Disagree and commit
When two teams disagree, the usual way to solve this is to escalate to their common leadership (usually the closest person that manages both teams). An alternative (and often better) solution to solve the problem is to have a party disagree and commit.
For example, if you disagree with another team but
- They have a bigger stake in the game – e.g. they are responsible for the whole infrastructure where the proposal will take place and have to maintain it moving forward
- They have more visibility/experience into this type of problem
- The disagreement is on “cosmetic” issues rather than fundamental functional properties
In this case, it’s OK for you to disagree with them but commit to their decision. This means that moving forward, you will support the decision (you previously disagreed with) to the best of your abilities – if you think about your company as a boat and engineer as a rower, you will row in the same direction as the other team without looking back at this decision.
The other party may be the one who disagrees and commits – this is why it’s important to
- Have the principles aligned across companies such that disagreements are always shallow
- Hear the other party and give them a broader point of view (including both theirs and yours) – such that they can understand you may have a bigger stake in this decision
The benefits of disagreeing but committing are:
- You get to consensus faster – escalating takes time, you need to prep the document for your execs to read, you need to find a time for execs to be available, your execs have one more thing they need to solve etc.
- You are seen as a reasonable person – and people will naturally be more willing to help/work with you in the future. There are people who will always fight to their end for their team/org and they can be successful in a company but they will end up hitting a ceiling. While others may acknowledge their skills to defend their team, nobody will want to work with them or to be supportive of their growth beyond a certain point – what if they end up in a different org that you have to work with?
This behavior of moving past a decision and committing to it is what allows companies to move forward – it’s part of being a team player and is something recognized for promotion.