Steel Manning The Case Against You
Before making a decision, walk in the shoes of opposing perspectives
Making good decisions and aligning on goals within your own team and across teams is an important part of succeeding as a team. In fact, for an org leader or someone who has to work across various teams, it’s probably one of the most important skills one can cultivate. This is where one of my working values (look at me already citing myself), “being dispassionate to the truth”, really shines. There are different aspects of “being dispassionate to the truth”, but one that is critical to making decisions that need alignment across various stakeholders is being able to make the case for other peoples’ ideas and articulating their points of view.
Now, this is difficult to do because I’m pig-headed, but it’s something I’ve tried to work on over the years. If I can articulate some else’s point of view in a way that they agree with me, or (and this is the bullseye) make a better case for what someone is advocating it tells me two things:
I’ve understood their perspective clearly.
I can now properly identify the differences between my point of view and someone else’s.
Why is this an important exercise? Listening to a person’s line of thinking and, if necessary, doing the research to understand someone’s opinion, is a way to build trust with the people you’re working with. After all, it’s hard work to meet them where they are.
Now, if after being able to properly represent other peoples’ points of view, I still feel like I have an idea that’s worth discussing, then I know I have a point of view worth holding. How hard I hold the line on my point of view really depends on the stakes of the decision being made. This doesn’t guarantee that you’ll come to the best decision each time or come to a perfect agreement, but it improves your odds and also builds trust amongst the team.
As the title suggests, this is simply steel manning opposing points of view. I also know that folks that have worked with me reading this and thinking, “HEY HEY HEY, he doesn’t always do that!” To that I say - these posts are aspirational. Ha.