At the core of a company's ability to learn, improve, and compete is the process by which it resolves dilemmas that appear and reappear in constantly changing forms, e.g., whether to pursue economies of scale or flexibility; whether to target broad or niche markets. In this remarkable book, Charles Hampden-Turner describes how managers at Shell International Petroleum Company, Apple Computer, Hanover Insurance, and six other major corporations resolve these recurring dilemmas by employing his renowned mapping scheme. By delineating on a chart, or a series of charts, a manager's inchoate, often metaphorical, forms of cognitive expression, Hampden-Turner shows how solutions, previously unrealized in the recesses of the manager's mind, become readily apparent.

Through interviews with outstanding leaders, Hampden-Turner shows step-by-step how these managers employ circular kinds of logic found in system dynamics, and how they use metaphors, images, and other integrative devices to combine and reconcile multiple values. Behind these rare abilities which are often obscured by such terms as "intuition," "flair," "judgment," and "art" lies a comprehensible dynamic of organizational development.

Managers at Hanover Insurance, for example, were plagued by the dilemma of how to strengthen local branch staffs that resented any interference from headquarters, while at the same time develop a strong and responsive central staff without suppressing local initiatives. When the author charted local managers' "resentment of interference" and the central staff's "suppression of initiative" as two perils at either extreme, senior managers gradually saw the solution lay midway in between: to combine their respective needs for power and recognition into a "mentoring" process, in which mentors at headquarters would coach, guide, and celebrate initiatives and achievements of the branch managers.

In the companies that were able to resolve these dilemmas, Hampden-Turner documents that this cathartic process correlates with significantly improved financial performance.