As I’m just about 20% through my third Master’s degree, this one a Master of Science in Management and Organization from The University of Colorado Denver, I’ve been introduced to a tool that somehow I’d never heard of before and I love it!!

It’s called Polarity Management and was introduced by Barry Johnson, author of Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems. There are tons of materials out there on the subject so I’m not going to try and repeat all of it here. In short, it’s a system for identifying and managing problems that don’t have a simple solution; problems or challenges that are inter-related and ongoing. He created a tool called the Polarity Map that can be used to help you sort out the more complicated issues in your life.

It’s applicable to just about anything from managing complicated relationships to managing work life balance or simply gaining insight into something like the challenges a local Police Department might have interacting with their community. I encourage you to google the heck out of as (a) it’s not complicated and (b) it’s super powerful! Here are two of my favorite maps for understanding the concept: