine your roles, and how to become more effective professionally and personally.

If you have experienced trouble implementing strategic objectives, difficulties getting people from different parts of your organization to work together; if you want to achieve a higher level of success, if you feel stuck, then read this book. Filled with examples of real-world paradoxes, it supplies valuable insights into the root causes of workplace conflicts to help you execute change with greater confidence and effectiveness.

Table of Contents

What’s a Paradox? Why It’s Relevant!
What Am I/Are We Supposed to Do?
It’s Not Really a Problem
     Is This a Problem or a Paradox?
     Whatever Happened to Right and Wrong?
     The Paradox Training Advantage

Organization Paradoxes: Understanding Resistance to Change
It Shouldn’t Be This Hard
     What May Not Help?
Common Organization Paradoxes
     Organization Paradox Examples
The Drama of the Unbalanced Paradox
Your Leadership Role
How Can You Spot a Strategic Paradox?
Strategic Paradoxes: How to Create Sustainable Growth
Structural Paradoxes: How to Lower the Silos
     Overview
     It’s a Battle in Here
     How to Overcome Structural Paradoxes
     Additional Options to Creating More Effective Structures
          Hackathon: Example of an Emerging
          Organization Structure
          Practical Application
Functional/Division Paradoxes: Why Are We Fighting with Each Other
     The Issue
     The Work of Senior Leadership: Balance the Functional Silos
     How to Spot a Functional Paradox

Role Paradox: Damned If You Do…Damned If You Don’t
The Paradox of Time: The Struggle to Focus on the Important
     The Secret to Improving Productivity AND Employee Engagement
     Achieving the Balance
     Living a More Powerful Life
The Paradox of Team

Leader Paradoxes: Conflicting Roles/Conflicting Advice
Personal Leader Paradoxes
     Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership
The Paradoxes of Making Decisions
     The Limitations of Judgment
     Addressing Decision-Making Paradoxes
The Paradoxes of Building a Corporate Culture
     Leading Organization Cultural Change: The Drama
The Best Leadership Model

Personal Paradox: Addressing Life’s Universal Challenges
Universal Human Paradoxes
The Polarity Map™
When Interests and Values Collide
Closing Thoughts on Personal Paradox

Addressing Humanity’s Most Pressing Challenges
What We Experience
Antibiotics in Agriculture Processed as Paradox
The Healthcare Paradox
Breaking Down the Silos
In Conclusion

The Right Moves: Taking Action
Taking Individual Action to Balance Your Most
Critical Paradoxes
     Moving from Thinking to Action
Leadership Actions to Balance Paradox
     Time
     Taking Leadership Action
The Organization Path to Balancing Paradox: An Example
Bibliography

Appendix: Three Roles That Leaders Play
Instructions

Index