The “How” Matters, Too

How we work together is just as important as what we work on together.

Why? Humans thrive in community, not in isolation.

While individuals and organizations influence our communities. How we work together defines our communities.

When we lived in small, tribal communities much time was spent in circles sharing origin stories that affirmed what we expected of each other. We still carry many of these stories with us, but as our communities grow larger and more complex there is so much of the what for us to do that we have little time to explore the how.

Efforts to “solve” community problems invariably start with what should be done. This focus leads to polarization as members disagree on both the problem and solution.

Polarized communities are not sustainable. Eventually, they fragment or worse. The values at the heart of this polarization are neither “right” nor “wrong,” let alone “left” or “right.” These values include freedom and structure, stability and change, responsibility and risk, individual and collective, and so, so many more.

We can’t just value freedom and reject structure. Without structure our freedom devolves into anarchy, and few want to live in an anarchic community.

Dr. Barry Johnson developed polarity thinking as a framework for helping leaders to balance values that are in tension with each other. The approach clarifies what is a problem to be solved and what is a tension to be balanced and leveraged. When we treat values as problems to be solved, we fail. When we leverage the tensions, innovation and creativity emerge.

Leveraging tensions requires us to take the time to understand the perspectives of others. To ask questions and gain clarity. Leveraging values in tension with each other teaches us how to learn, work and decide together.

Thriving communities aren’t built around one value pole. They thrive under a vast tent held up by poles of values in tension with each other. To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the test of a first-rate community is the ability to balance values in tension with each other at the same time and retain the ability to function.

The next time you’re in a group meeting to “solve” a community problem, speak up and suggest that the group spend some time exploring how everyone will work together. And how they’ll work together to leverage their values to minimize conflict and maximize innovation.