Let me let you know one thing nobody needs to confess: content material is boring.
There. I stated it.
It’s not that the concepts themselves aren’t vital—it’s that we’ve turned instructing right into a conveyor belt of knowledge. Slide decks. Studying goals. Case summaries. I did it for years, beginning each session with the clear, structured logic of “what we’re going to cowl right now.” And each time, I may really feel it: the emotional temperature of the room dropping by a level with every bullet level.
Then someday, I threw all of it out. I walked into my classroom and began with a query I didn’t know the reply to.
“Why do organizations love change, however hate their changemakers?”
The room blinked again at me. One pupil tilted their head. One other smiled. Somebody raised an eyebrow. Then: silence.
And in that silence?
Engagement.
The Paradox Impact
That one query—unresolved, unanswerable, alive—did extra to get up my college students than any HBR case ever had.
It seems, paradoxes are rocket gas for studying. They don’t simply activate the mind—they ignite curiosity. They create an area the place each college students and lecturers can discover, not simply clarify. In The Artwork of Change, I name this the Paradoxical Mindset Cycle—an strategy that doesn’t resolve contradiction, however makes use of it as an engine for perception.
Since then, I’ve began each class not with content material, however with creative pressure.
What I Do Now (and What I Don’t)
Let me make it clear—I nonetheless train frameworks. I nonetheless assign readings. However I don’t begin there anymore. I begin right here:
Step 1: Open with a real-word paradox
One thing messy. One thing provocative. One thing I’m nonetheless attempting to determine myself. Examples I’ve used:
- “Why do purpose-driven corporations develop into bureaucracy-driven over time?”
- “Why does probably the most insightful individual within the room usually go unheard?”
- “Why accomplish that many change initiatives start with restructuring, despite the fact that we all know it hardly ever works?”
The important thing? I by no means place the query as rhetorical. I deal with it as alive.
As a result of it’s.
Step 2: Set a timer and go darkish
I put college students in pairs and provides them 5 minutes. No note-taking. No Googling. Simply dialogue. It feels extra like a café than a classroom. And one thing outstanding occurs: they cease performing and begin reflecting.
Step 3: We construct a paradox map
Every group shares either side of the paradox: Why we crave change. Why we kill it. I scribble the responses on the board—no sorting, no filtering. It appears to be like chaotic. It’s presupposed to.
Then I ask: “The place does this present up in your individual expertise?”
And that’s when it will get actual. One pupil shares how their nice concept for a campus venture received caught in countless approvals. One other talks about how their pupil membership began sturdy however misplaced its power because it grew.
All of the sudden the paradox isn’t educational—it’s private.
Step 4: Now we carry within the instruments
Solely after we’ve felt the strain do I introduce the day’s studying, mannequin, or idea. It’s not the principle occasion—it’s a flashlight. A technique to study the paradox from a unique approach.
Frameworks develop into lenses, not gospels.
Step 5: Finish unresolved
I used to shut class with “key takeaways.” Now, I finish with a twist. I return to the paradox and ask: “What questions are you leaving with?”
This shift—from decision to reflection—retains the educational alive after the session ends.
Right here’s What Occurred
1. College students leaned in, not again
After we begin with solutions, college students tune out. After we begin with paradoxes, they lean in. They cease considering, What does the professor need? and begin questioning, What do I believe?
2. The quiet voices spoke first
Right here’s the bizarre half: once I began with content material, solely the assured college students talked. However once I began with pressure, the quieter college students jumped in—perhaps as a result of nobody had the reply but, so there was no hierarchy of certainty.
3. I ended pretending to know all the things
This was tougher than I anticipated. I’m a professor—I like having solutions. However paradoxes humbled me. They jogged my memory that actual studying is co-created. I needed to mannequin curiosity, not certainty. Vulnerability grew to become my pedagogy.
What Shocked Me
Right here’s the counterintuitive half: much less construction created extra rigor.
We didn’t simply cowl content material—we interrogated it. College students requested sharper questions. They challenged assumptions. They made the frameworks work for them, not the opposite manner round.
Considered one of my BBAs stated it greatest: “You didn’t simply train me fashions. You taught me how to consider issues that don’t have straightforward solutions.”
Isn’t that the purpose?
What Didn’t Work (and Why)
Let’s be actual—this strategy has a studying curve. Right here’s what I discovered the arduous manner:
Unhealthy paradox = unhealthy dialogue
- If the query is just too obscure or too intelligent, college students freeze. One of the best paradoxes are rooted in lived pressure, not philosophical abstraction.
You continue to want scaffolding
- Don’t confuse openness with chaos. I discovered to supply anchor factors—definitions, boundaries, reflection prompts—so college students don’t drift.
Typically they need the rattling reply
- And that’s okay. After exploring the paradox, I now say, “Right here’s a technique to take a look at it.” That shift—one manner—retains the door open.
Strive This in Your Class Tomorrow
If you wish to check this out with out overhauling your syllabus, right here’s a fast plug-and-play format:
- Select a paradox associated to your subsequent matter. Make it messy.
- Write it on the board as the one factor seen when college students stroll in.
- Have college students pair up and talk about either side for 5 minutes.
- Map responses publicly—no modifying.
- Introduce the content material as a technique to discover the strain, not clear up it.
- Finish with a return query: “What’s nonetheless unresolved?”
A few of My Favourite Classroom Paradoxes
| Themes | Paradoxes |
| Innovation | Why can we ask for disruption—however construct methods to withstand it? |
| Management | Why does empowering folks generally make them really feel deserted? |
| Groups | Why do numerous groups carry out higher—and battle extra? |
| Ethics | Why do folks observe guidelines that battle with their values? |
| Technique | Why does clear path usually restrict flexibility? |
Why This Issues (Now Extra Than Ever)
We stay in an period outlined by contradiction. Our college students don’t want tidy formulation—they want instruments to suppose by way of pressure. That’s what the paradox-first strategy cultivates. It’s not simply pedagogy—it’s preparation for a world that’s by no means both/or.
I’ve discovered that the classroom is the right place to begin. Not by providing solutions—however by daring to ask the higher questions.
It’s Not a Trick Query
After I stroll into class now, I don’t open with a takeaway—I open with a paradox. I don’t know the way it’ll go. That’s the purpose.
As a result of the second we cease beginning with certainty is the second college students begin displaying up with chance.
Jeff DeGraff is Medical Professor of Administration and Organizations on the Ross College of Enterprise, College of Michigan, and co-author of The Artwork of Change: Reworking Paradoxes into Breakthroughs.
