Submitted by miketickle on
in
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Yesterday a peer engaged in a set of behaviours destructive to the team, the teams image and the teams goals. He publicly challenged a decision endorsed by the boss and his boss in a series of emails which unfolded over an hour to a growing list of stakeholders.
My manager (not a manager tools manager) called my peer and I together for 20 minutes to explain why this was not helpful, to agree a better way of handling it next time and to agree recover actions. Could this have been handled with the feed back model?
Over the past 2 weeks I have been pre-wiring the project board on a decision that needed to be made. Over the course of the first set of pre-wires the recommended option changed a little in how we would implement it. This resulted in modifications and a second set of pre-wires to the project board members. My peer felt the new recommendation was not as good a fit for his area as the old one and voiced his concern to me. We had a project check point the day before the board for final checks but my peer failed to attend. I told my peer to brief his boss (his boss sits on the board) so that his boss could represent his interests at the board. I did the second pre-wire with his boss, noting explicitly my peers (his directs) concerns with the proposal and the wider justification for the change.
Immediately before the board last Thursday, an important set of stakeholders (the legal team) whom my peer should have been working with announced they were unsighted on the proposal and what it might mean for them. I called and apologised and offered to beef them on the Friday which I did. My peer also apologised to them by email so no feedback given on this.
In the board my peers boss noted this was not the best course of action for their area, but given the situation and the wider business drivers he would endorse the recommendation. In the board the exec (chair) commented on the good brief supported by extensive briefings in the run up to the board. Job well done and home for tea and medals.
Monday morning and the legal team write up notes on the brief I gave them, said it looked sensible and offered to engage on the specifics as we implement the chosen decision. This email was copied to the head of my peers department (his bosses boss). My peer then replied to all stating his personal discomfort with the decision. I emailed my peer and my boss and suggested we take the matter off line to discuss and stop sending emails about it. A few emails later and the outcome is the project exec has expressed dissatisfaction that the project team does not appear joined up and the finance director (CFO) would like up to brief a directorate level (C suite) oversight board on the matter before implementation.
This is a big set back to a difficult decision that is time sensitive.
Should it be handled in a couple of minutes with the feedback model or is this recovery from the ditch rather than a minor course correction?