Everyone works through ideas differently. Everyone brings strengths to  problem solving and idea generation and research shows that the more diverse the group the better the outcome they can produce simply by virtue of that diversity. I was thinking today about the difference in styles/strengths of 2 project sponsors that I have worked with in my career.

I one case my project sponsor and I would sit and discuss an idea which was formulating in her mind. Our discussions were unstructured and sometimes her stream of consciousness was punctuated by an occasional question from me. By the end of the conversation she would have several multi-coloured diagrams on her whiteboard with arrows and shapes and words everywhere. I would leave the meeting and return some time later with a draft project plan including scope, timelines and implementation ideas. I am not a visionary when it comes to a blank paper (or whiteboard) but I am a creative executor of ideas within complex systems.

The other project sponsor that I have worked with will also meet with me and provide her idea. She doesn’t use any diagrams or a whiteboard but is verbally descriptive and detailed in outlining the scope of work and what she wants the outcome to be. I leave the meeting feeling pretty clear about writing up the project documents, however when I return to this sponsor my work is always met with a massive amount of changes and edits. It was always so frustrating to have to redo my work, sometimes 3 or 4 times over despite documenting exactly what the sponsor outlined in the first meeting and each subsequent meeting. Then I realized that despite the detail provided by the sponsor in each conversation I was and my work was really the equivalent of my other sponsors whiteboard. My second sponsor knew what she wanted until she saw it on paper and then spent a couple of iterations to hone and refine her idea through my documentation. I have tried a variety of ways to get her ideas clarified before I do the laborious work of developing a project scope, project charter or other required documentation but nothing circumvents the process. Once I recognized that my work was not lacking but in fact valuable to my senior leader it has helped me to be patient with the process and less frustrated with the required rework.

We all create and work differently and that is a good thing.