Thinking Win/Win sounds great, but how does it play out in real life? Let’s take this situation as an example. Your engineering team has been asked to estimate what work needs to be done and how long it will take to produce a certain feature or product. The team returns with an estimate. Management reviews the estimate and doesn’t want it to take as long or cost as much. Now what?

Let’s look at the options through the paradigms of interaction presented in Habit 4 of Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.

Win/Lose

For this example, let’s put management on the Win side and engineering on the Lose side. Management says, we want everything in the proposal, but we want it in half the time you say you need to complete it.

By forcing a decision via authority, Win/Lose is taking place. Engineering will follow out of fear, even if it means they lose. Not only was the engineering proposal not accepted (a loss), it was modified and will lead to hardship such as longer hours, or cutting of corners (both are losses).

Lose/Win

This time, we’ll have management choose Lose/Win. This can be the situation if management gives in and lets engineering do whatever they want, when they want. It may be a win for engineering because they are getting to do whatever they feel is best. But, it’s likely a loss for the organization as a whole because perhaps the customers weren’t consulted, the budget wasn’t taken into account, or time to market isn’t known. It’s unlikely that all the facets of a successful project were taken into account if engineering simply gets to do whatever they propose. (I know, I know, you want to see what this would be like anyway!). You’ll have to trust me on this, project managers and functional managers do have information and knowledge that is helpful to choosing the appropriate projects.

Win

In this scenario, let’s have management approach the situation with Win in mind. They may say, we need the project done in half the time. Failure is not an option.

In this case, they don’t really care if it’s a win or loss for engineering. They just need the project done. I’ve seen this one play out a couple of times in my career, and it’s never been good. The project didn’t get done on time, and the engineers became frustrated that they didn’t have a say. And it turns out, even if failure isn’t an option, it may be the result anyway.

What if engineering approaches the scenario with Win? This can occur when a team is formed to work on a “skunkworks” project. This is a project that is not on the radar of program management (meaning it’s not adhering to any sort of development process), may not be known to the product manager, and whose budget is creatively borrowed from other budgets. I’m not talking about projects where there is a legitimate security and secrecy concern. I’m talking about projects where Engineering decides to make the project opaque without regard to the Win or Lose impact for everyone else in the organization.

Win/Win

What if management and engineering approach the situation with a Win/Win attitude? In this scenario, engineering and management get together and work to understand the viewpoint of the other party. Management may communicate the requirements and concerns of the customer and of the organization. Engineering may lay out the technical issues and reasons behind the estimates. In an environment of trust and transparency, each group will strive to arrive at Win/Win. They will try to find the scope, time frame, and cost that benefits all sides. Hint: It’s probably not the solution you have going into this conversation! The key is to be OK with finding a new solution.

I acknowledge this is difficult. Everyone has experience and education and an idea of the right solution. If we can set aside our ego we find that we can collaborate to find the best solution. This may be someone else’s solution, or a new suggestion that comes out of a collaborative discussion. If you can find the Third Alternative as Covey calls it, it becomes very satisfying. Everyone contributes and has a say. This is NOT compromise, but a solution that fits better.

tl;dr

A common scenario involves engineering preparing an estimate for a block of work, and management pushing back on the scope, schedule, and/or cost. If both sides choose to approach the scenario with Win/Win, a Third Alternative may emerge which is a better fit for both sides than any of the previous proposals.

engineer your life

  • Ask yourself if you are willing to approach scenarios like this one with Win/Win. If not, why not?
  • Think of a recent or upcoming scenario where there are two sides, two approaches, two opinions. What would have to be true in order to be able to think Win/Win?