Brian Emerson

Brian partners with leaders to navigate organizational complexity — and to have some fun while doing it.

Brian Emerson, Ph.D. is Principal and founder of Riverstone Endeavors, a firm committed to helping leaders navigate organizational complexity. He has an impressive history of partnering with organizations around the world to achieve sustained results in leadership development, aligning organizational culture and strategy, and harnessing the power of polarities—holding two seemingly-opposites at once, e.g., Structure::Flexibility, Decentralize::Centralize, etc. Clients attribute Brian’s success to his “uncanny insight and ability to balance human dynamics with business needs,” the way he “simultaneously challenges and inspires,” and “getting results while having fun.” His research led to the development of two related theories. Suffering Paradox theory explains what happens when groups have no objective way to deal with paradoxical situations, and the theory of Navigating Paradox outlines the dynamics of groups using polarity maps to effectively leverage paradoxical complexities. In addition to consulting and coaching, Brian teaches about paradox in leadership and organizations at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Maryland, and as co-director of Georgetown University’s Executive Certificate in Navigating Polarities: Leading and Coaching in a Complex World He is the co-author of two books, A Manager’s Guide to Coaching, and Polarities: And—An Introduction, the first book in the Polarities: And series, which he co-edits (due out summer 2018). Brian holds an M.A. in Organizational Communication, an M.A. in Human Development, and a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems. He is a Master in Polarity Thinking and has a certificate in Organizational Development from Georgetown University. He lives outside Washington, D.C. where he and his partner are restoring a historic farm and trying their best to keep bees.