NEW BOOK | On the paradox society: “Companies need compass rather than map”

We live in a paradox society. This is the opinion of Professor Björn Wikhamn, who has just published a new book on how companies and leaders can navigate in a time of conflicting demands.

– We have been shaped by the logic of industrial society for over 300 years. We have been trained in efficiency, management by objectives and competition. But today’s knowledge economy also requires completely opposite logics – creativity, flexibility and collaboration. This creates tensions, but both worlds are needed, he explains.

In the book, Björn Wikhamn describes three central paradoxes that recur in innovation management. The first is the the relationship paradox: companies must both compete and cooperate. The second is the the innovation paradox: companies need to simultaneously streamline what they are already good at and explore new solutions. The third is the the goal paradox: clear objectives and measurable KPIs (metrics to track how well companies are meeting business goals) need to be combined with flexibility and an agile way of working.

The art of multi-track working

– The problem is that we often see these contradictions as either/or. But future leaders need to think both.

One example is Volvo, which continues to develop internal combustion engines while investing heavily in electric power. Spotify competes for users, but collaborates with competitors on technical standards. And many startups live with the pressure to show numbers to investors, while needing the freedom to change direction quickly.

To do this requires what he calls meta-skills – skills that lie beneath the more visible domain knowledge.

The role of education is crucial

– Schools and businesses train us in the measurable, like accounting, programming or marketing. But the crucial skills lie beneath the surface. Resilience, learning, creativity, meaning-making and the ability to shift perspectives are crucial in a complex world.

Björn Wikhamn describes resilience as the ability to rise from failure, learning as not only adding knowledge but also challenging old truths, and meaning-making as navigating with a compass rather than a map.

– We need something that goes deeper than targets. If we just follow the map, we risk getting lost when the terrain changes. That’s when the compass – the thing that makes sense – becomes more important.

But despite the increasing importance of these meta-skills, they are rarely practiced systematically. This is a problem, he says, and something he hopes the book can help to highlight.

It sounds like leaders today need to learn to live with a high degree of uncertainty?

– Absolutely, and it is risky and often thankless. But we have to accept paradoxes, because they will not go away. Understanding and managing them is the key to navigating the paradox society.

What does the paradox society mean for businesses in practice?

– It’s about engaging with ecosystems, collaborating and sharing knowledge and ideas there.

– The innovation challenge today is not to create something new, but to reach out in a noisy landscape. For that we need each other. Innovation is a team sport.

Contact bjorn.wikhamn@handels.gu.se