Navigating Systemic Polarity: A Leader’s Guide to Driving Success
The smartest leaders don’t pick sides, they work within the polarity and the tension created by our modern organizations. Leaders are often told to make clear-cut decisions, which suggests that there are problems and solutions. This is a very surface level and linear driven approach to leading. An approach that is less likely to succeed in our modern organizations and in the future organizations driven by technology and fast-paced change and innovation.
Though not every challenge is a problem to be solved. Some are more like systemic dynamics to be understood, leveraged and managed. Systemic polarities are interdependent opposites that can’t be resolved, only balanced and managed over time. When we think about these we often view the differences between things as being separate from each other rather than seeing the continuum or co-existing truths. For example, leaders will often view and make decisions based on polarity between things such as:
Strategy vs. Operations
Innovation vs. Stability
Central Control vs. Local Autonomy
Human Resources Compliance vs. Employee Empowerment
People-Centered vs. Business Bottom Line
Homeostasis (balance) vs. Entropy (randomness & disorder)
Celebration vs. Tension/Conflict
These differences create natural tension. That tension often drives decision making and how different initiatives, departments and staff groups are viewed. For example, in consulting companies, it's sometimes perceived that teams focused on strategy or client consulting are valued more highly than those maintaining internal operations. While both functions are crucial for the organization's success, this perception and systemic narratives can create divisions and tension, particularly regarding employee valuation, opportunity, career growth and movement and compensation.
When we fail to acknowledge and manage these systemic tensions, systems lurch toward one extreme, creating rigidity, fragmentation, or chaos. While you may not see it at the time, this is heading in one direction: systemic entropy (disorder or chaos). When you create the systemic divides and the resultant tensions, your system is ultimately (eventually) going to fail. It is no longer a viable system. It is not a matter of if it will fail, but when. Sure, it may take a while, but like organic cells, your organizational system is slowly dying. You may not see it until you adopt and embrace a systemic perspective on how organizations actually work and operate. It is only then that you will see just how disordered and chaotic your organization is.
However, when we name the polarity, embrace the value of each pole, hold space for both sides, and manage the flow between them, we move from reactive leadership and entropy, to systemic leadership, stewardship and systemic balance. We also minimize the negative impacts of the polarity, and where divide once exists, there is collaboration, reconciliation, and systemic healing. Your system will heal itself. You need both poles to actually have a balanced system.
So What? Why Should Leaders Care about this?
Senior leaders shape the organizational and team cultures, not just the vision and strategies. This is a fundamental systemic fact. How you handle tension, and division and polarity in your team and organization directly sets the tone for how others do too (or not).
For example, if a leader favors strategy over operations, a perceived sense of superiority can surface. This is often observed in various professional environments, such as within consulting companies where strategy roles may be overvalued. This perception is often reinforced by specific organizational narratives and systemic processes. However, such behavioral arrogance can be indicative of a toxic organizational culture. that is not to say that strategy is not important, it’s vital. The stories that we use to label value are the problem, not the role itself. Leaders who neglect systemic polarities or inadvertently empower one aspect of a system while disempowering another may observe signs of systemic stagnation, toxicity, and entropy within their organizations and teams over time:
Siloed departments
Over-indexed strategies (too centralized, too chaotic, controlling, micromanaging etc)
Resistance to change often masked as tradition
Unbalanced cultures (e.g., innovation that burns out; stability that stagnates; toxic leadership behaviors rewarded as good leadership)
A leader who is able to navigate systemic polarities well, can expect to see teams, employees and organizations that are more resilient, adaptive, cooperative, collaborative, flexible, and aligned, but most importantly, they are more stable.
Practical Strategies to Surface & Manage systemic Polarities:
Name It to Tame It:
Bring the tension into the open. Say it out loud: “We’re navigating both innovation and stability.” This acknowledges the tensions and it gives permission to learn about it and find the most optimal way to manage the different perspectives, needs and purposes found in a systemic polar relationship.
Map the Upsides and Downsides:
For each pole, identify the benefits and the risks of overuse. Help your team see that both ends offer value, and risk. Take a curious and open approach to exploring the system polarities.
Identify Early Warning Signals:
What are signs that you’re drifting too far in one direction? Identify, understand and define the polarities as a team. So everyone knows what systemic balance and disequilibrium looks like.
Design Both/And Practices:
Create rhythms, roles, and routines that honor both sides. E.g., quarterly innovation sprints and monthly operations reviews. Find ways to celebrate and reward employees who work within the polarities. Make sure the rewards are equal and fair. Ensure that the dominant narratives in an organization do not overly favor one over the other polarity.
Hold Space for Tension in Dialogue:
Too many leaders are conflict avoidant. Avoiding conflict solves nothing, it only acts to exacerbate the conflict. Pretending something doesn’t exist is just poor leadership. Leaders need to have courageous conversations. Don’t rush to resolve tension. Let it teach you. Learn to understand what the system is telling you about how it operates, what is working, what is not working well and where there are opportunities for change. Conflict is a prudent teacher. Facilitate conversations where offering multiple perspectives and systemic narratives can coexist. Ensure that the usually silent or quiet voices are heard among the usually dominant voices.
Model the Mindset:
As a leader, be comfortable with paradox. Be seen actively managing competing truths. Life is too complex for us to actually expect we can solve for every single thing in neat boxes and categories. True leaders are able to understand and navigate within competing narratives and truths. A systemic lens looks at the connections and the influence each has on the other. A manager who thinks linearly and who can only perceive their system from an either/or perspective is a very dangerous risk to a team and an organization, especially in a time where we are seeing such fast technological advancement.
Take a moment TO reflect
Where in your organization are you experiencing unspoken tensions?
Are you or your team favoring one side of a polarity too strongly?
What might it look like to intentionally balance both sides?
How do your leadership practices reinforce or resist polarities?
What are the early warning signs that you're slipping into an extreme?
Where can you host a conversation about a current tension?
How do your values show up on both sides of a polarity?
What practices could help your team live into both/and thinking?
Who benefits or suffers when polarities go unnamed?
How would your leadership change if you saw tension as a creative force?
Call to Action:
Are you looking to move beyond traditional linear leadership models and cultivate a culture that thrives on innovation and clarity, even in uncertainty? I specialize in helping senior leaders and executive teams identify and transform underlying systemic tensions into sources of resilience, creativity, and innovation. Get in touch today.