In every company, regardless of industry, your team will have a combination of different social styles; personalities that bring variety and breadth of experience to the organization. There are two specific personalities that often show up together on technology businesses -- the Creative and the Analytical. These two styles are diametrically opposed in terms of how they approach problems, yet they both bring the most value to a product in development. But like managing two tigers in the same cage, how does one make these two personality types work together, while keeping them from killing each other?
Creatives and Analyticals almost always end up in the same technology company. Due to their inherent skill sets, the two opposites might find themselves working with each other, though not always together as a team. The Creative finds himself designing and developing innovative ways to conquer new challenges, many times generating new inventions, methods, and processes never seen or used before. This creates huge Intellectual Property benefits for the company. The Analytical on the other hand is the balance-weight of the company's technical scale. The Analytical will evaluate the technical merits of a design, to ensure that everything works reliably and robustly, using his skills to find any weak spots or issues with the design.
What drive's these two personalities part is the fact that Creatives work with touchy-feely, intuition-based methods, where Analyticals work in very digital, black-or-white methods that must always be supported by something rigid. Regardless of their pluses and minuses, the point is that each type brings obvious benefits. A company that is all creative, may be missing vital points that would normally make a product more repeatable or robust. A company that is all analytical may be missing vital points that would normally make a product innovative, interesting, or novel.
Bridging the gap between these two personalities lies in the ability to engage the strengths of each type, and more importantly, to get each type to understand and utilize the strengths of the other. Too many companies spent way too much time on what's wrong, instead of leveraging what's right. Instead of letting your Creatives and Analyticals battle it out, bring them together and show them how each other benefits the company as a whole.
Creatives and Analyticals are very powerful players in any organization. They can be the bellwether by which the rest of the company looks for direction and momentum. But they can also be volatile in their respective attitudes and passions, so it requires tact and guidance to ensure that they are given the freedom to operate, without stepping on other people's toes.