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    The Power of Paradox: Using Contradiction, Conflict & Chaos to Achieve the Impossible
    The Power of Paradox: Using Contradiction, Conflict & Chaos to Achieve the Impossible
    The Power of Paradox: Using Contradiction, Conflict & Chaos to Achieve the Impossible
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    The Power of Paradox: Using Contradiction, Conflict & Chaos to Achieve the Impossible

    By H. Evan Woodhead

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    About this ebook

    Break free of the pack? Embrace the illogical? In life, business, research and education, it’s often more “go with the flow” than defy what you know.
    But will going with the flow overcome the unprecedented challenges we face today? Not likely, says author H. Evan Woodhead in The Power of Paradox: Using Contradiction, Conflict & Chaos to Achieve the Impossible.
    Using paradox, a counter-intuitive idea that unleashes the potential for innovation, Woodhead sets a new stake in the ground for those working in conformist mentality groups. This book is a veritable toolbox for blending the effortless creativity of childhood with the wisdom earned through experience.
    The Power of Paradox details 12 specific techniques for breaking free from the stagnation of conventional wisdom. The techniques include:
    The Contrarian Methods: use conflict, chaos and rebelliousness as creative and positive forces.
    Altered Perspectives: change the notion of the problem to radically alter the solutions considered.
    The Passive Techniques: work by NOT doing things, instead of by taking positive action.
    Group Methods: borrow some of the principles from other methods, add their own unique elements, and apply leverage.
    The Power of Paradox is the first stop for executives and managers, project managers, researchers, educators, or anyone else who wants to vault the barriers to creative problem solving, and obliterate the negative and limiting boundaries of logical thinking.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherH. Evan Woodhead
    Release dateDec 11, 2014
    ISBN9781311082800
    The Power of Paradox: Using Contradiction, Conflict & Chaos to Achieve the Impossible
    Author

    H. Evan Woodhead

    H. Evan Woodhead, PMP, BSc, MBA, DSc is an author and management consultant specializing in the theory and practice of innovation in the solution of real-world business problems.The science of decision-making has always acknowledged the importance of art - the creative process of generating a robust set of options before choosing a course of action. But it is packed full of models and methods for comparing proposed solutions, wile the cupboard is nearly empty when we look for help unearthing fresh new possibilities.For decades the "experts" on business success - Visionaries, Motivational Speakers, Consultants - have told us we need to "get out of the box" to break out of the pack and take a business to the next level. They paint a very compelling and exciting picture of the benefits. And they are right. But on the subject of how to go about it, not so much.Evan's books finally answer the critical "How" questions:How do we break free of the established solutions, and find something completely new?How can we separate the policies, rules, habits and traditions that prevent disaster apart from the ones that chain us to mediocrity or even doom us to a slow death?How can we find a different way to look at our business that breathes fresh life into it?And ultimately - how can we differentiate our business from the rest of the industry and leap to a new level of competitive advantage?

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      Book preview

      The Power of Paradox - H. Evan Woodhead

      The Power of Paradox

      By H. Evan Woodhead

      Copyright 2016 Harry Evan Woodhead

      Second Edition - Revised and Updated

      Smashwords Edition

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1 - The End

      Chapter 2 - Introduction

      Chapter 3 - Accepting Paradox

      Chapter 4 - Understanding Paradox

      Chapter 5 - Using Paradox

      Chapter 6 - The Other End

      End Notes

      About the Author

      Chapter 1. The End

      "The significant problems we face

      cannot be solved

      at the same level of thinking

      we were at when we created them."

      Albert Einstein

      In my consulting work I often make presentations to senior executives. Early in my career my mentors and guides trained me to approach important presentations in a classic structure. Start with the problem statement. Review the method used to analyze the problem. Lay out the facts uncovered by the research and analysis. Finally present the conclusion, which is unassailable given the ironclad foundation it rests upon. There is a serious problem with this approach. The client doesn’t like it.

      I chose to learn from the senior executives who were my clients, rather than persist in the pattern favored by my peers. These were successful, powerful people; Presidents, CEO’s, Executive Directors, Managing Directors and Board Chairs. In typical fashion, they were crystal clear about what they wanted. They told me to write the same logical presentations I had been giving them. Then take the last slide and put it at the front.

      Steven Covey [1] observes that this type of person is inclined to be in the habit of starting with the end in mind. This applies not only to setting goals and planning the progress toward them. It is even true in journeys of exploration. When we are still trying to understand the questions, these people literally want to start at the end. They want to know the answer first. If they think it is useful, they will invest the time to understand why it is the answer later. Goal setting comes even later still. Yes, this insistence on working backwards is something of a paradox.

      You can hardly expect this book to resist the idea of working backwards just because it is a paradox. In the spirit of starting with the last slide, I have put the end of this book at the beginning. This chapter presents the conclusions of the detailed chapters and considers how to move beyond a philosophical consideration of paradox. The philosophy addressed in this book has practical implications that can be leveraged in problem-solving.

      There is something in human nature that makes us see the current boundaries of human experience as the limit of everything. Following a great discovery, it would seem reasonable to expect a rash of further exploration. If this new thing is out there, what else might be found? Instead the old behavior pattern re-establishes itself, just with a new set of limits.

      This is the case with logic. Logic is a useful and powerful tool for analyzing things. However, we have come to rely on logic far too much. It is one tool, with limitations. But we act as if logic defines our universe. Much more is possible if we let go of the negativity and limits imposed by an unquestioning adherence to logic:

      Logic is the science of denial. No matter how much evidence there is to support the truth of something, one example that shows it to be wrong disproves it, and cancels all the positives that went before.

      Logic views the world as a place of scarcity. There is only so much of any given thing in the world, and when it’s gone it’s gone. Logic inspires us to prepare to mourn its passing by practicing the wailing even while it is still plentiful.

      Logic is a creature of discipline and rigor. There is one right answer and one right way to find it. Fuzzy logic cannot exist within a strict observance of traditional logic.

      Logic sees faith as an aberration, hard to explain, unlikely to be correct, impossible to prove, and therefore unsound.

      Logic is an anchor which the sages of the ages have clung to, believing that it protects us from being storm-blown and even from falling off the edge of the world. It sacrifices progress hoping to obtain safety, but gets stagnation instead.

      Logic is a rigid framework in which each thing means what it means and nothing else.

      Paradox, on the other hand, can be a positive, empowering, liberating force. It does not deny the many benefits that logic has given us, but it refuses to accept that there is nothing more:

      Paradox is the art of possibility; it admits that we may find a way even if it is unlikely, it allows fuzzy logic and permits the truth of an assertion to remain largely intact when a contrary example arises.

      Paradox sees the world as a place of abundance. Acceptance of the limitations of one item does not constrain paradox, but energizes the creative flow to replace it with more and better ones. Infinity is a paradoxical concept in its own right, and paradox frees us to create a world without limits, and to live any life we want within that world.

      Paradox is creative and unbounded. There are as many ways of solving a problem as we can invent. A new solution is not invalid just because the teacher has a better understanding of the old one.

      Paradox sees faith as normal, abundant in the real world and therefore real. Faith requires no proof, being

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