Masters of navigating paradoxes.
Recipients of the Thinkers50 2023 Breakthrough Idea Award.
Both/And Thinking was featured on the Thinkers50 Best New Management Booklist in 2023.
Recipients of the 2021 Academy of Management Review Decade Award for ‘Toward a Theory of Paradox: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of Organizing.’
Life is full of paradoxes, which are often a source of conflict. And since our brains love to make either-or choices, we tend to choose one competing demand over the other. In their book, Both/And Thinking, Wendy and Marianne demonstrate how to cope and thrive with multiple knotted tensions at the same time, and provide an actionable framework for transforming those tensions into opportunities for growth and innovation. Drawing on more than 20 years of pioneering research, they show how we can employ ‘both/and thinking’ to make more creative, flexible, and impactful decisions. Wendy’s research focuses on strategic paradoxes: how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory, yet interdependent demands. Marianne is a thought leader in organizational paradoxes and explores tensions surrounding leadership and innovation.
Wendy is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management and Faculty Director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware. She earned her PhD in Organizational Behaviour at Harvard Business School. Wendy received the 2015 Lerner College Outstanding Scholar Award and the 2018 University of Delaware’s first Mid-Career Excellence in Scholarship Award. Marianne is Dean and Professor of Management at the Lindner College of Business, University of Cincinnati. She previously served as Dean of Cass Business School, University of London, and as a Fulbright Scholar. Marianne received the Paper of the Year Award (2000) and Decade Award (2021) from the Academy of Management Review.
Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems (HBR Press, 2022). Multiple articles in publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Newsweek, including ‘Hate friends’ or colleagues’ POVs? Here’s the secret to getting along’ (Newsweek, October 2022); ‘Hybrid work isn’t working: Here’s a better approach’ (Fast Company, August 2022); ‘Both/And Leadership’ (with Michael L. Tushman, Harvard Business Review, May 2016); The Ambidextrous CEO’ (with Michael L. Tushman and Andy Binns, Harvard Business Review, June 2011); ‘The Power of Paradox’ (TEDx-UD talk, July 2023).
“Both/And provides us with a novel and unspeakably powerful and instantly usable way to reframe almost any problem. The argument is flawless.”
Tom Peters
Thinkers50 Limited
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Thinkers50 Limited
The Studio
Highfield Lane
Wargrave RG10 8PZ
United Kingdom
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