We have an appreciation for ecosystems. No area of activity can be allowed to suffer for another to succeed. Complex problems require us to embrace conflicting viewpoints and work towards optimal goals.

Both/And thinking is a mindset that enables us to balance competing priorities, juggle conflicting timelines and manage multiple tensions.

We are being challenged to respond to a VUCA World that is systematically degrading our life support systems.  As well as the regeneration of our natural and organisational ecosystems we need to regenerate our capacity to make sense of what is happening by looking for new relationships between ourselves and the systems we rely on for our existence. 

“We need to find a way out of hell” – Mahatma Gandhi

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. ” – Albert Einstein

By refocusing the lens through which we see, understand and experience the world, we can overturn entrenched beliefs and assumptions, and look beyond the siloes of competing interests. As the world grows more fragmented and yet also more connected, the challenges we face become more multifaceted and paradoxical.

When faced with opposing views, traditional thinkers may aim to find solutions that involve trade-offs and hesitate to look any further. While these types of Either/Or thinkers may be good at choosing the best solution for the situation at hand, it often stops there until it fails to last the first test.

Both/And thinkers don’t view contradictions with hesitation or fear but with curiosity and acceptance. They won’t settle for finding a middle ground because they’re able to imagine and look for a creative solution that optimises all sides. 

1. Look through concerns from multiple perspectives
2. Consider all possible implications
3. Approach all perspectives with curiosity
4. Challenge assumptions and biases

We have to understand how we create the frameworks that help us make sense of our world and develop deeper levels of awareness.  Robert Kegan offers us a model for understanding how we construct reality from our experiences and develop as complex living systems.  We do not mature like a tree that changes its form and just gets bigger over time, the mind evolves its functions in order to overcome its limitations. 

This is best understood as stages of meaning-making. We can be observers of ourselves observing our way of thinking and being.  When we become powerful observers of our multiple identities we recognise how a VUCA reality is just  a  state of mind that we have come to accept, embrace and shape to transcend our selfish, egotistical identities.

This means engaging with “Volatility” and using it to break through to reorganise our relationships for mutual benefit. When we recognise the limitations of control in a “Complex” world, we can accept  “Uncertainty” as an opportunity to discover what is hidden from our mind. This will regenerate our capacity to think in new ways and gain  valuable insights from “Ambiguity” and paradox. 

We are not just “in relationships” through which we serve a need to belong (The Socal Mind). We develop a separate identity from which we differentiate ourselves, becoming  free to make our own choices and serve our personal goals (The Self-Authoring Mind). But as we take-on more roles and responsibilities, we face tension between our identities as they compete with one another. We have to find ways of embracing paradox and empathising with the difficult choices that others have to make (The Self-Transforming Mind). This enhances our sense of connection rather than separateness as we seek to resolve our shared concerns.  

When we adopt a “Both/And” perspective we don’t stop thinking about what is the case. Unlike a “Either/Or” decision when made doesn’t bother us until we realise we have made a mistake. It’s where opposites meet.  But in complex situations, similarities and differences have to be explored to find meaning. See “Adaptive Action”. Prior logic is not going to crack it. See “Action Logics”. This is because the situation is always evolving and changing, The story is always in draft and subject to review as circumstances change – sometimes moment-to-moment.

Life is full of surprises and the best solutions are made collectively when what we can agree has to be most the important outcome for mutual benefit.