How to implement a decision you don’t agree with
Most managers I know have a really good working relationship with their team. And, when a decision arrives that they don’t agree with, that’s actually what makes it so hard.
You feel like you owe it to your team to say ‘I didn’t choose this’.
There’s nothing wrong with saying I didn’t choose this. The bit we get wrong is what comes next…when we give our own view on everything we know (or think) about why it’s wrong.
Our job as leaders during change is to help people feel stable, and to be a source of stability for them. When things around them might feel really uncertain and unstable, if we tip into chaos (or bring that energy of chaos into how we frame things with people), we undermine our role as that stable home.
Disagree and commit
I love the phrase ‘disagree and commit’.
It’s often linked to Andy Grove’s time at Intel. His biographer, Richard Tedlow, described a culture where people would ‘fight like cats and dogs’, then all pull in the same direction once the decision was made.
So you have the debate before the decision is made, and once it’s made, you get behind it.
That doesn’t mean pretending you agree. You can still get behind the decision and have a plan that feels palatable, one that helps you monitor the change and feed back to the decision makers if things don’t feel right for the business. It’s not about proving the point. There’s a fine line between the two.
Where’s the line?
There is a line between disagreeing and undermining.
Disagreeing is taking a measured approach to showing you don’t believe the decision is right. You back it up with evidence and data, in measured way, and you’re prepared for them to still carry on with that decision.
Undermining is when you undermine the capability of the decision makers.
That’s the other thing. Undermining other people’s decisions only opens the door for people to do the same to us, when we need them on side. If you role model disappointment and frustration, you’re showing your team that’s what they can do to you.
What happens in the corridor
Julia Balogun and Gerry Johnson did some really interesting research following managers through a planned change. They found the informal conversations managers had with each other, as they tried to make sense of it all, shaped what the change turned out to be (including the bits nobody intended).
So what happens in the corridor shapes what change actually becomes.
The way you talk about a decision you don’t agree with isn’t a side issue. It’s part of the change, and part of how people will experience it.
If we frame something as chaotic, people will experience change as chaos.
BUT.
If we frame it as something we didn’t expect, that might be challenging, but that we’re going to commit to, that’s a much more stabilising leadership message. It might sound something like:
‘This isn’t what we expected, and it may be challenging. But we’re going to commit to it, and if it isn’t working, we’ll find a way to show that.’
Which is a world away from ‘the people making these decisions don’t know what they’re doing’, even if nobody says it in those words.
And actually, we’ll thank ourselves for it, because we’re role modelling how to respond to disappointment and frustration professionally.
Take the heat out of it
Think about how you can take the heat out of it.
When you talk to your team, keep it about the business decision itself (what it is and why it was made) rather than your own response to it.
Help people see how the decision was made
In reality, people can accept an unpopular decision if they can understand how it was made.
So rather than trying to sell change to people, help them understand the true picture leaders are working with.
People don’t generally set out every day to make unpopular decisions. Just as it’s hard on the organisation, it’s going to weigh on leaders knowing that people are unhappy with decisions they’ve made. They know it’s likely to affect productivity and business metrics. So, even if it’s not obvious, they will have some awareness of the impact of the decision.
Frances Frei has a name for part of this in her Trust Triangle: a logic wobble, where the thinking behind something is sound but it isn’t communicated well.
What we tend to do is hide away from sharing the process. If you can, share:
What was discounted
What led to the decision
What will happen if we don’t make it
How that was all weighed up
How it’s going to be reviewed
And if you don’t have those answers, rather than fighting the decision, find ways to get them from the decision makers.
Find your own cabin
You’ll have feelings about it too, and that’s okay.
But you need to find your own cabin for them.
I think of it as a lovely log cabin up in the mountains. People can’t get to it easily, but it’s a safe place for you. Only certain people know about it, and they can come there with you to have a vent and let off some steam, in a space that’s protected and away from your team.
For most managers, that’s a peer or their line manager. Just not your team.
What’s helped you when you’ve had to implement a decision you didn’t agree with? What would you add?
