Creating Great Choices: A Leader’s Guide to Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin and Jennifer Riel

We know day-to-day tasks and responsibilities keep you busy, so we’ve created a quick reference guide of books our faculty and thought leaders are reading and why they find them interesting. In this edition of What We’re Reading, Dr. Luciano Castro, Clinical Associate Professor, shares the latest book he’s been into: Creating Great Choices: A Leader’s Guide to Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin and Jennifer Riel.

When we make decisions, most people identify the problem, define their objectives and compare alternatives by evaluating pros and cons. Once we understand each alternative, it’s common to choose the option with the least cons.

Creating Great Choices challenges this traditional decision-making process by stating that trade-offs are not always possible to assess, or maybe none of our options will give us the result we desire. In these situations, we have the ability to create our own alternatives using opposing ideas as the basis for innovation. This new approach requires metacognition (the ability to know yourself and your mental models), empathy (a deep understanding of others’ point of view and mental models) and creativity to develop new choices using tools such as design thinking and ideation. The book’s main takeaway? Don’t fall into the trap of a fixed and limited mindset that shortens possibilities and opportunities.