The two have teamed up to form , a Dallas-based cloud accounting systems implementation firm, and have made it their mission to uncover the reasons that CFOs and CIOs don't speak the same language. Doing so, they think, will help organizations succeed, and generate much better project results.

They believe wholeheartedly that the answer can be found in Anthony Gregorc's 1984 .

Gregorc divided how the mind works into four sections -- concrete sequential, abstract sequential, concrete random, and abstract random. Spivey and Karnes theorize that, for the most part, accountants fall into the "concrete sequential" category, with IT workers classified as "abstract random."

The difference Gregorc noted between these two categories is significant. Concrete sequential learners like order, logical sequence, following directions, predictability, and getting facts. They learn best when they have a structured environment, can rely on others to complete a task, and can apply ideas in pragmatic ways. They find it hard to work in groups, undertake discussions that seem to have no specific point, function in an unorganized environment, deal with abstract ideas, and field questions with no right or wrong answers, according to Gregorc.