This post is setting up three short articles I'm going to publish in May about some practices I've adopted to address diverse working styles in a team. Usually when we talk about diversity in a team context we are talking about diversity of experience and identity, and there are many moral and practical reasons why this is a desirable or even essential element of a high performance team. In this case though, when I talk about supporting a diverse team I’m talking strictly about working style. They are related, but for the sake of this post I’m narrowing the focus to the way different people go about tackling their work, and specifically the various conditions they need to be happy, productive, and do their best work.

We all have different ways we like to approach design work. Some people are highly collaborative, feeding off other people’s energy, good at thinking on their feet. Other people need time to process and think, doing their best work in highly focused periods by themselves. Some people are driven by anxiety, always burning hot, never off. Others compartmentalise, making sure they have the mental resources they need by separating work and non work. There are an endless multitude of ways to tackle design problems, as diverse as the people tackling them.

It’s natural if you are leading a team to expect people to work in the way that works best for you, and to build a team culture that supports that. If you are an anxiety driven worker you may read someone leaving at 5pm or seeming unaffected by project concerns and not being engaged in their work. If you are a structured worker you may read someone displaying stress and continuously working long hours as someone not in control of a project. Neither are probably true.