Paradoxical Thinking

Unlikely as it may seem, sprinters who relax run faster. In fact, simultaneously feeling both aggressive and relaxed is essential to their peak performance. Similar, seemingly contradictory patterns abound: Bill Gates's success is built on both his vision and his practicality; former New York governor Mario Cuomo is both passionate and intellectual, action-oriented and reflective.

After more than fifteen years of studying thousands of detailed examples of people performing at their best, Fletcher and Olwyler have found that individuals are always paradoxical when performing optimally and that each person has a particular combination of contradictory and paradoxical qualities that work together to produce that person's best work.

In Paradoxical Thinking they provide a 5-step process to help you identify your own core personal contradictions, and harness them to achieve outstanding results at work and in your personal life.

You can probably recall a difficult situation in which you performed surprisingly well-and being mystified after the fact as to exactly how you achieved such a high level of performance. Paradoxical Thinking takes the mystery and unpredictability out of performing at your peak by providing an easy-to-learn method of understanding and maximizing your personal success.

Based on years of real-world road testing with individuals and corporate leaders, the authors' five-step "Paradoxical Thinking" method helps you consciously bring together the paradoxical sides of yourself to achieve outstanding results individually, on teams, and in organizations. Using an important problem or goal you are currently facing, Paradoxical Thinking will help you:
o Identify your own core personal paradox
o Redefine your problem or goal so that it can be approached paradoxically
o Monitor how well you are utilizing your personal paradox
o Take positive action steps to overcome roadblocks and banish cycles of ineffectiveness of your paradoxical qualities and tools for using-instead of fighting-them, you can realize your potential, maximize your inherent strengths, and consistently achieve the results you seek in every aspect of your personal and professional life.

Preface

Part I. What is Paradoxical Thinking
Chapter 1: Effective Paradoxes
Chapter 2: Finding Your Core Personal Paradox
Chapter 3: Perception-Shifting
Chapter 4: Defining Your Problem Situation and Setting Your Goal
Chapter 5: Rating Yourself on Flecher's Pendulum
Chapter 6: Choosing Action Steps to Improve Your Self-Ratings

Part II. Applying Paradoxical Thinking
Chapter 7: Avoiding the Loss of a Major Sale
Chapter 8: Resolving the Problem of a Stalled Employee in an Unexpected Way
Chapter 9: Selling a House in an Unexpected Way
Chapter 10: Reestablishing Parental Communication with a Teenage Daughter
Chapter 11: Intuiting the Pendulum of Someone Else in Order to Work Better With Them
Chapter 12: Using Paradoxical Thinking to Improve Team And Organizational Performance

Part III. Answers and Benefits
Chapter 13: Some Questions and Answers
Chapter 14: How to Profit from Your Contradictions

Notes
Annotated Bibliography
Appendix
Index
About the Authors