Interactive session looks at the benefits of collaboration among men and women

“What are some of the things that your colleagues do that drive you crazy?” was the opening question of a Friday program during the Midyear Meeting.  The question was posed to get the audience thinking about different approaches to handling a work assignment or project. 

During a highly interactive afternoon session, attendees discussed differences between “male” and “female” brain types.  In “One Plus One Equals Three: Men and Women as Collaborators,” John Mitchell of Chicago and Karen Kahn of Westport, Conn., also discussed the “ladder” and “bridge” approaches to operating in business situations and in personal thinking.

“Climbing the ladder” suggests a hierarchy and the posing of questions such as “Who’s better?”  On the other hand, “crossing the bridge” is more a horizontal continuum.  Neither way is wrong, stated Mitchell. There are different situations that lend themselves to the different methods.  For example, there are times when you need a “chief” to make a decision, as one attendee mentioned.  There are other times when a more collaborative approach to thinking is appropriate.

The male brain, as Kahn and Mitchell tagteamed in describing, seeks data.  Information is processed when physically active, and the thought process is pictorial in nature.  In contrast, when thinking about the female brain, Kahn urged, “think Internet.”  The female brain is about interconnectedness.  The female brain looks for relationships, and information is processed through words.  The brain types, however, aren't absolute and in reality people generally are somewhere on a continuum between the two.

There are tools available to help you work with people who tend to work differently than you do, the panelists said.  First is simply awareness that there are those differences.  In addition, learning to communicate in both the “male” and “female” world is useful, as is a sense of mutuality, and being inclusive during a project.

The program provided an opportunity for extensive networking following the panel.  The name of the program was meant to indicate that, working together, we are able to reach a collective wisdom that exceeds the sum of the parts.

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