Books Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking  by Jennifer Riel (Author), Roger L. Martin 

Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin and Jennifer Riel offers a fresh approach to decision-making, especially useful when facing tough choices that seem to require undesirable trade-offs. Instead of settling for the "least worst" option, integrative thinking encourages leaders to creatively combine opposing ideas to create new and superior solutions.

The book features:

A foundation in recognizing how mental models — internal frameworks shaping our perceptions and decisions — often limit our view and confine us to believing only two opposing options exist.

Three essential components to overcome limited thinking: metacognition (awareness of one's own thought processes), empathy (understanding others' viewpoints and mental models), and creativity (developing innovative alternatives).

A practical, four-step methodology that can be applied broadly:

Articulate opposing models: Clearly define the problem and identify two extreme, conflicting solutions to highlight productive tension.

Examine each model’s positives: Focus on the strengths of each opposing idea without dwelling on negatives.

Identify and explore tensions and conflicts: Analyze areas where the models contradict to understand underlying assumptions.

Create new integrative solutions: Combine and reconfigure elements from both models to craft a better, third option not initially evident.

Numerous real-world case studies and stories, such as the transformation of LEGO under a CEO’s integrative approach, demonstrating how organizations and leaders have broken stalemates and innovated through this method.

Emphasis on overcoming an “insular mindset” that restricts leaders to conventional compromises and encourages shifting perspective to unlock better outcomes.

Tools, templates, and exercises that help readers build their integrative thinking skills for use in business, leadership, and complex problem-solving situations.