In this engaging conversation, Professor Wendy Smith, an award-winning business professor at the University of Delaware and Co-director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative, shares her insights on both/and thinking. She highlights how embracing contradictions can enhance creativity and lead to better decision-making. Wendy discusses classic paradoxes, using a mule to illustrate the power of combining different paths. Her tightrope metaphor emphasizes the importance of balance and flexibility in resolving conflicts and navigating life's complexities.
31:32
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Both/And Enhances Creativity
Thinking in either/or terms limits our options and creativity.
Both/and thinking opens possibilities and better solutions in challenges and relationships.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Engineer Applies Both/And to Relationships
Engineers, used to linear thinking, found both/and thinking challenging but helpful.
One engineer applied it to improve his relationship with his ex-wife.
insights INSIGHT
Both/And Diffuses Conflict
Either/or thinking fuels defensiveness and conflict in politics and religion.
Both/and thinking promotes openness, connection, and creative problem solving in volatile times.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
In 'Decisive', Chip and Dan Heath address the critical topic of decision-making, highlighting the biases and irrationalities that disrupt our choices. The book introduces a four-step process—WRAP (Widen your options, Reality-test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, Prepare to be wrong)—designed to counteract these biases. Through engaging stories and practical tools, the Heaths provide strategies to stop agonizing over decisions, make group decisions without destructive politics, and ensure that valuable opportunities are not overlooked.
Wendy Smith is an award-winning business professor at the University of Delaware, where she also serves as Co-director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative.
Wendy’s research focuses on strategic paradoxes – how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory agendas. Her research has been published in top-tier academic journals and her book, Both/And Thinking, was published by Harvard Business School Press in 2022.
Wendy earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School.
In this episode we discuss the following:
When we view our challenges through an either/or lens, we limit our options, often leading to suboptimal decisions. Both/and thinking, on the other hand, enhances creativity leading to better outcomes.
Take fairness, for example. Some argue it means treating everyone the same. Others believe it requires treating people differently to ensure comparable outcomes. Both views have merit and represent a classic paradox. And this is where Wendy’s process if helpful. First, notice the paradox, notice the either/or. And then change the frame to see if we can accomplish both. Is there a win/win that allows us to do both right now? I love Wendy’s mule analogy here—the mule, a hybrid of horse and donkey, represents the power of combining two different paths. And if we can’t do both at once, maybe we can do both over time. Wendy’s tightrope metaphor was excellent. A tightrope walker stays balanced by making continuous, slight adjustments as they move forward.
If we stick to either/or thinking we risk getting trapped, incapable of adapting when context changes.
Meikles & Dimes 
