Perhaps the most useful mental model for thinking about the
[Traditional WorldView]TWV and [Emerging WorldView] EWV is
that of a polarity (Johnson, 1992).

Polarities are sets of
opposites that cannot function well independently. The two
sides of a polarity are interdependent, so one
side cannot be “right” or the “solution” at the expense of the
other. Johnson contends that
“many of the current trends
in business and industry are polarities to manage, not
problems to solve” (p. xi).

An example of a
polarity in worldview is that, rather than replacing yang
dominance with yin dominance, the EWV includes a balance of
yin and yang, not subordinating the yang. Likewise, the
example provided earlier suggests that indeterminism and
determinism form a polarity. The question of behavior emerging
from the bottom up or being imposed from the top down form a
polarity.

Each side of the pole has upsides and downsides.

A [recursive] “figure 8”
pattern often develops between the upsides and downsides of
the two assumptions.

 People often identify the downside
pole as the “problem” and therefore want to abandon it. The
upside of the opposite pole is seen as the “solution.”
When
one pole has been emphasized for too long, the

result is the
downside of both poles.

"In The Fifth Discipline,
Peter Senge (1990) includes mental modeling as one of the five
disciplines. He suggests that people must be able to surface
mental models by sharing the assumptions they make in a
situation. This task is not trivial. Most mental models are so
deeply imbedded that people do not even realize they are
simply models; we believe that they are reality." –
Eric B. Dent