Creating Great Choices

Preface

The Opposable Mind

There is an invisible strength within us; when it recognizes two opposing objects of desire, it grows stronger.

—RUMI

In 2007, Roger wrote a book called The Opposable Mind. The title was a nod to that most useful of tools, the opposable thumb. Shared by humans and most primates, the opposable thumb is what we use to create tension against our fingers to grasp and manipulate objects. Similarly, the opposable mind is one that can create tension between ideas, using that tension to develop new answers to challenging problems. Roger called this practice integrative thinking and argued that mastery of it is what sets highly successful leaders apart from the masses.

In the book, Roger tells the stories of remarkable leaders ...