Manage dilemmas creatively
In the face of dilemmas, tradeoffs or compromises are rarely satisfactory solutions. How can we approach dilemmas creatively?
The business world is rife with dilemmas, such as the strategic tension between the need to generate both higher volumes and higher profits, to encourage employee autonomy while ensuring the alignment of outcomes with requirements, to ensure local adaptation and global integration, etc. Not to mention the increase in ethical demands placed on companies, with no decrease in expectations regarding economic performance. These apparently paradoxical constraints can be difficult to juggle on a day-to-day basis.
Traditional problem-solving approaches are not much help in finding solutions to these kinds of dilemmas. It’s not enough to simply select among a clear hierarchy of priorities; one must find a way to reconcile these paradoxes on a lasting basis! In fact, the experts say that a highly specific approach must be used to manage dilemmas:
– Learn to recognize and analyze dilemmas carefully to arrive at a realistic idea of one’s margin for maneuver.
– Rather than choosing between opposing options, consider innovative ways to reconcile contradictory constraints.
– Put stakes in the ground to resist the temptation to fall back on unsuitable tradeoffs when the pressure mounts.
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