... helps avoid potential friction among team members as well. (Lipnack, 1996) As an illustration, a cross-functional team at DEC was struggling with trust-related issues between the marketing and finance managers. The marketing manager, who was conceptually oriented, continually focused on what he referred to as the "big picture" and future revenue producing opportunities. The finance manager, in contrast, persistently raised questions about how the projects would be paid for and how they would be implemented. The marketing manager perceived these questions as little more than a "put down" and would become defensive each time they were raised. The finance manager concluded that the marketing manager was "simply not grounded" in his thinking. Going from conclusion to conclusion prevented them from truly working together. As their orientations and strengths were assessed and compared, however, they began to see that they were focusing on different though related issues and that there was ...

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