Welcome to the Digital Adoption Show: Episode Overview

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Digital Adoption Show, your go-to podcast for cutting-edge insights and innovative strategies in today’s dynamic work environment. I’m your host, Prakhar Jain, the Vice President of Global Sales. In this episode, we will explore three tips for informed decision-making in 2024 and understanding and managing polarities. I find this topic particularly intriguing and am looking forward to learning a lot from our discussion.

Guest Introduction: Katie Lackey

We are honored to have Katie Lackey with us today. Katie is the Vice President of Global Learning and Talent Management at Honeywell. She brings a wealth of experience to the table with a strong background in executive coaching, succession planning, employee training, organizational effectiveness, and talent management, just to name a few.

Katie has played a pivotal role at Honeywell, Bank of America, and Frontier Academy, focusing on leadership development and preparing leaders with the skills and tools for tomorrow’s challenges. Her approach combines strategic thinking with practical application, aiming to enhance leadership capabilities and foster organizational growth. She is dedicated to cultivating a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

Prakhar Jain: Once again, we are honored to have you, Katie. Thanks for joining us.

Katie Lackey: I’m excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Digital Pulse: Connecting Passion and Profession

Prakhar Jain: Before we dive into our main discussion, let’s kick off this new episode with our segment, The Digital Pulse. Here, we connect the dots between passion and profession, uncovering how individual journeys shape visionary leadership. Katie, is there any passion or activity outside of work that is particularly close to your heart?

Katie Lackey: Yeah, I have to say, as a mom of two young kids and a working woman who gets to travel the globe, I don’t have a lot of time for personal hobbies. However, about a year and a half, two years ago, I convinced my daughter to take up horseback riding. It wasn’t fair because I used to ride horses as a kid, so I was trying to get her to sneakily adopt my passion. She decided it was okay, she would do it. And it’s been something we’ve done together, and it’s been magical.

As I got back on a horse, which I hadn’t ridden since I was about 10 years old, I realized how complex and beautiful the experience is. You’re on this huge beast, and as an adult, you’re more aware of the potential dangers. But it teaches you so much. Horseback riding is about being outside, being in control and not in control at the same time. It’s about connecting with one of Earth’s majestic beings, and spending time with my daughter makes it even more special. This passion has been phenomenal and reminds me why I’m in my profession, as it reflects the polarities we navigate in leadership and management.

Prakhar Jain: That sounds very exciting and adventurous for sure. I’m sure your daughter has had a great time with it as well. It’s wonderful to hear about how this passion connects with your professional life.

Main Discussion: 

Conceptualizing the Role of Polarities in Organizations

Prakhar: But maybe why don’t we just conceptualize the role of polarities in an organization in terms of decision-making? How do you see that in the current 2024 business landscape? There’s so much going on around us. So maybe let’s start with a quick introduction around it and what role does that play?

Understanding Polarities Management

Katie: Sure. So, polarities management has been around for a long time. The research behind it is primarily done by Barry Johnson, who has brought it mainstream within organizations, governments, school systems, health systems, and more.

For those unfamiliar with polarities management, the easiest way to understand it is that we are typically taught to think in an either-or mindset. For example, from an organization standpoint, I either need a decentralized group or a centralized group—you can’t have both, right? When it comes to personalities, I either like to be super active, or I am going to be resting—I can’t actively rest. This way of thinking is very binary; everything is either-or.

The Importance of Both-And Thinking

The reality is, in the world today, whether it be our countries, governments, businesses, organizations, school systems, or healthcare systems, they are all systems. In a system, not everything is either-or; it requires both-and. It requires leaders to look across and understand the tensions at play that drive or stall a business or any system. It’s important for everyone to see all sides.

Polarities in the 2024 Business Landscape

In 2024, one of the key components about polarities is recognizing that two seemingly opposite things need each other over time to survive. For example, centralization works until it doesn’t, and then everything centralizes. It feels like a pendulum swing, and that works until it doesn’t, so everyone swings back. In businesses, we’re used to this whiplash. It works until it doesn’t, so we fix it, and then we move on until it doesn’t again, and then we fix it. This cycle indicates that you’re managing a polarity, not solving a problem.

Accelerated Decision Cycles

In today’s fast-paced world, businesses feel the whiplash on a three-month or six-month cycle, rather than the longer ten-year cycles of the past. This means that as leaders, we must govern and think differently about how to manage polarities.

Prakhar: I think very well put, Katie. I can think of an example from our world. In the startup, while we are growing, there are consistent needs for processes that can scale. The decentralization versus centralization example you gave is exactly the kind of situation we find ourselves in. We need to stay agile and nimble because that’s what a startup foundation is built on, but at the same time, we need some level of centralization. So, I think it’s the right balance of looking at it in the realm of what can be done to a point, solving it for the next phase, and then moving on from there, finding that right balance.

Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Needs

Katie: A hundred percent. And you know, short-term and long-term is a polarity. The same applies to startups or large organizations—there’s this tension between innovation and standardization. We need to test and try new things, and then we need to standardize them to make them efficient. Both are needed. Everyone needs both. It requires us all to work together and be more aware that both are good. Neither is better than the other; both are important and valued. When we start to think with a both-and mindset, we make better decisions as leaders.

Real-World Scenarios of Conditional Decision-Making and Managing Polarities

Prakhar: Absolutely. I think just with your experience, our audience would love to know, Katie, if you could describe some complex real-world scenarios where you have seen conditional decision-making falling short. And then, managing polarities, giving a much better solution.

Appreciating Complexity in Decision-Making

Katie: Yeah, I mean, I think I see this all the time. I’m not going to lie. As a practitioner of this work and trying to live and breathe it for over a decade of my life, it’s hard. It’s complicated. One of the first things I’ll just say as a tip is appreciating the complexity. When you can actually realize that things are complicated, that there are multiple ways to solve something, and that your idea is an idea, not the idea, that’s the easiest place to start.

Now, all of that is very hard. We all like being right. We all like being smart. We like our ideas to gain traction. But there’s an appreciation to that. One of the places that I see it fail most often in business is around organizational design, as well as leadership succession.

Organizational Design and Leadership Succession

I mentioned decentralization and centralization. It’s a simple way to think about things, but what we’ll do in business is set up an organizational structure that supports one side of a polarity. We’ll put all our energy into it and move everything to “fix” the problem. If we’re not navigating both sides of the polarity and driving an organizational design that looks at both sides, we fail.

For example, we’ll centralize everything. Then, Picard, you’re the leader who centralizes everything. You get promoted, and things start to unwind. We blame the leader and then decentralize everything again. This tension between decisions around navigating polarities is complicated and hard. It’s not easy, but necessary for sustainable growth.

Balancing Building and Maintaining

As someone who has run small businesses and large organizations inside Fortune 500 companies, I love to build. I’m a creator, but running, maintaining, and sustaining is harder for me. I work hard to do both, building while maintaining, which leads to a more sustainable organization. We don’t have enough focus on polarities management in mainstream business today, which is why we lack leaders and HR professionals who can drive sustainable outcomes.

Delivering Transformation

Another area where polarities management is crucial is delivering transformation. You mentioned it yourself—building an organization is full of polarities. Growth brings challenges where structures break. How do you maneuver that? How do you sustain culture while building a sustainable foundation? You have to invite diverse skill sets and practices, which can feel intrusive but is the beauty of diversity.

Short-Term Wins and Long-Term Strategy

In delivering transformation, you need short-term wins while holding a long-term strategy. As leaders, we must realize that some people prefer short-term wins. Hold your long-term strategy, but focus on short wins in discussions. When someone asks for the strategy, have it mapped out and ready. It’s about balancing short-term achievements with long-term goals, requiring a different way of operating as a leader.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Prakhar: Yeah, very helpful. I learned a lot from those examples, personally, Katie. I can relate to our setup in our organization and from my experiences talking to other L&D professionals. One piece is, as you alluded to, the importance of having diverse perspectives in decision-making to avoid missing critical viewpoints.

Another example is balancing individualism versus collectivism. How do you manage the vision of the organization with a diverse workforce, including millennials and Gen Z, who want individualistic approaches? COVID is a prime example. Organizations shifted to remote work, which worked until it didn’t. Employees became disengaged, productivity dropped, and the need for human connection became apparent. This pendulum swing in policies is a clear example of navigating polarities.

Katie: Absolutely. The shifts happening now in every organization reflect the need to balance the vision and strategy with what works best for employees. Once you start getting into this work, you can see it everywhere. There are ways to manage polarities effectively, but it is challenging.

Prakhar: No doubt, and there are many examples that come to mind. Thank you for sharing, Katie.

Journey with Complex Decision-Making

Prakhar: Let me ask you this for our audience. You’ve had a vast experience in L&D for about two decades, mostly in leadership roles. What has been your journey with complex decision-making like this, which forms a significant part of your role?

Embracing the Journey

Katie: Yeah, I mean, for me and my journey, and I love to use the word journey because we’re all on a journey, whether or not we are being explorers in our journey or if we’re just along for the ride. I think it’s all up to us to take hold of.

I’ve been very fortunate in my career, especially early on. I had some instances of pretty dumb luck where I was at the right place, the right time, with the right people. I got introduced to this concept of polarities management by one of my favorite people, who is also a mentor of mine. Her name is Kelly Lewis, and she studied alongside Barry Johnson and started different businesses. She is very steeped in it.

Early Influences and Learning

Some coaching that Kelly gave me early on involved asking me very specific questions about my thought process. She would ask, “What if you thought differently about what you are upset about right now, or what you’re frustrated about right now?” She started expanding my view, and initially, it was really annoying. I didn’t want to think like that, but it was a beautiful coaching relationship.

I worked at Frontier Academy, part of the Frontier Project, and we started doing women’s development programs. It was alongside Kelly that I got introduced to this concept as she was exploring and building her journey. One key thing I learned was to appreciate the complexity. I started to realize that my right was only my right. It didn’t mean that it was right for everyone or for every decision.

The Impact of Polarities Management

That realization allowed me to let polarities management influence the way I thought. It helped me problem-solve and make decisions outside of just myself. There are lots of things I prefer, but it doesn’t mean it’s the best thing for the work, the strategy, the outcome, or other people. Managing my personal preferences has allowed me to navigate complexity at a much faster speed.

Prakhar: Got it. I think I can relate to it, Katie. Every situation is very contextual. Every decision you make is not a standard playbook you can create for every situation in such a dynamic environment. It’s all driven by relevance and context. There isn’t a standard cookie-cutter approach that can be taken.

Navigating Complex Decisions

Katie: Exactly. We all want a framework, a toolkit, an answer. Based on neuroscience and how our brains work, we crave that. But sometimes the answer is actually a circular mess, and people hate that. Trying to make any type of linear conclusion is awesome, but as a leader, developing talent, growing talent, and helping people move forward is part of the journey.

Balancing Right and Wrong

As leaders, we can’t control everything. We need people to lean in, explore, and experience safe failure while making massive billion-dollar decisions. There is a right answer to a finite equation. Trust me, I’m not saying that polarities are everything. There is either-or, right and wrong, ethics, integrity—very clear-cut issues.

Polarities management helps with balancing short-term and long-term needs, activity and rest, being candid versus diplomatic. There are lots of balances that help us, but not everything is a polarity.

Prakhar: I think this is a good segue into the topic of the global world these days, which is artificial intelligence.

Prakhar: How do you see the integration of data and AI significantly influencing the paradoxical world we live in, especially in terms of leadership?

Control and Empowerment in the Age of Gen AI

Katie: Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s funny when we think about data. People are getting more comfortable with data technology. Gen AI has been a bit of a disruptor. The place where I see it coming out in a polarity is the polarity of control and empowerment. It’s truly testing all of us as humans on how we allow ourselves to be comfortable with what we personally feel in control of and what we’re empowering others to do, especially when it involves Gen AI.

I’m a huge fan of Gen AI. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the massive organizations that have some great tools on the market right now that they’re piloting. I have something called Copilot. It’s like my personal generative AI, like an intern that works with me.

Leveraging Gen AI for Efficiency

What I have found with my own personal relationship with some Gen AI tools that I have access to is that they make me better and faster. For example, writing a communications document around a new process, especially a massive change management component. I used to sit down with my team and spend hours crafting it, quarreling over how to write it. Now, leveraging Gen AI, I can input all the details, specify the audience, and it spits out a first draft that’s probably a lot better and definitely grammatically better than I can do.

There’s an empowerment to that. But I also realized that I felt like I could have been better. There’s beauty in both. From a data and Gen AI perspective, what I’m experiencing is leaders who are able to look at both and embrace the power, beauty, and complexity it brings, as well as the simplification it supports. Control and empowerment coexist, and that’s the polarity that stands out to me most when I think about data and Gen AI.

Navigating Deep-Seated Preferences

Leaders that tend to like to feel and be always in control may find Gen AI scary. If you map a polarity, it’s a simple framework, like a four-blocker. There are wonderful things about the empowerment it brings, but there are also downsides that we need to explore and learn more about. This is the polarity at play for leaders and people, and it’s tough to navigate because we have some pretty deep-seated preferences.

Prakhar: Very interesting. I think that’s something that would definitely help our audience. There’s just so much out there about Gen AI, and different opinions around it. It’s always good to hear different people’s perspectives on the theme. Thanks for sharing, Katie.

Understanding Polarities in Decision-Making

Katie: Yeah, and Prakhar, just for the listeners, one of the things I learned early on in my studies with polarities is that once you start to learn about polarities—two seemingly opposite things that need each other over time to drive progress—you can read an article and based on the author, see which pole they sit on. They accentuate the upside of that pole and drive all of it forward while pointing out the downside of the other side. Practitioners of polarities can see this and counter it with both sides to avoid leaning into their own preferences, whether it’s all in on Gen AI or all out. Neither of those are the right decisions. It’s about cautiously stepping forward in a rapid fashion that keeps us ahead of the game.

Prakhar: I would agree. It has to be a very balanced approach rather than just being one-sided for all the benefits that you cited. Absolutely. I think it’s very interesting.

Prakhar: Let me ask you this, and this might be a tricky one. So in your career, what has been one of the most counterintuitive insights you’ve gained about managing polarities? And how do you think it has influenced your approach towards leadership and decision-making?

The Importance of Assessment in L&D

Katie: Yeah. So that’s a really good question. Those in the world of learning and leadership development, talent management, organizational effectiveness, and organizational design know there’s a lot we do to assess. We’re assessing skills of individuals, preferences for success, organizational capabilities, markets, and market shifts. This assessment lens is crucial because it allows us to identify gaps, solutions, and move things forward. The assessment piece is critical to the L&D and organizational development space.

The Counterintuitive Nature of Hardwiring

What I find kind of counterintuitive is the concept that people are “hardwired” in certain ways. The gift of polarities management is it makes you look at your wiring objectively. Yes, I might be wired a certain way based on various life influences up to this point, but my wiring can still be objective. I can navigate and make different choices. That power of choice is crucial.

Challenging the Illusion of Lack of Choice

It’s easier to think that we don’t have a choice, that something is being done to us or for us and is completely out of our control. Polarities management allows you to look at things in a very clear framework, which is simple. The hard part is personally doing something different with that understanding. The challenge of polarities is that I can explain it, show a map, and it makes total sense to everyone. But living and breathing it is a different journey. It requires self-reflection, curiosity, and the ability to see things beyond their surface.

Prakhar: I think that’s very helpful, just in terms of how you think about it.

Prakhar: Who in the organization do you think should control and look at this actively? Because it’s not easy operationally to integrate this into routine decision-making. So, who should be the owner? Who should be subconsciously thinking about this? Is it the elementary leadership? Should it be the functional leaders, or should it be everyone in some form?

The Role of Everyone in the Organization

Katie: Oh, well, I mean, I’m going to have a biased answer here. I think it should be everyone, right? If we’re moving towards making the world a better place, for sure. However, I know that’s not always realistic. So, the approach that I’ve taken is that it really needs to come from our senior leaders. For those who are really controlling P&Ls and driving business results, it needs to start there.

Senior Leadership as the Starting Point

The reason for that is the simple business constructs at play. Look at the world of manufacturing and the supply chain. There are processes dripping in polarities, like the S&OP process. You make a decision here; it has an impact there. If you can’t navigate that, everyone in your value stream is impacted.

The Influence of Senior Leaders

Leaders in roles with a heavy sphere of influence, even if their immediate control is less, need to be involved. Their decisions have a ripple effect. In today’s world, with data, digital, and tech, we’re all connected. We can’t get away from each other, even though we try. But then we want the data to work, right? It’s like, “Leave me alone, but can you make my data work?” That’s not going to work. Leaders really need to have this mindset.

Empowering Future Leaders

The more rapidly we can empower people who aren’t in leadership positions yet, the better. Not only are we empowering them to be future leaders, but we’re also allowing them into a new way of thinking. We get better, more sustained results. If I have two teams that create tension with each other functionally and organizationally, it still operates.

Sales and Operations Tensions

There’s a big one: sales versus operations. Sales needs to hit their numbers and do whatever it takes. Operations needs to figure out how to deliver on time and within budget. This creates tension. It becomes an either/or situation, but it’s actually both. We need our sales leaders driving customer-centric conversations and pushing innovation strategies and roadmaps. But then we also need to rapidly operationalize those strategies.

Avoiding Internal Conflict

For organizations that don’t embrace this, leaders end up pitting against each other, creating an internal war. That’s not how it works. I’m fortunate that the organization I’m with today really embraces this mindset. They’ve let me support that journey, and it’s been awesome to see the growth, respect, appreciation, and rapid transformation.

Prakhar: Very aptly put, Katie. I don’t think a lot of us as functional leaders have that perspective. Of course, there is empathy on the other side, like in the example of sales and operations. But you’re not thinking of it from a direct alignment perspective. Yes, there is customer-centricity, but there could be OKRs driving both teams in different directions. This concept ties them together in some forms. A personal takeaway for me is thinking about this whenever a significant decision needs to be made.

Prakhar: But probably one of our final questions, and this could be particularly relevant for some of our leaders who are already familiar with the concept of polarity: What are some of the advanced strategies you might recommend to effectively manage polarities in a complex decision-making environment?

Starting with Self-Reflection

Katie: Yeah. For those familiar with the concept and who have been practicing this, I always encourage leaders who are just learning about this to start with themselves. Begin by playing with polarities and figuring out your own preferences. You have deep-seated ones; start to open up your own brain to see what other opportunities look like. Start with yourself.

Coaching and Asking Powerful Questions

For those who have kind of mastered that self-navigation—mastered is a strong word; none of us really master everything—but are able to navigate it quickly, it is about coaching others. I encourage leaders to ask powerful questions. When you see a severe preference in an article, book, or presentation, such as “we will do all of this and none of that,” that’s the place to ask really powerful questions.

Balancing Customer and Company Needs

For example, if you’re doing something specific for a customer or the company, like the sales and operations example, ask questions about how your decisions impact both. If we’re doing everything for the customer but can’t operationalize and sustain it, ask your top customers if they agree with the strategy. Do they want us to hinder our delivery or quality? These questions help ensure a balance between what’s in it for the customer and how we deliver based on our value proposition.

Combining and Creating New Verbiage

Another advanced strategy is combining and creating new verbiage to push things together. For instance, the concept of a “centrally decentralized organization” might sound odd, but it provokes thought and discussion. Using creative language helps people envision a balance between polarities, like short-term and long-term goals, and drives a more sustainable vision moving forward.

Prakhar: I don’t think anyone could have put it better. Very relatable. One of the last things that come to mind is the need for organizations to balance collaboration across departments while considering the domino effect of decisions. How do you become an organization that has anchored change?

Anchored Change

Katie: Exactly, anchored change. We’re going to have constant change that is anchored in something. It’s not change for the sake of change; it’s anchored in stability. Think of an anchor: it’s weighted, stable, sturdy, and it floats the ship, but at the same time, it allows for change. This helps employees understand that we have constant change anchored in stability. It’s about supporting change management by leveraging polarities