When You Look, Look for What You Do Not See Too

I am becoming aware of a certain phenomenon I had not paid attention to it till now: There is complementarity in everything, not just in complementary teams.The yin-yang combination is everywhere.Practitioners of ayuvedic medicine recommend a diet of food that is complementary to one’s style. Thus, a person with an (E) style, called something else in ayurveda, should eat food that (P)s prefer in order to balance his style, and (P)s should eat the foods that (A)s prefer,Look at marriage. It is a complementary system, and it does not stop with the husband and wife; it also includes the children. If, for instance, the husband is a big (E) and the wife is a big (A), the first-born will probably be an (I),and the second-born a (P).Often, over a casual dinner with a couple I’ve recently met and have been observing, I have predictied the behavior of their children. Invariably, the couple has confirmed my description of their children’s behavior; they always wondered how I knew.Complementarity is not just among people or food.Forty-four years ago, in writing my doctoral dissertation, I noted that a successful democratic organizational system needs a strong, opinionated (i.e.,dictatorial) leadership, while a dictatorial (i.e., totalitarian) system thrives under a democratic-style, open-minded “benevolent” leadership.A democratic system with a democratic style of leadership can produce extremes of anarchy or paralysis; for example,Dictatorial leadership within a totalitarian system produces destructive dictators, such as Hitler and Stalin.I believe there should be complementarity of style and system, of process and structure, of form and function:If the function is flexible, the form has to be inflexible.If the form is ambiguous, the function has to be deterministic.If you want to be understood fast, speak slowly, and if you speak fast, you will be understood slowly.Complementarity is everywhere. Look at the weather. The climate above the equator complements the climate below: When it is winter in New York, it is summer in Rio.When it is daylight in the western part of the globe, it is night in the eastern part.If that is all true, does it mean that there is no good without the bad? No God without the Devil? No love without hate?If we excell at one task, must we necessarily be deficient at something else?Does every saint has (hopefully under control) a devil in hiding somewhere in their personality?Like the moon, the lit side has its counterpart dark side. The lighter one side is, the darker is its complementary side.Hmmmm!!!Sincerely,Dr. Ichak Kalderon Adizes