Practice Innovations: Adapt, innovate or both? Leading & leveraging cognitive diversity

Jan 04, 2024

Anne E. Collier Professional Certified Coach / CEO of Arudia

26 Jan 2023 · 6 minute read

Anne E. Collier Professional Certified Coach / CEO of Arudia

26 Jan 2023 · 6 minute read

Leaders of legal organizations who take care to understand the cognitive diversity of their teams can leverage their unique talents to the benefit of all

Have you ever wondered why a colleague, friend, or family member seems to approach life so differently? They are either overly structured, or not at all. Either way, the difference seems to get in the way… or does it?

It may, but a difference in approach can also be the origin of exceptional service. Harnessing differences in approaches require leaders to recognize the value of these differences — of cognitive diversity — and to create a culture in which different approaches are valued, not quashed.

What is cognitive diversity? Quite simply, cognitive diversity describes the fact that people think differently, that they are creative differently, and that they solve problems differently. Intuitively, we know that. Dr. Michael J. Kirton, a renowned British psychologist, provided the world with a practical explanation of these differences in the form of his Adaption-Innovation Theory and Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory, the latter of which measures how a person prefers to solve problems.

Under the theory, Adaptors are highly organized and structured, preferring to solve problems by figuring out how to win within the system that's already in place. Innovators, on the other hand, are more fluid and boundary-free, often solving problems by changing (or bucking) the structure, system, or conventional wisdom. It's not that a person tries to be one or the other; rather, preferred style is innate. It's how a person lives life, solving problems along the way. Whether one is an Adaptor or Innovator is determined by the strength of the preference for structure. Most people are somewhere in the middle.

Teams thrive when they make the most of diverse thinking and approaches; they provide better, more creative, and effective service. The challenge is that people with different creativity styles can annoy each other. The key is to maximize the energy spent on Problem A — providing service to clients — and minimize the energy spent dealing with Problem B — the friction that can be triggered by the differences in team members’ styles.

A typical example of Problem B can occur when discussing how to resolve a client matter. The more Adaptive members of the team suggest tried-and-true techniques and commence the planning, setting out timelines and task lists. They start devising a very granular, detailed, and structured plan. They want to plan so that they can get started. The more Innovative team members, on the other hand, begin brainstorming completely new approaches — pinballing ideas that lead to more ideas. Some ideas are so out there, of course, that even the Innovators laugh and dismiss them almost as soon as they’re conceived. Energy and enthusiasm abound as the number of ideas mount. Innovators are eager to solve the client's problem elegantly and without the tedium of overly detailed planning.

The Problem B of it all is that both the Adaptors and Innovators may judge the other group to be wasting time, producing annoyance on both sides. Most of clients’ problems clients are truly complex problems that require solutions that fuse Adaptive and Innovative approaches. The real cost, therefore, is the team's failure to harness the brilliant bits and pieces of both Adaptive ideas and Innovative ideas necessary to solve these complex problems.

Gen. George S. Patton once said, "If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." While he is correct, the absence of new ideas from a team could be the result of a cognitively-diverse team member or two withholding their ideas out of fear of being too out there. Leaders need to ask themselves whether they are harnessing the range of cognitive diversity on their teams. If they aren't, these leaders may be failing their clients as well as team members.

Great leaders create cultures in which cognitively diverse approaches are understood, valued, and prized. Here are ways that you, as a leader, can do so:

Your leadership is the single most important factor impacting your team's culture. Thus, by adopting the above advice, you can deliver more exceptional results as you amplify inclusion across your teams.