1. Allegan Area Curriculum Directors and Special Education Directors
Polarity Management
Allegan Area Curriculum Directors and Special Education Directors
5/13/14
This material is based on work by Barry Johnson and Polarity Management Associates

2. Purpose To enhance ability to identify and manage unsolvable problems
Objectives 1. Improve our in addressing the 5 “Cs”: Complexity – Seeing The Forest and The Trees Change – Convert resistance to change into a resource for Stability and Change.
Conflict – Create “Win/Win” outcomes by tapping value pairs Chronic Issues – Convert chronic problems into ongoing opportunities Cross Cultural Issues – Celebrate and capitalize on differences.
2. By Learning: The value of either/or thinking The value of both/and thinking To distinguish between problems to solve and polarities to manage How all polarities look and work
The four action steps for managing polarities well over time
Above is a sample of a Polarity Management™ workshop purpose and objectives summary. The Consultant Development Intensive is intended to have the same purpose and objectives for you.
Plus, supplementing your present skills and wisdom to bring additional value to your clients through:
Teaching Polarity Management™.
Consulting on issues important to your clients.
Combining Polarity Management™ with your expertise in a way that enhances both.
Combining PM and your expertise with the existing wisdom, structures and processes of your clients.

3. Exhale Inhale Clean Out Get Carbon Dioxide Oxygen Too Much Lack of

4. Activity Rest Positive Results: Positive Results: Negative Results:

5. The Polarity Management™ Process – 6 Steps
1 -Define the Issue
6 – Action Steps and Early Warnings
2 - Include
Key Stakeholders
Polarity
Paradox
Dilemma
5 – Assess Realities With This Polarity
3 - Build the Polarity Map
The remaining 3 Steps
4 - Understand
How Polarities Work

6. Guide to Polarity Map Content Competitive Advantage*
Why?
Competitive Advantage
GPS = Greater Purpose Statement 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Positive Results of Focusing on Stability
Positive Results of Focusing on Change
Stability
Change
Neutral Name of Left Pole
Neutral Name of Right Pole 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Negative Results of Over-focusing on Stability to the Neglect of Change
Negative Results of Over-focusing on Change to the Neglect of Stability
Can’t Compete
Deeper Fear
* Thanks to John Scherer, Center for Work and the Human Spirit

7. Familiar (Stability) & Novel (Change)
Based on “The Neuroscience of Leadership” by David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz

8. Ineffective Leadership
Flexibility in responding to new challenges
Innovation and creativity is stimulated
Satisfaction and energy from new opportunities
Clear direction
Completion of projects
Satisfaction and energy from sense of accomplishment
Being Expansive
Being Focused
and
Lack of direction
Projects not completed
Staff overwhelmed with projects and frustrated with lack of accomplishment
Rigidly in a rut and unable to respond to new challenges
Lack of innovation and creativity
Staff bored with lack of ideas or new opportunities
Ineffective Leadership

9. Step One - Define the Difficulty
Individually first: (2 minutes)
List the most important things you are dealing with today:
What are the most exciting possibilities?
What are the most difficult, chronic problems?
As a table team: (3 minutes)
Compare notes, identify themes and choose one possibility/problem to work on:
The district should be moving from:
And district is or should be moving to:
Step 1 is Define the Difficulty.
One way to do that is to make a From/To list as above.
Once you have a list, there are two criteria for focusing in on an issue:
Is there energy in the group to address the issue? This may show up as great frustration with what they want to move from and/or great excitement about what they want to move to.
Does the issue seem to be centered around a polarity or does it appear to be a problem to solve?
If you think you have a polarity to manage, you probably have the beginning of content for the lower left quadrant in the “From” list and some corresponding content for the upper right quadrant in the “To” list. To
From

10. 11 Important Organizational Polarities 6
11 Important Organizational Polarities
From Polarity Management Associates
Centralized Coordination AND Decentralized Initiatives
Recognize the Individual AND Recognize the Team
Reduce Cost AND Improve Quality
Competing with Others AND Collaborating with Others
Stability AND Change
Celebrating Our Differences AND Celebrating Our Commonalities
Care for My Part of the Organization AND Care for the Whole Organization
Showing Respect for Every Person AND Showing Respect Based on Performance
Getting the Job Done (task) AND Building Relationships
Taking Care of the Organization AND Taking Care of the Customer
Work AND Home
3 Organizational Polarities From The Three Tensions
by Dominic Dodd and Ken Favaro
Profitability AND Growth
Today AND Tomorrow
The Whole AND The Parts
1 Organizational Polarity
From Built to Last by Collins and Porras
Preserve the Core AND Stimulate Progress
7 Organizational Polarities
From Managing on the Edge by Richard Tanner Pascale
(Left column = the 7 areas of “Excellence” from In Search of Excellence)
Strategy ……...Planned AND Opportunistic
Structure…..….Elitist AND Pluralistic
Systems..……..Mandatory AND Discretionary
Style…………..Managerial AND Transformational
Staff…………..Collegiality AND Individuality
Shared Values…Hard Minds AND Soft Hearts
Skills…………..Maximize AND Meta-mize
10 Strategic Management Polarities
From Strategy Synthesis by Bob de Wit and Ron Meyer
Logic AND Creativity
Deliberateness AND Emergentness
Revolution AND Evolution
Markets AND Resources
Responsiveness AND Synergy
Competition AND Collaboration
Compliance AND Choice
Control AND Chaos
Globalization AND Localization
Profitability AND Responsibility
Have a taped vertical and horizontal line on the floor creating the 4 quadrants of a polarity map. Make a tape “+” sign in the inner corner of the two upsides and a tape “-” sign in the inner corner of the two downsides. Make sure there is enough space in each upside for all participants.
Have participants quickly go through the list and put a check by their preference for each (30 Seconds)
Ask participants to take their workbooks or this page with them and move to the upside of the pole that represents their preferred choice. Start off with one of the pairs.
When individuals talk about why they chose the pole they chose, they stay in the upside quadrant to talk about the positives of their preferred pole. Ask them to go to the downside of the opposite pole if they want to talk about the limits or concerns associated with the opposite pole.
Key points:
We choose a pole both because there is something positive we associate with our preferred pole (its upside) AND there are some concerns we have with the opposite pole (its downside).
Opposition becomes resource in filling out a complete map because each group has easy access to one upside and its opposite downside. Combining both points of view gives a more complete picture.
The smaller your opposition the more you need to listen to them. This is because a large majority preferring one pole makes the group vulnerable to over-focusing on that pole and neglecting the pole favored by only a few. The group thus is vulnerable to the downside of their preferred pole.

11. The Polarity of People at Work7
The Polarity of People at Work +
Predictable, comfortable
Build momentum on current work
Avoid unnecessary risk +
Fresh new ideas, excited
Innovate for the future
Fix what is broken
Traditionalists
Pioneers -
Boring, stuck
Neglect the long term picture
Hide from things that are broken
Chaotic, loss of focus
Overwhelmed by change
Risky (fix anything AND everything – no matter need)
These 2 options are actually 2 sides of a polarity
On one side is the conventional approach
On the other side is the collaborative approach
Polarity management gives us a tool to help us know when to use a play from book 1 and when to use a play from book 2.

12. Problem or Polarity? – Four Lenses
Is the difficulty ongoing, like breathing?
Are there two alternatives that are interdependent, meaning you can
only focus on one pole for so long before you are required to focus on the
other pole, like inhaling and exhaling.
3. Is it necessary, over time, for you to have both identified upsides”?
Will focusing on one upside to the neglect of the other eventually undermine your efforts to move toward your higher purpose?
Should we purchase PC or Mac computers?
Should we adopt an RtI program?
Should students wear ID badges?
What will the school calendar be?
Should decisions be made at the building or central office level?

13. Key Points Every change effort is part of a polarity energy system.9
Key Points
Every change effort is part of a polarity energy system.
Treating a polarity as if it were a problem to solve
Reduces the attainability
Slows down the process by increasing resistance
Even if the resistance is overcome, the goal of the change effort is inherently unsustainable
If you want to guarantee the failure of a change effort, tie it to one pole of a polarity. If you want success, tie it to both poles
Because polarities are indestructible, any polarity you identify will be a solid base on which to build a sustainable change and a sustainable organization.
Review this summary slide.

14. Basic Steps to Managing a Polarity Well Over Time** *
Fears = Negative results from over-focusing on the right pole to the neglect of the left pole
Values = Positive results from focusing on the right pole
Fears = Negative results from over-focusing on the left pole to the neglect of the right pole
Values = Positive results from focusing on the left pole
Greater Purpose Statements (GPS) - why balance this polarity?
Deeper Fear from lack of balance
Action Steps
How will we gain or maintain the positive results from focusing on this left pole? What? Who? By When? Measures?
Action Steps
How will we gain or maintain the positive results from focusing on this right pole? What? Who? By When? Measures?
&
Early Warnings***
Measurable indicators (things you can count) that will let you know that you are getting into the downside of this left pole.
Early Warnings
Measurable indicators (things you can count) that will let you know that you are getting into the downside of this right pole.
Final MAP 3 - all elements approved
BACKGROUND: copyright, credits, pagination, background color
MAP: size, proportions, colors, line weights, infinity loop 3311 (still to compare 4411), synergy arrow, layering
TEXT: font, size, color, line spacing, paragraph, alignment, margins

15. Basic Steps to Managing a Polarity Well Over Time** *
Fears = Negative results from over-focusing on the right pole to the neglect of the left pole
Values = Positive results from focusing on the right pole
Fears = Negative results from over-focusing on the left pole to the neglect of the right pole
Values = Positive results from focusing on the left pole
Greater Purpose Statements (GPS) - why balance this polarity?
Deeper Fear from lack of balance
Action Steps
How will we gain or maintain the positive results from focusing on this left pole? What? Who? By When? Measures?
Action Steps
How will we gain or maintain the positive results from focusing on this right pole? What? Who? By When? Measures?
&
Early Warnings***
Measurable indicators (things you can count) that will let you know that you are getting into the downside of this left pole.
Early Warnings
Measurable indicators (things you can count) that will let you know that you are getting into the downside of this right pole.
Final MAP 3 - all elements approved
BACKGROUND: copyright, credits, pagination, background color
MAP: size, proportions, colors, line weights, infinity loop 3311 (still to compare 4411), synergy arrow, layering
TEXT: font, size, color, line spacing, paragraph, alignment, margins

16. Basic Action Steps to Manage a Polarity Well Over Time
How will we gain or maintain the positive results from focusing on this left pole? What? Who? By When? Measures? 1. *
Action Steps
How will we gain or maintain the positive results from focusing on this right pole? What? Who? By When? Measures? 1.
GPS Greater Purpose Statement: **
How will we gain or maintain the positive results from focusing on each pole? What Action Steps will be taken? Who will be accountable? When? by date or frequency Measures of improvement?
Early Warnings***
Measurable indicators (something you can count) that you are getting the downsides of this left pole. Who will know?
Early Warnings
Measurable indicators (something you can count) that you are getting the downsides of this right pole. Who will know?
What will be observable / measurable Early Warning indicators that will let you know you are in the downside of each pole? Who will know?
Deeper Fear from Lack of Balance?
* Thanks to John Scherer, Center for Work and the Human Spirit
** Thanks to The Strategy Academy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
*** Thanks to Todd Johnson, Rivertown Consultants