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CHAPTER
10
Tools for Investment Teams
Be really whole and all things will come to you.
—Lao TzuMany years ago, in a conference room on the 16th floor of the
First Chicago Bank building, Gary Brinson, the new chief invest-
ment officer, said to his staff: “Investment people tend to be good
at one of three things. Either they are good at collecting the data,
or they are good at analyzing it, or they are good at taking the
analysis and making some decisions to implement.” Brinson’s theory
of the specialization of labor must have impressed me—obviously,
if I’ve remembered it for all these years—and makes perfect sense
given Myers-Briggs as a backdrop. The talents of an investment
team, or any team, can be employed most effectively by conscious
attention to the team members’ preferences and how they use them
in a group decision-making process.
Experts in collaboration skills understand and teach this prin-
ciple. For example, Interaction Associates uses an exercise called
“Planning a Vacation” in training classes. Participants are asked to
consider how they plan vacations and which steps they take first.
The choices include:08-13 ware 81 1/19/01, 1:10 PM