So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New

Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for

free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!

Welcome to the HBR IDA Cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish.

For many in the business world, trade-offs and strategy go hand in hand. It's all

about deciding how to differentiate yourself and then implementing that plan with a laser

like focus. That means making some tough calls and hard trade-offs. That by saying yes to

one thing, we have to say no to something else. Now that has often proven to be a successful

and profitable strategy. But today's guests say that choosing between different paths may mean

that people miss some hidden possibilities. They say that we should think about things more

holistically and that instead of thinking either or, we should change our mindset to more

of a both-and approach. To talk about what that means for individuals and companies,

we're joined now by Wendy Smith, a professor of management at the University of Delaware,

and Marianne Lewis, professor of management and dean of the Lintner College of Business at the

University of Cincinnati. Together, they wrote the new book, Both-and-Thinking,

Embracing creative tensions to solve your toughest problems. Wendy, thanks for coming on the

show to talk about this. Thanks, Kurt. Nice to be here. And Marianne, thank you too. Oh, it's

such a pleasure. Thank you. Well, let's start with a bit more about this issue, right? Why some people

find that nuance hard and like to just make an either or decision. Why is that so tempting, I guess,

in a business setting? We are wired to think about the either or. When we're faced with a decision,

it feels really uncertain. It creates anxiety. We want to reduce that anxiety, and the way to do

it is to make a clear decision. And as psychology and research has shown us again and again, we want to

...