Integrative Thinking: How to Move Beyond Either/Or Decisions

Learn how to move beyond painful trade-offs and create a third, better option using integrative thinking, the decision-making approach that helped Procter & Gamble unlock more innovation for less money.Most leaders facing a tough choice default to compromise: a little of option A, a little of option B, and nobody is truly happy. Jennifer Riel, co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Creating Great Choices and former partner and COO at IDEO, argues this is a false economy. Compromise papers over real conflict rather than resolving it.Integrative thinking offers a different path. Rather than forcing a choice between two imperfect options, it asks leaders to genuinely explore the value in each opposing model, then use that understanding to design a third and better solution. The P&G 'Connect and Develop' model, which shifted innovation spend from internal invention to external sourcing and internal commercialisation, is a clear example of this in practice.​Jennifer also tackles the myth of organisational consensus, explains how to introduce this approach without a grand announcement, and shows why deep qualitative human understanding remains the competitive edge that data alone cannot replace.CHAPTERS00:00:00: Introduction and Jennifer's career journey00:05:30: What integrative thinking is and when to use it00:11:00: Why consensus theatre slows organisations down00:17:30: P&G Connect and Develop: a real-world case study00:23:00: Applying integrative thinking at every level00:27:00: How to introduce this into your team (the stealthy approach)00:29:00: Design thinking and integrative thinking as sister disciplines00:33:00: Leader Jennifer admires: Ken Chenault, American ExpressRESOURCES MENTIONEDCreating Great Choices by Jennifer Riel and Roger Martin: The Wall Street Journal bestseller laying out the four-step integrative thinking methodology. Available on Amazon and at most bookshops.​GUEST BIOGRAPHYJennifer Riel is a strategy and innovation expert, adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and former partner and COO at IDEO. She is co-author of Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking, published by Harvard Business Review Press.​Thank you for watching/ listening.As. Editing my podcast used to be the most time-consuming part of my week. I now use Descript to edit my audio and video by simply deleting words from a transcript. It allows me to create my YouTube Shorts and TikTok clips in a fraction of the time.If you want to try it for your own projects, you can sign up here: https://get.descript.com/LevelUpUsing this link costs you nothing extra, but the small commission I receive helps support the work I do on my podcast and articles. Paid plans start at around £12 / $16 per month (billed annually) for the Hobbyist tier.Follow LevelUp!https://www.levelupleadership.uk/Music, jingles, and images - attribution.Podcast Background Track: https://pixabay.com/users/poorartistt-45918667/Guitar Jingle: https://pixabay.com/music/introoutro-guitar-intro-ident-151972/Swoosh Sound Effect: https://pixabay.com/users/universfield-28281460/Images: https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/ & https://www.perplexity.ai/Background: https://pixabay.com/users/tommyvideo-3092371/Disclaimer.LevelUp and the podcast host do not endorse, verify, or take responsibility for any products, services, views, or claims presented by guests during podcast episodes. Any opinions or statements made by podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of LevelUp or its representatives.© 2025 LevelUp.This episode is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/