“Hey, funky T-shirt guy. My team has a major problem.”
I’m listening. How can I help?
“Cornelius made an agreement with Caspayverger Software.”
Cornelius, the manager of the Engineering team?
“Right.”
Why is the agreement a problem?
“Our software license was up for renewal. The vendor is a startup and they’ve been pushing us to upgrade to a new version of their software. Cornelius agreed to perform the upgrade as a condition of the license renewal.”
Sounds like a win for the company. Cornelius negotiated down the license costs and we upgrade to a new version.
“This isn’t a win for my team! My Infrastructure team manages the upgrades. Cornelius committed us to an upgrade date with the vendor.”
Did you work out the upgrade schedule with Cornelius?
“No, that’s the problem! Cornelius committed my team to the upgrade without my knowledge. He excluded us from the process. We have our project road map locked in for the next six months. We don’t have the cycles to do this upgrade!”
Uh-oh.
We have a communication breakdown.
One of the frustrating parts of being a manager is the element of surprise. As a manager, you can get into a good groove, helping your team to move past the usual obstacles to get things done. One day, when least expected, you find yourself clobbered by some surprise, making you feel like you’ve been jumped by a mugger. You feel dazed and confused. Hey, that’s two Led Zeppelin references and I’m just getting started!
“I had no idea about this agreement to do the upgrade. I feel angry.”
Of course, you do. That’s a natural reaction.
“I’m going to yell at Cornelius. He screwed us over. We just can’t drop everything for this upgrade.”
How is taking out your frustration on Cornelius going to help your team?
“Somebody needs to tell Cornelius that he was wrong.”
Wrong.
Emotional regulation is a critical skill for managers. Lashing out at people in anger is counter-productive and just plain wrong. It’s okay to be angry. Don’t take out your anger on your colleagues or direct reports. Before you make the mistake of reacting out of rage, take some time to cool off. You have a problem to solve. You don’t want to complicate the problem. Lash out and you’ll damage your working relationships and diminish your influence as a leader. That’s what bad bosses do, not you.
“But the damage is done. Cornelius put us in a bad position. My team can’t get this upgrade done.”
Let’s write the problem statement:
The Infrastructure and Engineering teams collaborate on the administration of a shared technology platform. The Engineering team owns the vendor relationship for the software managed by the Infrastructure team. An Engineering manager negotiated a license renewal with the software vendor. As a condition of the renewal, the Engineering manager agreed to perform an upgrade to a new software version, committing to a hard date for the completion of the upgrade. However, the Engineering manager failed to engage the Infrastructure manager before he made the agreement with the software vendor. The unplanned software upgrade is not part of the Infrastructure team’s project road map. Caught by surprise, the Infrastructure manager is upset with the Engineering manager. Regardless of personal feelings, the software upgrade needs to be completed by the hard date to meet a contractual obligation.
“Wow. Seeing the problem for what it is makes me want to solve it.”
That’s the point! You’ve advanced to the “Hey, hey, what can I do” stage. Based on our problem statement, we have two problems to solve:
- Complete the software upgrade before the hard deadline
- Repair the working relationships between the Engineering and Infrastructure teams
Let’s take action to solve those problems.
Complete software upgrade
We have three options:
1. Refuse upgrade request
We can decline the request. We have justification. Cornelius didn’t loop us in about the upgrade agreement. With limited bandwidth and existing priorities, we have a full plate of project work. We can’t accommodate the upgrade. However, this upgrade is complicated by the vendor agreement. We must honor the terms of the renewal or risk a breach of contract.
2. Proceed with upgrade to meet hard deadline
Going with this option will require the re-prioritization of the team’s projects. Some projects will need to be rescheduled for later dates. Other projects may need to be canceled. This option is better than #1, but not without its own set of challenges. Projects on the current road map have dependencies on other teams. Some of the projects on the current road map are tied to clients or revenue. We can shift projects around to make cycles for this upgrade, provided that we negotiate with all of the stakeholders on the current projects, making sure all parties are aligned on the new target dates for their deliverables.
3. Work with vendor to be flexible about upgrade date
Cornelius baked the upgrade into the license renewal. That’s unfortunate. Unless the upgrade contains critical bug fixes or some must have features, we have the option to ask the vendor for flexibility with the upgrade date, giving us a chance to schedule the upgrade for a later date on our project road map. The key here is the quality of the relationship with the vendor. Strong vendor relationships increase the likelihood of getting the green light to punt the upgrade to a later quarter. Take the straightforward approach with the vendor and explain the miscommunication between the teams. Sell the merits of establishing a long-term relationship. Reasonable vendors will recognize the value of flexibility in the interest of retaining your company as a long-term customer.
Of the three options, I’d choose #3, followed by #2. Option #1 is a hard no.
Repair working relationships
You’ve solved the immediate upgrade problem. Now, you have to work on the bigger problem, which is repairing the relationships between your team and Cornelius’s team. Because your relationship is broken and you didn’t realize it until you received a visit from the element of surprise! Your teams manage a shared technology platform, but the leadership of both teams is misaligned.
Engage Cornelius to find out why the communication breakdown occurred. Before you engage, take some time to cool off. Don’t make the mistake of going into the conversation fueled by anger. Your objective is to repair this relationship, not damage it further. Yeah. Cornelius was wrong. Get over it! Your teams need to collaborate to get things done.
Open the dialogue with Cornelius. Use a direct and positive tone. Frame the conversation as an opportunity to improve communication between your teams. Use the software upgrade as an example. Explain to Cornelius how miscommunication about the upgrade had a negative impact on your team’s work schedule. Listen to Cornelius. Get his side of the story. Once you have a mutual understanding of the reasons for the miscommunication, work together to improve the communication and rebuild the trust between your teams.
Conclusion
Communication breakdowns between teams are corrosive. Work streams get disrupted. Anger rises. Trust erodes. Communication breakdowns are gonna happen, often when least expected. Don’t let your emotions control your response. Instead, break down the resulting problem, devise a remediation plan and work on improving communication between teams. That’s the way.