Dealing with Cognitive Style Differences: A Case Study

The Problem at Hand

The dueling duo could no longer be tolerated and that Pinto had to take quick action to solve the problem. “It looks like Satera is in trouble,” declared Levinger, “and I think we both know who is at the crux of it. Before we talk about taking action, why don’t you fill me in on the current situation?”

In response, Pinto described Lovas and Bennett’s tumultuous working relationship When Ira and David attempt to brainstorm together, they end up acting like they are speaking different languages. They are both eager to choose a design to begin developing, but inevitably, they fail to find any common ground. Normally, they are very professional people,but when they clash, they end up rolling their eyes at each other’s suggestions and, in general, showing little patience for each other’s ideas. It’s clear to me that Ira and David are both highly competent and creative; however, they take drastically different approaches to their work, and neither will accept the other’s ideas. This poses a serious problem because removing one of them from the team is simply not a feasible option. Given their respective areas of expertise and their strong relationships with the customer, I need both of them to be fully involved in the design and prototype development phases of the project if we are going to succeed.

Frankly, I’m stumped as to how to get those two to work well together. A couple of weeks ago, when they had come to an impasse in designing the support structure together, they told me that they wanted to each develop their own working prototype to present to me and the rest of the team. Given that they were making so little progress collaboratively, and given that they are both good at coming up with interesting ideas, I gave them two weeks to work separately. I thought this would ease the tension and, besides, I often find it useful to have a couple of options to consider.

Based on preliminary tests yesterday, I’ve made my choice between their designs. But, although I’m confident about the choice, I’m struggling with the best way to get them collaborating effectively once I’ve told them my decision.Pinto elaborated on the engineers’ differences, explaining that Lovas was methodical and detail oriented and tended to focus on applying tried and true methods of solving a problem, whereas Bennett approached problems from several different angles at once, was interested in the “big picture,” and, almost without exception, wanted to solve problems in ways that had never been tried before.

They both had an impressive ability to see solutions where nobody else could, but Lovas’s approach left Bennett exasperated, and Bennett’s approach completely overwhelmed Lovas.Pinto concluded his update by stressing that the obvious clash of cognitive styles between Lovas and Bennett was taking a toll, not only on team spirit but also on team productivity. Pinto noted that several members of the team dreaded working with Lovas and Bennett as a pair and would therefore put off addressing important design issues. Pinto read a comment that Katherine Baxter, another mechanical engineer on the team, had made on a recent confidential team evaluation.

I enjoy working with some of my teammates but, unfortunately, not all of them. Our two senior mechanical engineers are very skilled but rarely see eye to eye, so working with them can be very unpleasant. It is tough to feel enthusiastic about the team as a whole when a major part of it is so dysfunctional. Honestly, I will be surprised if we are able to meet our deadline.It is as if the team becomes paralyzed when a major design decision needs to be made nobody wants to face the consequences of choosing one of the engineers’ ideas over the other’s.Pinto knew that the “nobody” Baxter was referring to was, in fact, him. As project leader, ultimately his responsibility to make the call on which support structure was best suited for the imaging system. Pinto confessed to Levinger that the entire team seemed to be “holding its breath,” perhaps sensing his own uncertainty about how to communicate the choice he had made between Lovas’s and Bennett’s competing designs and how to ultimately resolve the tension between them.