The Paradox Principles: How High-Performance Companies Manage Chaos, Complexity, and Contradiction to Achieve Superior Results

Tumultuous changes affecting corporations have left managers and employees reeling from the shocks and searching for the holy grail of management solutions to set their companies straight. But the techniques-du-jour or programs-of-the-month have done nothing but confuse employees, create chaos in the organization, and cause everyone to lose focus of the true strategic objectives. The key to success is not just some new technique or management trend. It's just not that simple. The high-performance organizations of tomorrow must learn how to deftly balance the tensions and conflicts that challenge the progress and effectiveness of any large enterprise. The Paradox Principles shows managers how to face those conflicts and use paradox as a dynamic tool to create balance and focus within an organization. Lessons learned from executives at over 200 high-performance companies and the collective experience of the Price Waterhouse Change Integration Team show managers how to achieve unparalleled success by better managing the paradoxes inherent in their industry, organization, and strategy. The authors also show managers facing unchartered waters how to: create a high performance organization that is focused and strategically balanced; develop management styles with the best blend of operational efficiency and strategic effectiveness; align the actions of everyone through the use of fewer, more effective, performance measures; manage the complexity and chaos caused by the level of change buffeting all organizations today; move beyond all the hand-wringing about behaviors and beliefs to create a new and positive culture in the organization.