I had the great fortune of volunteering on the Speaker Committee for this year's Qualitative Research Consultants Association Conference in fabulous Las Vegas. One of the main goals I had going in was to bring in speakers from outside our organization - even from outside of Qualitative Research - who could help conference attendees get some fresh perspective on their business, their practice of qual, and maybe even their worldview.

 

The very first person I thought of was Liz Monroe-Cook, a dear friend and colleague from CPSI and former QRCA member herself. Lately Liz has been doing great work with Barry Johnson in the field of Polarity Management™. Polarity Management™ studies how two seemingly opposite issues may be polarities which are interdependent and which can often disguise themselves as problems to solve. The trick is that you can't ever solve these problems - you can only manage the polarity that exists between them.

 

Think of inhaling and exhaling. You simply can't only inhale for the rest of your life. As great as oxygen is, you absolutely have to get rid of carbon dioxide sometime. And in much the same way, you can't continue exhaling forever, either. Sure, it feels great to empty your lungs, but unless you start inhaling again, forever won't be so far away. Inhale-Exhale is classic polarity.

 

Now, this is not new news to me (nor may it be new news to some of you). However, for the first time, listening to Liz in a new context, I was able to put a business lens on the idea of Polarity Management™. I was able to see some of the polarities I've been grappling with in and out of our business, and think of new ways to apply this thinking system to clients' needs and issues. Qualitative-Quantitative. Work in the Business-Work on the Business. Work-Life. All polarities. All manageable. All moving targets.