Before I made the decision to leave MTN and move to Altron, I spoke to Sifiso Dabengwa, whose wisdom I value. As usual, he helped me to connect with who I am. He guided me to find my own answers. We meet once a quarter and he gives me a fresh perspective, or confirms that I’m on the right track. One of the greatest values of mentors is their ability to see what you may not be able to and to help navigate a course. Meetings with Sifiso leave me motivated and that’s what mentorship is about.

When I met various team leaders, I realized some were ridiculously political. I mean that literally—one is in the Senate now. They tried to get me to sign lengthy noncompetes. And on my first day, they went back on their promise and told me I’d have to move to Seattle. I stepped into my new, tiny, hidden office, ducked around the giant structural pole in the middle of it, and gave my notice after two weeks.

Recognize, localize, depolarize—these are the secrets to building an organization that can walk and chew gum at the same time.

So where do you start in helping your organization become a master of paradox? Here are some suggestions:

1. Be honest about the implicit biases in your organization that skew important trade-offs. Go out of your way to include individuals with countervailing views in important conversations.

1. Challenge yourself and others to get better data on the hidden costs of default trade-offs. Don’t assume that no data equals no downside.

1. If you’re a manager, resist the urge to standardize trade-offs across the organization. Be willing to sacrifice a bit of uniformity for more locally appropriate decisions.

1. Never accept an either/or. Think creatively about how you could achieve your goals without sacrificing other equally vital goals.

1. Work systematically to equip people with the information and skills they need to make smart trade-offs, and then push those trade-offs down.

1. Give frontline teams a genuine P&L, radically reduce the number of KPIs, and hold people accountable for results.

1. Even if you’re not the CEO, search for ways to “stop the train.” Question every click of the ratchet that moves power and decision making toward the center.

Nadella also makes sure that he is exposed to experiences that can challenge his worldview and potentially offer fresh insights. Spurred on in part by his son Zain’s severe cerebral palsy, he takes an active interest in Microsoft’s community group for people with disabilities. He meets with them regularly—again, an opportunity for groups with experiences that are different from the norm to communicate up and down the organization.

Geoffrey Moore’s influential 1991 book, Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Products to Mainstream Customers. This book popularized academics’ concepts of “network externalities” and “standards lock-in” and was the bible for people who wanted to be, or to spot, the next Microsoft.