Are you a top-down or a bottom-up thinker?

Kia ora (Hi there) Change Wranglers!

When Thinking Styles Collide: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Thinkers

Have you ever been in a meeting where some colleagues speak an entirely different language?

Where one person is eager to discuss the grand vision, while another keeps circling back to specific details that seem trivial to others and wants to spend endless amounts of time verbalising those details?

You're experiencing the classic collision between top-down and bottom-up thinking styles.

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The Thinkers in Your Midst

Top-down thinkers are your big-picture visionaries. They begin with the whole and work their way down to the parts. They're master chess players who see the entire board before moving. They thrive on concepts, frameworks, and overarching strategies.

Conversely, bottom-up thinkers are your detail specialists. They meticulously assemble pieces to construct the bigger picture. Like skilled watchmakers, they understand how each tiny gear contributes to the functioning of the timepiece. They excel at spotting inconsistencies and potential pitfalls in specific areas.

When Worlds Collide

When these two thinking styles meet, it's as harmonious as possums in a henhouse. The frustration is mutual and often intense:

Top-down thinkers may view their bottom-up colleagues as:

• Unnecessarily pedantic

• Losing sight of what matters

• Slowing progress with "irrelevant" details

• Dominating conversations with endless minutiae

Meanwhile, bottom-up thinkers often see their top-down counterparts as:

• Dangerously vague

• Overlooking crucial considerations

• Making impractical suggestions disconnected from reality

• Hopelessly ambitious

Real-World Friction Points

Here's a real-world scenario from a recent client engagement.

During a digital transformation project, Sarah (top-down) enthusiastically presented her vision for revolutionising customer experience through an integrated platform. Meanwhile, Tim (bottom-up) repeatedly raised concerns about data migration issues and API compatibility problems.

Sarah grew frustrated by what she perceived as Tim's resistance and negativity.

But Tim felt Sarah glossed over critical implementation challenges that could derail the project.

Both were right from their perspectives, but neither could fully appreciate the other's viewpoint.

Building Bridges Between Thinking Styles

These different cognitive approaches can create magic when adequately harnessed. Here's how to foster productive collaboration:

For Organisations

1. Create thinking-style checkpoints: Identify your team's thinking styles before major projects and deliberately create stages that honour both approaches.

2. Establish a shared language: Develop vocabulary that translates between styles. Try the "Zoom In, Zoom Out" technique, where discussions explicitly shift between big-picture and detail-oriented perspectives.

3. Design complementary pairings: Partner with top-down and bottom-up thinkers on key initiatives but provide clear roles that leverage their strengths.

For Top-Down Thinkers

1. Start with your framework, then invite detail: Share your vision, then explicitly ask, "What specific challenges might we face implementing this?"

2. Acknowledge the value of precision: Execution details aren't just implementation matters—they can fundamentally reshape your concept.

3. Practice patience: What seems like nitpicking may be the very insight that saves your vision from becoming an impractical fantasy.

For Bottom-Up Thinkers

1. Connect your details to larger implications: When raising specific concerns, explicitly tie them to broader impacts on the overall vision.

2. Lead with the agreement: Begin with "I support where we're heading, and to get there successfully, we should address..."

3. Choose your battles: Focus on the details that genuinely threaten the bigger picture rather than every possible consideration.

Success in Action

A New Zealand tech firm I recently worked with transformed its product development by consciously integrating both thinking styles.

Their top-down product manager would outline the customer journey and value proposition, while their bottom-up developer lead would create a "reality map" highlighting specific technical challenges.

Rather than seeing these challenges as obstacles, they treated them as creative constraints. Each meeting included designated "helicopter moments" (rising for the big picture) and "microscope sessions" (zooming in on critical details).

The result? A product that maintained its visionary qualities while being technically sound and implementable.

Their launch came in on schedule— "good as gold!"

The Power of Cognitive Diversity

The strongest teams don't eliminate these thinking differences—they acknowledge them, celebrate and leverage them. When top-down and bottom-up thinkers learn to communicate effectively, they create solutions that are both visionary and viable.

In your next meeting, identify which style you naturally gravitate toward, then consciously value the opposite approach. You might find that your most frustrating colleague becomes your most valuable collaborator.

For instance, I am a top-down thinker. Still, roles early in my career as a technical writer and information manager taught me to respect the details and those to whom detail comes naturally!

After all, we need the architects who design the cathedral and the stonemasons who know exactly how each piece must fit together.

If you're curious to find out more about your thinking style, take this free quiz from MIT.

Finally, a mention of my A4 Daily Planner specially made for Change Managers.

I've had a number of mentees lately who've mentioned how valuable they've found it to 'keep them on track'.

The planner plots out the key activities of a change manager and provides action-inspiring prompts to help you know what to do and get to it.

There's also a daily inspo quote and Change Cat cartoons to bring it to life!

If that sounds like something that could help on your current assignment find it here.

Until next time,

Barb Grant

Where Change Feels Less Lonely

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