The future involves complexity, instability and ongoing tensions. Leaders confront competing demands between stability for the present and agility for the future, cost-effectiveness manufacturing and sustainable practices, global integration and local distinctiveness. For many leaders, these competing demands create a source of ongoing conflict and result in either-or choices. While such choices can be comforting in the short term, they are limited at best and detrimental at worst. Yet there is a better way. In this talk, Wendy Smith draws on 25 years of research to propose how we can address our greatest challenges by embracing paradox and applying both/and thinking. She offers empirically-based evidence and pragmatic tools to advance more effective leadership approaches to allow us to address the complexity of the future.
About Wendy Smith
Wendy Smith is the Dana J. Johnson professor of management and faculty director of the Women's Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware. An organizational psychologist, management thought leader, and leading expert on the Power of Paradox, Smith is on a mission to help individuals and organizations turn our problems into possibilities.
Smith co-authors the business bestseller "Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems." She is a Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award winner, the top 1% most-cited researcher for five years in a row, and one of the youngest people named as an Academy of Management Fellow. As an organizational psychologist, she is a leading expert on the power of paradox, applying both/and thinking to help us innovate, change, and generate more creative, sustainable solutions to our toughest challenges. In her talks, Smith brings science-based research to life with real-world stories to captivate and motivate her audiences.
She has published her research in influential journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Management Science while reaching beyond academia to publish in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, Newsweek, and others. As a compelling and engaging teacher, she won the MBA Excellence in Teaching Award five times.
Beyond accolades and awards, Wendy's passion lies in helping leaders worldwide tackle the complex challenges of interpersonal dynamics, team performance, organizational change, and innovation to transform their organizations and the world. Approachable, insightful and globally revered, she continues to shape the future of management thinking. 
