"Nitin, take two steps back!"
Simple formula to manage conflicts and perform root cause analysis
Prologue:
I wasn’t able to finish a project on time. There were a series of events that led to the project not being completed on time. I decided to own up my mistake and let my manager know that we’d have to push the deadline.
Present time (In my manager’s cabin):
While I was ranting about things going wrong with the project, he patiently listened to me. He asked me what went wrong with the project. I spoke about the most recent conflict I had while working on the project. He stopped me.
“Nitin, take two steps back and tell me the preceding events that led to this conflict.”
I explained about a few unfortunate events and started to describe how they did not let me finish the project.
“You’re talking about the events themselves. Tell me what gave rise to those events.”
Then, while I was talking about it, I slowly realized that I was one of the main reasons for the project not being shipped on time. That’s when I realized that an owner is the owner - be it a project/product or even a small activity that needs you to co-ordinate with just 2 people. At the end of the day, I’m accountable for whatever is asked of me. If there were roadblocks, I should’ve brought that up as and when they arose.
That day, I walked out of the meeting a changed person. Some conversations like these with your higher-ups change you for the better. This was one such hard conversation.
Lessons learned:
Ownership: You’re literally the owner for anything assigned to you. Period.
Have hard conversations: Yes, they’re tough but necessary to stick to your deadlines
Communicate regularly to your stakeholders: Without this, no one knows why you’re missing the deadline.
Identifying why something went wrong is as important as identifying what went wrong!
Pretty sure this will hold me in good stead as a Product Manager. Whenever there are conflicts or situations where I have to analyze the root cause, these words will reverberate in my head.
"Nitin, take two steps back!"