Polarity Management
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1. Is the difficulty ongoing?
2. Are there two poles that are interdependent?
I will use these two questions to highlight the difference be-
tween polarities to manage and the following three difficulties that I
call “problems to solve”:
1. Either/or decisions
2. Mystery problems
3. Continuum problems
The Criteria Questions
1) Is the difficulty ongoing?
Problems to solve have a solution that can be considered an end
point in a process; i.e., they are solvable.
Polarities to manage, on the other hand, do not get “solved.”
They are ongoing. We are always in the ongoing process of “solv-
ing” them, if you will. But they do not have a clear end-point solu-
tion. There is a never-ending shift in emphasis or focus from ...