Linked by 37signals on July 9 2010:
Managing Conflict
Jason’s latest Inc. magazine piece is up. Excerpt: “So sometimes, when we’re battling over a detail in one of our products, someone will eventually cede the decision to someone else: ‘OK, we’ll go with your idea this time. Next time, it’s mine.’ It’s not always that literal, but the intention is implied. It’s simply not worth battling every last decision until one side is too beaten up to battle anymore. Sometimes, a friendly ‘You get this one; I get the next one’ is all it takes to move on, egos intact.”
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5 comments so far
Michel Billard 09 Jul 10
Does it really work like that the next time a conflict occurs? What if in that 2nd conflict you’re clearly in the wrong?
While I totally agree that battling for perfection is a waste of time (nothing’s ever going to be perfect, especially on the first try), maybe both parties should just agree that both solutions are about equivalent and not worth fighting for too long over them.
Daryl 09 Jul 10
Yes, it really works like this in well running organizations where each person remembers that it is the customer and their business that is more important than their egos. In reality, you extremely unlikely to have a decision that would be such a life and death consequence that it demands a person argue to the bitter end. Everything else is just engineering opinions. And most people have reasonable ones.
Jeff Putz 09 Jul 10
Jason is one of the worse offenders in the business for starting a sentence with the vocal crutch “so.” It’s distracting.
Donald 13 Jul 10
@Michel, but that’s the whole point isn’t it…it’s much easier to take turns than it is to “just agree that both solutions are about equivalent.” Did you read the article?
Michel 15 Jul 10
@Donald, yes I did, my point is that simply giving away the decision is only realistic when argumenting about things that are not worth argumenting about in the first place.
We argue a lot more than we should at work (and it really ruins the mood) so I know what I’m talking about. What usually happens is that someone cedes (usually me because the one I’m talking about will never cede) and just list the problems that are going to happen with the decision and if it’s OK with him.
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