Welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, a conversation designed to help leaders go further faster.

On today's podcast, we'll talk about maintaining a healthy level of tension in your organization.

Andy, today's topic is one that we first explored about four years ago,

and since then it's really become part of the fabric of our organization.

I guess the first time I heard you discuss it was in a talk you called the

opposable leader. I originally named this talk the opposable leader in reference to

our opposable thumb the thing that sets us off that sets primates apart from

the rest of the animal kingdom and essentially the

opposable thumb allows us to exert just the right amount of pressure to do things

that again the rest of the you know animal kingdom can't do I can pick up a

contact lens with my you know animal kingdom can't do I can pick up a contact lens with my you know

thumb and forefinger or I can pick up a baseball and again that pressure or that

tension allows me to be productive in ways that again sets us apart.

And so I think this is a great word picture for this whole idea of managing tension,

understanding the importance of tension, because when you pick something up with your thumb and the rest of your hand you are creating just the right amount of tension to be productive and the right amount of tension the proper tension is absolutely necessary for productivity.

But in a lot of organizations or with certain personalities, the goal seems to be to get

rid of all the tension, so that's why we're talking about this today.

And as you mentioned, we first introduced this terminology

into our organization about four years ago,

and I'm glad we're talking about it again,

because I think you would agree.

It's amazing how often this terminology

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