Our internal M&A deal team is struggling to coordinate because of conflicting conative styles under stress. How do we use conative profiles like Fact Finder and Quick Start to assign roles for the due diligence push?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The due diligence phase of an acquisition is a high-stress pressure cooker. If your internal deal team is clashing, it is likely not a personality conflict but a collision of different conative styles. When the pressure is on, people instinctively revert to their hardwired drives to solve problems.

To keep your deal team functioning smoothly, you must align their responsibilities with their natural conative profiles on the Accountability Chart:
- Put your high Fact Finder team members in charge of the data room and responding to buyer information requests. These individuals have an innate drive to probe, refine, and organize details. They will thrive on verifying historical records, checking contracts, and ensuring every spreadsheet is perfectly validated.
- Protect your high Quick Start team members from the tedious detail work. These individuals are built for risk and rapid change. Use them to manage the strategic negotiations, handle relationship management with the buyer's executive team, and quickly brainstorm creative solutions when deal terms stall.
- Leverage your high Follow Thru team members to coordinate the overall timeline. They will keep the checklist moving, build clean operational systems for data collection, and ensure that both sides are meeting their scheduled deadlines.

When you try to force a high Quick Start operator to spend twelve hours a day cataloging digital files, or demand that a high Fact Finder make instant decisions without complete data, you create immense friction. Aligning your deal team's conative strengths with their specific tasks reduces stress and accelerates the transaction.