The power of polarity

Matt Williams

Creatives and account people. Designers and accountants. Long-term goals and short-term needs. Team building and diversity. An interesting thing about business today — whether you make ads or widgets — we all deal with tension. Some companies may feel it more than others, but in this environment of faster and faster change, tension has become a fact of business life. So the question isn't how to avoid it, it's how to ensure that tension acts as a positive force in your company, not a negative one. Because in the end, your response to tension will play a large part in determining your success.

Polarity is the ongoing tension between opposing forces. It's also the source of much of the tension in business. As a marketer, you face polarities everywhere. You can't help but notice them. By learning how to identify and manage them, you can turn the tension in your company into a positive force.

The polarity of creativity:

You can't create responsibly without clear strategic direction. But you can't create freely without the flexibility of being able to think outside the proverbial box.

The polarity of marketing:

You must lead consumers, rather than be led by them. But you must also listen and be responsive to the needs and predispositions of the market.

There are hundreds more where those came from. If you take a minute you can probably think of some that are specific to you and your business. But no matter how different, every polarity shares a common trait: tension. So what do you do?

Know when to avoid choices.

Go ahead, choose. Do you want clarity or do you want flexibility in your organization? The answer, of course, is yes. In cases of polarities, “either/or” thinking is futile. Look what happens if you apply the “either/or” model of thinking to these:

The polarity of creativity:


The polarity of marketing:


In cases of polarities, no company can live with an “either/or” choice. Polarity highlights those times when your job is to create a “both/and” model of decision-making. Thinking in terms of “both/and” means the decision isn't one of making a choice, it's one of finding balance — balancing the opposing forces to ensure that the organization can simultaneously realize the benefits of each.

Polarities show us that not only must effective managers be able to make the choices, they must also be able to recognize those times when making a choice isn't the right thing to do at all.

Make conflict constructive.
Sometimes the misguided application of an age-old business skill (the competitive drive to win at any cost) can create destructive tension. Tension means heated debates. But too often, the goal of each participant in the debate is to drag the other (kicking and screaming if necessary) to his or her opposing point of view.

Often in arguing, two things can happen. One…you win, and therefore force the other person to abandon their pole. Their passion. When they lose their passion, their value to the company and the quality of their product fall off the charts.

Two (and more likely), neither debater is willing to abandon his passion. No winner is decided and both sides disengage, muttering all the way back to their respective offices how "That guy just doesn't get it." Now the organization is deprived of the combined power of two intelligent, passionate people working together to solve a problem.

Or you can choose to harness the tension. Recognize those arguments that are rooted in opposing imperatives, and accept the conflict, make the tension constructive, and turn the moment into a real opportunity for innovation.

Lead by example. Practice the art of civil argument. Prove to your people, through your own actions and approach, that it's possible to express your passion and your point of view without sacrificing an environment where colleagues interact with mutual respect.

Tension. You can't escape it. But if you see the world not in terms of choice but of balance, not in terms of “either/or” but “both/and,” you can build an organization that doesn't just embrace the tension that accompanies change. You can build an organization that actually feeds off it.