272 — Non-binary thinking and the tetralemma

We're used to dilemmas: Do I take path A or path B? But in this episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, we rally against binary thinking with the 'tetralemma'.

This 3,000-year-old model for decision making has real-world applications today, and author, coach and TEDx speaker Lior Locher joins us to explain why.

Lior, Ross G and Owen discuss:

• the difference between binary and non-binary thinking
• examples of non-binary thinking in practice
• applications of the tetralemma at work.

Show notes

For more on the tetralemma, see Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetralemma

Andreas Schoetz also has a fascinating blog on the topic: linkedin.com/pulse/tetralemma-3000-year-old-method-21st-century-andreas-schoetz/

And Lior has written about non-binary thinking at: liorlocher.me/2019/12/08/how-to-unblock-either-or-thinking/

In WILTW, Owen discussed the metaverse: stratechery.com/2021/microsoft-and-the-metaverse/

And he shared details from NVIDIA's keynote: blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/11/09/nvidia-ceo-accelerated-computing-ai-omniverse-avatars-robots-gtc/

Ross discussed an episode of The Exponent podcast, where the hosts discussed the metaverse: exponent.fm/episode-196-forecasting-the-metaverse/

Lior discussed Peter Davidson's book: The Idea of North: reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781861892300

For more from Lior, see: liorlocher.me

Lior's books The DIY Phoenix (amazon.co.uk/dp/B094YPXRDN) and Values-based (amazon.co.uk/dp/B07RNGQQNH) are both available now.

Lior's TEDx talk is online at: ted.com/talks/lior_locher_what_we_lose_through_binary_thinking_and_what_to_do_instead

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter:

• Ross Garner @RossGarnerMT
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Lior Locher @ChristineLocher