Interdependent. We live in a world where somehow everything is interdependent with something else. Every decision we make is influenced by multiple variables that interact, amplify, or limit each other in unpredictable ways. And yet, we often behave as if reality were linear, as if every challenge, once precisely analyzed, could be solved, closed and forgot. However, in complex systems, not every tension is a problem to fix. Some are polarities — opposite forces that are both right, both necessary, both bring value and, in reality, deeply interconnected.
Our culture rewards decisiveness, speed, and clarity.
We are trained to see friction as a sign that something is not correct, therefore, one side must be right and the other wrong. This specific mindset works only when it’s a matter of dealing with problems: issues that have a clear root cause, for which there exist a best solution that leads to an endpoint. Problem fixed.
But many of today’s leadership challenges aren’t problems to analyze and fix once and for all. They’re tensions that will rarely go away, because both sides of the equation hold value.
A polarity, instead, must be managed over time. It’s the constant dance between competing, complementary forces. Examples? Control and trust, stability and change, autonomy and alignment, performance and rest, to mention a few.
When we mistakenly treat these tensions as problems that need to be fixed once at all, we fall into the never-ending cycle of continuous correction.
Take for example the polarity of control and autonomy: too much control creates rigidity, thus we swing to decentralization and empowerment; while, if you persist remaining here, eventually chaos could arise and then, guess what? We rush back to control.
The pendulum moves again, every time faster than the previous one, creating waste, frustration and disengagement.
It’s not progress. It’s organizational fatigue disguised as busy-ness.
The Metaphor of Breathing
Barry Johnson, author of the book Polarity Management, uses the metaphor of breathing to explain polarities.
Think about it. Inhaling and exhaling are opposites, two completely different actions, yet both are vital. We don’t choose between them: too much of one or the other, and we collapse.
However, most of the time unconsciously, we move between them:
- Inhaling brings oxygen — energy, clarity, and focus.
- Exhaling releases carbon dioxide — waste, pressure, tension.
Leadership, when facing polarities, should work the same way. The goal is not to pick one side of the tension or the other, but to create rhythm between opposites — a rhythm that allows the organization to find the right balance to remain adaptive and in the flow.
Why Leaders Struggle with Polarities
Why do so many leaders keep falling into one-sided thinking? Why do they not keep managing them?
Here some usual reasons we see:
- Bias for solutions: we are trained to fix things fast, not to navigate tensions patiently
- Pressure to decide: boards and teams demand for clarity, even when there are not the conditions
- Short-term results: immediate wins require leaders choosing one side
- Pendulum effect: when imbalance becomes painful, we swing to the opposite extreme
We see this as a pattern that repeats across industries and leadership levels.
However, one simple first action can be easily made: recognizing polarities, which has the potential to turn frustration into awareness.
Finding Balance in Motion
You got it: managing polarities isn’t about compromise. It’s about understanding the movement between two essential forces — and learning how to guide it.
Think of an endurance coach. A good coach doesn’t train an athlete at maximum intensity every day. They design cycles, balancing building, peaking and recovering phases, that allow adaptation to occur. Leadership is the same. It’s about creating cadence to navigate polarities: knowing when to push and when to pause, when to demand and when to listen, when to zoom in and when to step back.
Is this energy expensive? Yes, of course.
But how much does it cost to swing every time from one side to the other? What about the frustration of teams steering left, then right and back to left, recalibrating behaviors, re-prioritizing backlogs, holding resync meetings?
These are hidden costs that usually we are not able to calculate but that are reflected in employees demotivation and disengagement (e.g. Gallup – 42% of voluntary turnover, FranklinCovey – $8.8 trillion annually in lost productivity)
In complex environments, stability and change, discipline and creativity, autonomy and alignment are not opposites, they’re oscillations that keep the system healthy. When leaders master this concept, they finally turn tension into fruitful motion, in one word value.
The Polarity Map: A Practical Tool
Barry Johnson’s Polarity Map offers a simple, and powerful, visual way to navigate these dynamics.
The map includes two poles of the polarity under analysis. For each pole, leaders identify:
- Upsides: what value this pole brings when well used
- Downsides: what risks appear when it’s overused
The goal is to manage the balance between the two poles consciously. Not persisting just in one side (overusing it) to avoid its downsides, while at the same time acknowledging the value the opposite pole brings, and therefore leveraging it in specific phases: designing rhythms that serve the whole, not one side of it.
Mapping a polarity helps teams move from debate to dialogue, from tension to understanding
It definitely gives leaders a way to visualize balance – not as compromise, but as integration – moving their approach from intermittent short-term value “creation”, which causes waste in swinging the pendulum from one side to the other when crisis emerge, to actual long-term value delivery.
Final Thoughts
In complex environments, leadership is less about control and more about enabling flow through rhythm. Less about finding definitive answers, more about asking the right questions and navigate through it.
Every organization lives inside multiple polarities — stability and change, structure and freedom, pressure and recovery. Ignoring them leads to fatigue. Recognizing them leads to sustainable value creation.
So pause for a moment. Look at your current challenges.
What are the tensions you keep trying to “solve”?
Which might be polarities you need to manage?
And how can you bring more rhythm into the way you lead?
