‘And’ - why we need to stop teaching our children to choose between two things

Every parent has probably experienced the challenge of asking a toddler what they want. It’s far easier (for us) to limit the options to get to a decision by saying, “Do you want an apple or a banana?”. But teaching this or that decision making can be bad in the long term.

The same principle applies in business. We often feel the need to choose between two conflicting goals. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras discussed the concept of using "AND" rather than "OR" as a strategy in Good to Great and Built to Last. They highlighted successful companies that embracing seemingly conflicting goals instead of choosing one over the other. The "AND" mindset is key to adopting opposing forces simultaneously, rather than making a trade-off between them.

For example, Amazon has pursued both innovation and efficiency. The company introduced novel services like Amazon Web Services and Alexa while simultaneously maintaining operational efficiency.  Amazon uses customer feedback to continuously improve its operations and offer a great customer experience from easy returns, intuitive interfaces and fast delivery.

Similarly Toyota has balanced two seemingly opposing priorities: quality and speed. The Toyota Production System (TPS) delivers high-quality products (through continuous improvement) without sacrificing production speed (using lean manufacturing).

Marketing expert Mark Ritson also embraces the "AND" mindset and coined the term “bothism". He encourages companies to focus both on long-term brand building and short-term tactical promotions to achieve sustained growth. Companies may feel that they face opposing choices, like choosing between emotional branding versus rational advertising, or mass marketing versus personalised marketing. Mark suggests that finding a synergy between both is often the most powerful approach.

When companies think in terms of "AND" instead of "OR", they unlock the ability to outsmart competitors who are limited by binary thinking, fuelling greater growth and success.