Building Consensus in a Diverse and High-Pressure Team

Question

Bain teams are often composed of diverse experts with conflicting opinions. Tell me about a time you managed a significant disagreement within a team. How did you facilitate a resolution that kept the project on track? Follow-up: How did you ensure everyone felt heard while still making a final decision?

Accepted Answer

Conflict resolution is key to Bain's collaborative culture. Situation: During a strategy project, our data scientist and our industry expert disagreed fundamentally on the market growth projections. Task: I needed to reconcile these views to provide a unified recommendation. Action: I scheduled a 'clean sheet' session where both parties presented their underlying assumptions rather than their final numbers. We identified that the discrepancy came from different definitions of the 'addressable' market. Result: By aligning on the definition, we reached a consensus on a middle-ground growth rate supported by both qualitative and quantitative data. This shows my ability to lead through collaboration and intellectual honesty, ensuring the team remains cohesive under pressure.

Building Consensus in a Diverse and High-Pressure Team

Question Explain

Answer Example

Related Interview Questions