Caroline V.'s Key Ideas from Creating Great Choices
by Jennifer Riel, Roger L. Martin

• First, you define the problem you face. For example, through a problem statement you can figure out what the problem is and whether it’s worth solving.
• The next step is to sketch two opposing ideas, explaining at a high level what each model would look like in practice.
• Once the opposing models are clear, you explore each model in turn, seeking to understand how the model works, what benefits it produces, and why these outcomes matter.

Here you actively encourage the tension that comes from looking at the two opposing models together, through a series of exploratory questions:

• Ask yourself how the models are similar and different.
• Consider what you most value from the models as they’re articulated.
• Question the models as you have articulated them and the benefits you’ve defined.
• Explore the assumptions that underlie each model.
• What are the cause-and-effect relationships there at work in the models?

The next step is to try and integrate them into a “new, superior answer”.

There are three guiding questions that you can use to come up with a new, integrated solution:

• How might we create a new model using one building block from each opposing model, while throwing away the rest of each model?
• Under what conditions could a more intense version of one model actually generate one vital benefit of the other?
• How might the problem be broken apart in a new way so that each model could be applied in whole to distinct parts of the problem?

The final step in the integrative process is to test your prototype solutions in order to discard or improve them. This can be done by sharing your ideas with (target) customers.

At its core, Integrative Thinking sets out to resolve the tension of opposing models by creating new models that contain elements of the original models. As a result, we’re creating new, superior solutions and ways of thinking.