Martin argues that to emulate the world’s best leaders, people need to study how leaders think. He argues that integrative thinking is a standard feature found in successful leaders. The book gives a working definition of integrative thinking as: “The ability to face the tension of opposing ideas constructively and, instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each.” Martin notes some of the major differences between integrative thinkers and
conventional thinkers. Integrative thinkers: take a broad view of what is salient despite the increase it causes in the complexity of problems, consider multi-directional and non-linear causal relationships, keep the entire problem in mind while working on individual segments, and search for creative resolutions rather than accept
tradeoffs. In the second half of the book, Martin outlines how to develop integrative thinking capabilities. The three main components that make up the integrative thinkers' personal knowledge system are stance, tools and experience: “the
tripod supporting the system”. Martin devotes a chapter to each element of the tripod, explaining their significance in the integrative thinker’s development and how they combine to create an effective integrative thinker. Throughout the book, Martin studies the thought processes of prominent leaders, and for each chapter uses several examples outlining how the leader of interest used a particular aspect of integrative thinking to create a successful strategy. == Leaders used in Book ==