Paradoxical Thinking for Achieving Mastery

Paradoxical Thinking for Achieving Mastery
Most colleges and universities teach cause and effect thinking at the expense of paradoxical thinking which might be a negative impact in these students life. By stating this we are not saying that the cause and effect teaching is bad, but it diminishes the opportunities of a student thinking outside of the box. Paradoxical thinking involves the ability to reverse, manipulate, combine, and synthesize opposites (Ravi, p.2). On the other hand, cause and effect is the principle of causation. Comparing these two concepts there is a clearly difference in both of them. Paradoxical thinking is a way of looking at things differently and this is a unique key for successful companies. Cause and effect on the other hand will be a potential that almost every company has.
Paradoxical thinking makes a company unique in the aspect of being different from others in this case we will use for example Apple, Inc. This is an electronics company that has been in play since 1976. The name for the company was changed two times from Apple Computer, Inc. in 1976 to Apple, Inc. in 2009. This company knew that they were not the only ones in the industry, therefore they needed bright minds to work for them. The founders of this company were Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. As sellers of consumer electronics they innovated the way to look at technology. They created computers, laptops, cellular phones, I-pads and I-pods. What made this company unique is that their teamwork had in a sense a well knowledge of paradoxical thinking. What do I mean by saying this? As the technologies advance their way of doing things must change as well. This is when paradoxical thinking comes in to action. As competitors they must use different ways of manufacturing their products, they must know what the competency is up to so they can come up with something different and unique. As the author K. R. Ravi states, “write that companies that survive are those, among other things ,that do not oppress themselves with the ‘tyranny of the OR’—the rational view that cannot easily accept paradox, that cannot live with two seemingly contradictory forces at the same time” (p.3). This is when they start thinking out of their box and not only go and with what competitors are creating, but instead use their minds to create a new device that has unique characteristics. The importance of the paradoxical thinking in this company is that has put them in the top sellers of the electronics sellers. This is what a company can become while using paradoxical thinking. 
Can somebody learn to think paradoxically? Of course they can. Even though, this is a different way of thinking us the normal humans can learn to think this way, but how? We must start questioning why something is the way it is. As an example we can think of how we live by breathing air? How can the fish live under the water? These are questions that we take the answer for granted because somebody already made a study of these and came up with the answer. What if we didn’t know about it? How many people can start questioning this? This is when paradoxical thinking comes to take place. The questioning of things and trying to change in a positive way a product or a statement would require us to use paradoxical thinking. Author Ravi states, “Be open in your thinking. Openness, courage and curiosity are essential. Be particularly aware of the so called absurd ideas floating in your mind”(p.2). This would be a good start to learn how to use paradoxical thinking. 
There are eight different types of intelligence and paradoxical thinking is one of them, but it’s one of the least used. This is because it requires the ability to manipulate, synthesize opposites, reverse and combine. In other words, it will require more thinking for a person and that it’s the first obstacle to overtake in order to learn and use paradoxical thinking. People doesn’t like to question things, they believe that if it has been created or processed in a certain way it must stay that way. This is the cause and effect learning that most of us have. In a sense, the people that obtain higher education are the ones that are more likely to achieve that level of thinking, a paradoxical way of thinking. Scientific studies have shown that higher education has lead to a higher paradoxical thinking. According to the author, Lawrence H. Summers, “College campuses are seen as the source for the newest thinking and for the generation of new ideas, as society’s cutting edge”(NY Times). This being said, education leads to a more skeptical way of learning it requires us to question things and that can be put in practice to learn to think in a paradoxical way. 
Managers become the leaders of a group in our organization or company and paradoxical thinking becomes part of their decisions. Managers must listen to their workers and try to solve any problems that might come to the work environment, but they must learn to listen and do not make rapid decisions. A manager can have a firm opinion of how to solve a problem, but that is not necessarily the only way to solve it. In the graphic you will see different ways of approaching leadership, which include paradoxical thinking. In order to achieve that manager should know how to maintain control as well as to listen to different ideas. They must listen to contradictory opinions and over think if they are actually doing the right thing. According to the author Quinn, a paradoxical thinker must be “…collaborative and open to new ideas at the same time you are providing a vision that makes sense in the current environment” (p.337). Managers need to be open minded of what is coming ahead, like in the example of the company that uses paradoxical thinking. In the Apple, Inc. Steve Jobs needed to change the way of doing things in the company in order to survive in the market. The key point for a manager is to move out of their comfort zone. 

The Creative Leadership Model

Source: The International School of Creative Leadership. April, 2014.

References
Apple, Inc. www.apple.com 
Quinn, R. E. (2011). Becoming a master manager: a competing values approach (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rajiv. (2014, April 16). The paradoxes of creative leadership - THNK. THNK. Retrieved August 31, 2014, from http://www.thnk.org/insights/the-paradoxes-of-creative-leadership/
Ravi, K. R. (n.d.). Paradoxical Thinking. www.krravi.com. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from http://www.krravi.com/PARADOXICALTHINKING.pdf
Rosen, J. (2014, July 14). Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 31, 2014, from http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-paradoxical-thinking-20140715-story.html
Shreiber, N., & Chakravarthy, B. (2008, January 5). IMD. www.imd.org. Retrieved August 27, 2014, from http://www.imd.org/research/challenges/TC001-08.cfm
Summers, L. (2012, January 21). What You (Really) Need to Know. The New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2014, from