Democratic Technical Decisions

I’ll set the scene: you’re in an architecture meeting, and there are a few proposals being discussed. In the ideal case, one of the proposals is an obvious winner, but that’s not the case today. You get to the decision point of the meeting, and the team is split.

Sometimes as a manager, it’s your job to play the role of tiebreaker, but I’d reach for that tactic as an absolute last resort.

Here are two quick techniques that can help break deadlocks in decision making, while still preserving the democratic spirit of the team.

Who wants pizza?

I like both pizza and sushi. If someone asks if I want pizza or sushi, I’m forced to pick between two options, when I’d really be okay with either.

The trick? Don’t make people choose. They can vote for both.

• Who is comfortable with implementing proposal A?

• Who is comfortable with implementing proposal B?

Instead of forcing your team to choose, you’ll get a better sense of which proposal has the most consent (even if you don’t get to 100% consensus).

Objections

If your team has a “disagree and commit” kind of culture, they may be quite good at understanding if their disagreement is within normal bounds, or if it’s strong enough to warrant more discussion or block a decision. For teams that have this self-awareness, it can help to ask for strong objections rather than trying to get everyone to unite on a decision.

You can use this technique in combination with the pizza vs. sushi example above.

If most of the team is in favour of proposal B, I might ask if someone wants to share a blocking objection to proposal B.

They can work it out

There might be a case where there is a strong disagreement or objection. In this case, you might have to work against your instinct to play referee or tiebreaker. Instead, encourage the disagreeing parties to come up with a path toward solution.

I might ask things like:

• What information do you need to make a confident decision on this?

• When will you have a recommendation?

• Do we need to adjust any sprint goals in order for you to have time to properly research this?

• What support do you need from me?

If the team (or a subset) goes through the exercise and is still unable to reach a decision, then it’s appropriate for you to step in a bit more.

But don’t take away the opportunity to solve a conflict by intervening too early.