When technical teams of different disciplines collaborate together on a project or product, you’ll always find tradeoffs. One team’s offering has a limitation that, if unaddressed, would require a complicated workaround from another team. Do you invest in resolving the limitation? Do you require the dependent team to deal with the fallout of the workaround? Do you allow them to use a different solution?
Addressing the conflict can feel like resolving sibling arguments over household chores and privileges.
Whether you’re the sibling with the unfair workload, or the leader of the team required to implement a clunky workaround, it can be easy to feel defensive.
As a manager, you may immediately want to stand up for your team – to protect them from the complexity and risk of failure that the workaround demands. That’s understandable, but it’s ultimately unhelpful, for your project, for your team members, and for your long-term career.
Instead, choose a different first priority. First try to understand the position of the team who you think is getting the better end of the deal. Find out what other workload they’re carrying. Avoid the simplistic assessment that concludes that they just don’t want to do the work. Get an idea of the impact that would result for them, their product line, their commitments to other teams, and any precedent for the future for them to support whatever change you’re asking for.
Second, aim to understand the perspective of any senior leader who may have ruled in their favor against you.
You don’t have to agree that it was the best decision. Leaders often disagree.
But when you invest the energy needed to truly understand the perspective that led to a decision, you’ll find it easier to deliver what’s needed to bring success to your first team, the one that your boss leads.
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