Mr. Michael Weissman, a turnaround expert and the founding father of many modern marketing techniques now common in the tech world, led sessions in New York and Philadelphia. He shared behavioral and branding insights and provided many key takeaways:
- In order to foster successful collaboration, we must recognize that cognitive styles play an important role in how well/easily individuals work together. People with different cognitive styles are necessary to solve diverse problems, but working together with these different styles is difficult and requires empathy.
- Cognitive style falls within a continuum between highly adaptive (try to improve the existing system) and highly innovative (try to replace the existing system).
- Don’t judge people negatively because their style differs from yours. However, recognize when each style is necessary and listen to those people whose cognitive style is better aligned to the problem at hand.
- Recognize that there is a process for decision-making. This process starts with understanding that there is a problem, understanding the root cause of the problem and then agreeing on a remedy. Adaptors and innovators usually see the problem and root cause differently. Therefore, they often don’t agree on the remedies. We need to start with alignment at the bottom before we move up to remedies.
