Getting over disagreements

Whenever there is a disagreement between a person and a decision being made, I think of two things: either that person is right, and everyone else is a fool or the person is wrong, and they are blocking the business from moving forward.

In both cases, there is a similar risk and reward imbalance. There is a high risk for the business if everyone is wrong (and little reward for the individual), and there is risk in blocking the business from moving forward and no reward for the individual if they are wrong.

Effectively, decision disagreements are deadlocks. How can you move forward, then, if you find yourself in the disagreeing seat?

Assuming the decision-making process was sound (e.g., involved the right people, the process itself was documented, etc.), the key is to become conscious that you are part of a bigger machine and that it's mainly your ego running the internal monologue. In the words of Andy Grove,

"an organization does not live by its members agreeing with one another at all times about everything. It lives instead by people committing to support the decisions and the moves of the business."

Andy Grove

If you notice that you have strong feelings about a decision you disagree with, you should get over your feelings if the majority agrees with whatever decision is being made, for a simple reason: worst case scenario is you were wrong, your ego is slightly bruised, and you get to learn from being wrong.

Best case scenario, you get to say, "I told you so."

You win whatever the outcome is.