My colleague Sarah Hisey wrote a blog recently about a theory of Clumpers and Splitters. I confess to being the unnamed colleague that came up with the theory and thought that I could provide a more detailed explanation of the theory that Sarah effectively applied to organizational hiring practices.
So here is the theory:
There are two kinds of people in the world – Clumpers and Splitters. Clumpers are people who look at things and see similarities. Splitters look at those same things and see the differences.
To illustrate, suppose you are shown these things:
A Splitter looks at these things and sees a beer glass, a teacup and a disposable water glass, 3 different tools with 3 different purposes. A Clumper looks at these things and sees vessels that a person can drink liquids from, all of which are leak-proof, able to be used with one hand, and with a smooth rim to enable drinking without spilling.
I don’t know how you become a Clumper or a Splitter – whether it’s a genetic predisposition or based on your life experience. In my experience everybody has a tendency to be more one than the other, but few of us are completely one or the other. If you are thirsty, you can drink water out of a teacup (clumping). If you intend to drink a hot beverage, you will choose the teacup so you won’t burn your hand (splitting).
Why is this relevant? Well, when I look at any kind of project within an organization, it’s important to recognize the need for clumping and splitting and make sure you are doing the right thing at the right time.
Clumpers are analytic and are good at abstract ideas. They like to solve problems in a top-down manner. They are intuitive and visionary, typically can see the end goal clearly and keep things moving in the right direction.
Splitters are good at details. They make sure all the components of a solution fit together, and are good at making sure the detailed steps of a solution are implemented in the right order. They make sure everything works smoothly.
To provide a specific example, consider a new system implementation. When you are looking at business requirements, if you view each user location or set of stakeholders as having different unique businesses and requirements (i.e., splitting), you can become overwhelmed by the diversity of needs. If, however, you initially look for the commonalities (i.e., clumping), you can find the common denominators across the system users and design a solution that meets the bulk of the needs across the organization and aligns with broad organization strategies and directions.
Then, in implementation activities, you can think like a Splitter and look at the differences required to handle different customer needs, or geographic regions, etc., assess the value of those differences to your business and decide how to handle them – add enhancements to the system, change the business process or even decide to not address them at all. It becomes a business decision that ties to your overall business objectives.
Let me emphasize one thing – there is value to be added from both perspectives. At different points in time, one view may take precedence over the other, and sometimes you need both Splitters and Clumpers to make decisions that balance general and specific needs, strategic direction and practical implementation. But it helps to be aware of the different views and ensure the right contributions are being made when they are called for.
So to paraphrase Sarah’s conclusion, The Osborne Group principals are a great group of Clumpers, but we can also be Splitters when that is what is needed.
by Christy DeMont
Information Technology
Visit osborne-group.com for other ideas and opinions from our Principals on a range of topics. Their views are their own and do not necessarily represent The Osborne Group’s perspective. The Osborne Group provides interim executive management, consulting and project support across all sectors and over a broad scope of service areas.
