5 Minutes on a New Tool for Sticky Issues

We’ve all been there. 

The familiar agenda item keeps showing up but no real progress is made. Our team keeps having the same argument. Just when we think we’re ready to take some steps we find ourselves circling back to the same problem. 

These are the signs that you have a “sticky issue” at hand. 

Just when you think you’ve solved it, it comes back around. 

Do any of these sound familiar?

You need to close a program that is no longer strategically relevant, but your donors love it. 

Half of your team wants to be 100% remote and the other half value time in-office together. 

Your website needs to be revamped but you also know that you need a plan for ongoing changes and updating. 

As a leader, sometimes you need to provide clear direction and sometimes you need to invite participatory decision-making. 

All of these “sticky issues” that just keep circling back are examples of polarities. 

A polarity is two opposite or contrasting tendencies, values, or forces that are interdependent - each helps define or give meaning to the other.

One step we can take to get us unstuck is called Polarity Mapping. 

Polarity Mapping is a two-step process. You can dig much deeper into it HERE but let’s run through it together. 

How to use Polarity Mapping: 

Step 1: As a team, identify the sticky issue/pattern that keeps resurfacing and potentially causing tension. What you are doing is identifying the polarity at play. Using our examples from above the polarities would be: 

• Closing a program vs. Keeping a program open

• Remote vs. In-office work

• Redoing your entire website vs. Planning for ongoing changes

• Providing direction vs. inviting participation

Once you can see the polarity at play, you can understand why the “sticky issue” keeps arising. The two sides are both opposites AND interdependent. One doesn’t really exist without the other. 

Step 2: As a team, you are going to actually make a polarity map. For each pole you will consider these two questions: 

1. What are the positive results gained from focusing on this pole?

2. What are the negative results from over-focusing on this pole? Or, what are the indicators that you are over-focusing on this pole and need to move to the other pole?

You are looking for signs of balance and imbalance. 

Let’s look at the example of Providing Direction vs. Inviting Participation in your leadership. 

The positive results gained might look like:

• Providing Direction: We know what needs to be done to achieve our goal

• Inviting Participation: Plans are better when more people add their best thinking to them

The negative results or signs of over-focus might look like: 

• Providing Direction: People feel shut down when offering input

• Inviting Participation: People are unclear of the plans they are supposed to implement

Once you’ve made your polarity map, it’s time to use it. 

The Polarity Map helps you have more clarity on when you have moved out of balance between the poles. If you are mostly seeing negative results or signs of over-focus on one polarity you now have a clear sign that it’s time for change. You have moved too far towards one pole and can move back in the other direction. 

Here are some other examples of polarities you might see at play on your team: 

1. Believing in change and seeing the systemic barriers

2. Collaboration and independence

3. Create new partnerships / focus on existing partnerships

4. Hierarchy and shared decision-making

5. Motivation and ambivalence

6. Patience and urgency

7. Planning and action

8. What you’re saying and what people are hearing

You can also read more about the polarities of caring and caretaking, and accountability and support HERE.

What came up for you? What polarities are at the heart of a sticky issue on your team?