In health care, the need for leadership has never been higher. But the need for a different type of leadership than our traditional “authority” model is apparent to many. In this provocative book, Martin makes a strong argument that to emulate some of the world’s best leaders, we need to study how people think. He argues for the concept of integrative thinking, describing it as:

“The ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and, instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each.”

Through the first part of the book, he uses examples from the world of industry and government to contrast conventional leadership and that of integrative leaders. Integrative thinkers take a broad view of what is “salient” despite knowing that it will lead to increased complexity, and also move us away from linear approaches, recognizing that focusing on a single “priority” might in the long run be detrimental. In addition, what previously might have been considered as “indecisive” can be reframed as keeping the entire problem in consideration, while evaluating individual elements of the issue. Rather than accepting trade offs, a leader using integrative thinking will look for creative solutions that might arise out of what appears to be concepts and ideas which appear initially in conflict.

In the second part of this thoughtful book, Martin discusses how one can adopt these integrative principles. He discusses the three components that are critical in creating a “tripod” to support integrative leadership—stance, tools, and experience. In individual chapters, he describes each element, providing much food for thought. I found the entire discussion fascinating and creating a different perspective that might bring value to us in leadership work.

Through his use of examples from different areas of industry, he moves from concepts to concrete, and assists us in considering how we might apply this framework to the challenges we face in health care. I’ve found myself reflecting on this book on many occasions as I continue our collaborative work, and find it reinforces many of the other concepts which have been useful in supporting our collaborative work at ICSI.

I’d encourage those of you who’ve been in leadership roles to reflect on how this approach supports the principles from many others who’ve written on leadership—Heifetz, Goleman, Kotter—to name just a few. For me the “stance” we take is one which resonates most dramatically. But each of us will benefit from some part of this model, and whether or not we agree with his “integrative thinking” concept, it will be valuable to consider this approach and how it might be useful in facing the challenges of leadership in health care.