Power of paradox propels UD’s Wendy Smith

Editor's note: Wendy Smith will deliver her Alison Award lecture - "Paradox Theory: How Both/And Thinking Is Reshaping Leadership and Decision-Making" - at 3 p.m., Monday, Feb. 23, in Gore Recital Hall. Register online.

Sometimes the best choice is pretty obvious. You want to get on the freeway? You use the on-ramp.

Steering a huge vessel through complex, changeable conditions is a different matter. It requires a much different tack. You want to make progress, of course. You also want to avoid the icebergs.

This is the wheelhouse of Wendy K. Smith, the Dana L. Johnson Professor of Management in the University of Delaware's Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. Smith studies how leaders manage complex challenges. Her research has demonstrated the strategic advantages of getting comfortable with tension and embracing the power of paradox, using what seems contradictory, disconnected - unbelievable even - to find innovative and productive opportunities in business and many other life applications. Her 2022 book Both/And Thinking, written with collaborator Marianne Lewis, draws on decades of research to offer insight and practical tools for effectively embracing paradoxes.

Now the University has recognized Smith with its highest faculty honor - the Francis Alison Award - for the global impact of her research and instruction. Named for the University's founder, the Rev. Dr. Francis Alison, the award is bestowed on faculty whose rigorous scholarship and teaching expertise exemplify his "scholar-schoolmaster" skills.

Smith, the first Lerner professor to win the award since its inception in 1978, will deliver her Alison Award lecture - "Paradox Theory: How Both/And Thinking Is Reshaping Leadership and Decision-Making" - at 3 p.m., Monday, Feb. 23, in Gore Recital Hall.