Interview with Barry Johnson: Polarities, Dilemmas, and How to Manage Them In Organizations

Barry and I had been having breakfast at my favorite B & B in Cleveland, when we took a few moments to talk about Polarity Management. He has been working on the phenomenon of interdependency for over 30 years. In this interview he talks about what polarity management is and the new terminology of “infinity factor.”

Barry shares a story from an organization he worked with that had a high value for autonomy in their employees and programs. However, this was leading the isolation and competition between them. They had a new desire to move toward greater integration. But, they used a typical gap analysis and treated the move toward integration as a solution to their problem, rather than a polarity to manage (meaning the polarity between autonomy and integration). This resulted in failed attempts to move toward integration until they began using a polarity management approach. Find out more about Barry’s work at: Polarity Management Associates.