Parag Khanna
Founder & CEO, AlphaGeo | Bestselling Author, The Future is Asian, Connectography & MOVE | World-Renowned Geopolitical Strategist | Visiting Research Fellow, ADIA Labs | PhD, London School of Economics
Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis
Co-Authors of Both/And Thinking | World's Leading Experts on Paradox | Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award Winners | University of Delaware & Cincinnati Professors
Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis are the world's leading experts on paradox and the authors of the bestseller Both/And Thinking. Over 25 years of research together, they built the definitive framework for thriving amid competing demands, work that won the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award. Appearing together, they give audiences a research-backed playbook for turning the toughest tensions into creativity and growth.
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Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis biography
Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis are the world’s leading experts on paradox and the authors of the acclaimed Both/And Thinking. Over 25 years of pioneering research together, they built the definitive framework for a challenge every leader faces: how to thrive amid competing, interdependent demands, rather than being forced into either/or choices that quietly limit what’s possible.
Business speakers Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis co-authored Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, published by Harvard Business Review Press, named a Top 10 Management Book by Thinkers50 and a #1 Amazon new release. Their work earned them the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award, and the pair were ranked among the world’s most influential management thinkers in 2025. Together they created the ABCD Paradox System, a practical toolkit that helps leaders engage competing demands in their work and lives, illustrated with firsthand stories from IBM, LEGO, Unilever, startups, and nonprofits.
25 Years of Pioneering Paradox Research
The partnership began when Smith, then a graduate student, encountered a paper on paradox theory by Lewis, emailed her, and started a collaboration that has since helped build a global community of scholars. Wendy K. Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management at the University of Delaware and a Harvard PhD, focused on strategic paradox, how leaders and senior teams respond to contradictory yet interdependent demands. Marianne W. Lewis is Dean and Professor of Management at the University of Cincinnati’s Lindner College of Business and a former Dean of Bayes (Cass) Business School in London, a thought leader on the paradoxes of leadership and innovation. Their foundational research together earned the Academy of Management Review’s Decade Award for one of the most-cited management papers of its era.
As speakers, Smith and Lewis can appear together to deliver the full depth of their work in a single session, weaving Smith’s focus on strategic paradox with Lewis’s expertise in leadership and innovation. They speak on both/and thinking and the power of paradox, leading change while running the core business, decision-making under competing demands, and building organizations that turn tension into creativity. Audiences leave with the definitive, research-backed framework for navigating paradox, straight from the two thinkers who defined it.
Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis Speaking Videos
Both/And - A Different Approach to Navigating Tensions with Wendy K. Smith & Marianne W. Lewis
Both/And - Finding comfort in the discomfort with Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis
Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis Keynote Topics
Smith and Lewis take the stage together to deliver the full depth of their landmark book. They explain why either/or thinking quietly limits leaders, introduce their ABCD Paradox System, and show how to hold competing demands at once, drawing on 25 years of research and firsthand stories from companies like IBM, LEGO, and Unilever to turn tension into creativity and growth.
Every organization must run today's business while building tomorrow's. Together the authors show leaders how to escape the either/or trap, pairing Smith's work on strategic paradox with Lewis's expertise in leadership and innovation, so teams can execute and reinvent at the same time rather than sacrificing one for the other.
Framing decisions as trade-offs narrows options and can trap organizations in vicious cycles. Smith and Lewis offer a both/and approach that helps leaders surface hidden tensions, change the questions they ask, and reach more creative, durable solutions, especially valuable for senior teams navigating complexity and uncertainty together.
Both/and thinking is most powerful when it's built into how an organization works. The authors share how leaders can embed the mindset, structures, and practices of paradox navigation across their teams, using the example of leaders like Unilever's Paul Polman, so competing demands become a lasting source of innovation rather than recurring conflict.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis
Why book Smith and Lewis together?
Booking Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis together gives audiences the complete, authoritative account of paradox and both/and thinking, from the two scholars who defined the field. They co-authored the acclaimed Both/And Thinking, won the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award, and built the ABCD Paradox System over 25 years of research. Appearing together, they combine Smith's focus on strategic paradox with Lewis's expertise in leadership and innovation, delivering unmatched depth in a single session. For events that want the definitive treatment of how to navigate competing demands, the two authors on one stage are an exceptional draw. Either can also be considered individually depending on availability. To bring them to your next event, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
Who are the authors of Both/And Thinking?
Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022) was written by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis. Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management at the University of Delaware and a Harvard PhD; Lewis is Dean and Professor of Management at the University of Cincinnati's Lindner College of Business and former Dean of Bayes (Cass) Business School in London. Together they are considered the world's leading experts on paradox, and their book won the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award.
What is the ABCD Paradox System?
The ABCD Paradox System is a practical toolkit created by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis to help people engage competing demands more effectively in their work, leadership, and lives. It brings together the assumptions, boundaries, comfort, and dynamics that allow leaders to move from either/or to both/and thinking, so they can navigate paradox deliberately rather than defaulting to one side of a tension. It is central to their book Both/And Thinking.
What topics do speakers Smith and Lewis cover together?
Together, Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis speak on both/and thinking and the power of paradox, leading change and innovation, decision-making under competing demands, and building a both/and culture. Their joint sessions suit leadership summits, corporate conferences, and organizations facing complexity, change, and hard trade-offs. To book Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis as speakers, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
How to book Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis as a keynote speaker?
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