What is Polarity Thinking?
Some challenges can be solved and finished. Polarities are different: they are ongoing, interdependent tensions in which both poles contribute something needed over time. Polarity Thinking™ helps people recognize the difference, see the predictable costs of overfocusing on one pole, and act to maximize the upsides of both poles while minimizing their downside limitations.
Polarity Thinking supplements Either/Or thinking. It does not replace decisions, accountability, or action.
The S.M.A.L.L. process—Seeing, Mapping, Assessing, Learning, and Leveraging—provides a practical way to work with a polarity. Assessment makes the pattern measurable: it helps people see current performance, compare perspectives, identify early warnings, and monitor movement over time.
Barry Johnson On Polarity Map Origins
In this short video in which Polarity Partnerships Co-Founder Barry Johnson talks about how he created the first Polarity Map™ in 1975.
“PACT” – The Polarity Approach for Continuity and Transformation
In this short video created for a program at American University, Cliff provides a basic (very) overview of the PACT 5-Step “SMALL” process (Seeing, Mapping, Assessing, Learning, and Leveraging).
What are polarities?
How do they work?
Why is polarity thinking a critical competency for 21st Century leaders and not another management fad or flavor of the month?
Polarity Thinking – Parts 1 and 2: A Conversation with Barry Johnson
This is the 38th video produced in the ‘Just in Case…’ mini-series sponsored by Quality and Equality. In this video we are joined by Barry Johnson, the profound thinker and creator of the Polarity Map and its principles Barry has worked with business and industry, government; education; and not-for-profit organizations around the world – some of which he discusses in our video. Barry recently published two new books titled And – Volume One: Foundations and And – Volume Two: Applications, both essential reads for anyone interested in deeply studying the important work on polarities. Barry is also an avid outdoorsman and intrepid traveler, and brings head and heart together in his teaching and consulting. Barry and his wife, Dana, have 5 children and 11 grandchildren.
Today, Barry shares with us Parts One and Two of his 4-Part Series on Polarity Thinking. In the first two parts, Barry explores the following questions:
Part One:
- Why learn about polarities?
- What are polarities?
- How do you leverage them?
Part Two:
- Paradoxical Change – How to use resistance to change as a resource for Stability And Change
- What is the Getting Unstuck Process?
Video 39 of this series will contain Parts Three and Four, and can be viewed here (https://youtu.be/T_IFw7HI5P8).
Find more resources at: www.PolarityPartnerships.com