Either-Or Thinking Doesn't Work

Column by David Silverstein

Operational efficiency and creativity both play a part in business success.

In my last column I wrote about the concept of convergence as it relates to the integration of business-excellence tools and approaches: Lean, Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma and Innovation. Since then, I read an interesting Harvard Business Review article, titled "How Successful Leaders Think" (June 2007). In it, the author focuses on the central idea of the "opposable mind," making an analogy to the profoundly primate trait of the opposable thumb. Essentially, an opposable mind can use integrative thinking to adeptly combine two seemingly competing ideas into a higher-order idea, or solution. This column is about how essential this integrative thinking is to successful businesses.

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