Using Different Ways of Thinking in Teams for Business

When people think about diversity within teams, they tend to think about protected characteristics like age, gender, ethnicity, disability, cultural factors. These are all important and the different perspectives each can bring can lead to better decision making. Having different cultures represented within a team can make sure that an important customer segment is not left out, for example. The best use of these kinds of diversity is enabled when there are clear lines of communication and everyone listens to each other and tries to understand.

However, a factor that is not a protected characteristic and which is often overlooked is how different people in the team think and how this impacts on communication. There is a widespread belief that different thought processes and different ways of approaching problem solving is critical for innovative thinking and creative problem solving. But the potential of such teams is often not realised because of a lack of understanding of how other team members think differently to yourself. If the team leader is not aware of a majority way of thinking within the team, then that majority tends to drown out minority ways of thinking.

We see this over and over again within teams, where managers are not aware that some people who do have something important to say are not listened to and eventually stop contributing because the majority view does not understand where they are coming from. This can and does lead to avoidable problems cropping up at a later date.

Where different kinds of thinking are facilitated and utilised within the group, it enables the group to more easily consider alternative perspectives on problems and on proposed solutions. This results in better solutions.

We are all the product of our respective environments and this shapes how we interact with the world and influences how we think. However, having a culturally diverse team does not mean that there will be sufficiently diverse ways of thinking within the team. While language, culture, and education system do influence how people think to a certain extent, there are ways of thinking that are independent of culture and education system. This is necessary for a society to function.

If you look carefully around university departments, you might notice that different subjects foster different ways of thinking. You might notice that powerpoint and other visual aids are ubiquitous in scientific subjects, but that in the humanities some lecturers think visual aids are superfluous and not using powerpoint is a virtue. The sciences tend to attract people who think more visually; the humanities attract people who think with words. Of course, there are people who do both equally well.

Each subject teaches students to think in line with that subject. Therefore, if you have a team where people have a range of different degrees, you are likely to have a range of different ways of thinking. Whether they can communicate effectively with each other is a different matter. Each subject also has its own language and often very similar concepts have different terms between subjects, requiring people to learn each other’s ‘language’. Some people are better at this than others.

Something similar happens in the business world. Each department will tend to have its own way of thinking. This can cause frustration between people from different departments, partly because of different emphases, but also because of different languages and different ways of thinking.

So, for example, sales people can get frustrated with those coding the product because coders are focused on technical details and how a new feature might get implemented. Coders may get frustrated with sales people as they see sales people over-simplify and may get very concerned when sales people over-promise regarding what the software can do. Sales people are focused on benefits to customers, while coders have to be detail-focused as otherwise their software won’t work.

This difference between those focusing on the bigger picture and those focused on detail is a very common source of miscommunication, misunderstanding and frustration within a business. Those focused on strategy can get very frustrated when someone insists on talking about what appears to be irrelevant and uninteresting detail. But it may be that this detail is extremely important and the person is trying to explain that this is why a certain strategy is doomed to fail.

To understand this a bit more, let’s consider the difference between common problem solving approaches. Some people like to work from the bigger picture to the detail; others like to work from the detail to the bigger picture; and some like to do a bit of both. Each approach is equally valid, but for complex problems, each approach will find a different solution and none is guaranteed to find the best solution.

If a team has a majority of one way of approaching this, they will tend to not listen to those who have used a different approach. All too often the majority rules. But those with a different approach to solving the problem may have something very important to contribute that will result in a more efficient solution or one that addresses something the solution from the majority viewpoint has overlooked. By ensuring that everyone is listened to, the team can work towards a better solution together.

But even this misses a key point and that is communication. Explaining from detail to the bigger picture may not be intelligible to someone who likes to work from the bigger picture to the detail. This kind of situation is easy to rectify by reversing the explanation. But first you have to recognise what is going on.

The standard practice in reports to provide a summary at the beginning an end actually very neatly handles this problem.

There are many different ways of thinking and most people will naturally use a combination. Some examples are: big picture, detail, visual thinking, verbal, logical, patterns, categories, thinking outside the box, process thinking. Some forms of thinking are vital for certain professions. You will struggle to be a coder if you cannot think with detail nor logically. Doctors tend to look for patterns of symptoms. Journalists need to be good with words. You cannot be a good lawyer if you are not good at verbal thinking.

So as we look at building teams we need to find a way to understand what different types of thinking exist within a team and what thinking styles best suit certain roles.

Facilitating a voice for diverse thinking styles is a key competence and ultimately comes down to communication. When teams have diverse thinking styles you will get conflict and frustration and therefore smooth and effective communication is key to ensure the team operates cohesively and effectively. This is achieved via an understanding of Cognitive Diversity.

A great way to learn about different thinking styles and how to make the best of them is through one of our Interactive Cognitive Diversity Workshops. Please contact us to find out more.