Dilemma Resolution
When you experience two mutually conflicting values or goals, you may be facing a choice or a dilemma. If it is simply a choice, you can weigh alternatives and decide. But if the situation is a dilemma, something different is required — a different thinking technique. Treating a dilemma as a choice can have serious consequences.
If a dilemma is not recognised and worked with consciously, it can:
paralyse action
stifle creativity
diminish motivation
intensify conflict
A dilemma often polarises your mind into two opposing ideas or values, each trying to dominate or “win.”
To work with a dilemma, we need to seek a resolution in which both values are honoured and incorporated. This requires shifting from either/or thinking toward a both/and mindset — a generative step that opens space for creative insight.
Exercise
Describe the improvement situation you are working on — the place where you feel stuck or unsure how to proceed.
In the upper diagram, list the most powerful polarities in the situation as pairs of “this versus that.”
One side is coded blue and the other green.
The tension between them is shown in red.
Reflect on each polarity and identify the core insight: If either pole is rejected, the situation will not improve — it may even deteriorate. In other words, both poles hold something indispensable.
In the lower diagram, rewrite:
the indispensable element of the blue pole in the left-hand box
the indispensable element of the green pole in the right-hand box The diagram turns the polarity into two axes, with the yellow zone showing where a creative resolution may be possible.
Hold both the blue and green ideas strongly in mind and search for a resolution idea that genuinely integrates both. If your intuition finds something that honours both poles, you will likely gain a useful direction for moving forward.
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