Are decisions made without you?
What to do when you want to be more involved
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We’ll do a short and fun talk on the book’s core ideas, but primarily want to hear your questions and thoughts. We will make you laugh, we promise. Hope to see you there. Your friends and coworkers are invited too.
One of the goals of this book is to focus on the real, frustrating situations designers experience. Here is one of the most common ones, with our advice.
What to do when decisions are made without you
What happened. Well, you weren’t there. So you don’t really know, do you?
Why it sucks. Who wants to be left out?
What not to do. Blame other people and assume it is all about you. Maybe there is something you missed? Are you sure there isn’t? Was there a gap in how useful you think you are compared to how others perceive you? Was it clear to the others that you expected to be involved? Were there warning signs, or is this a complete surprise?
Why it happened. One simple reason may be that good leaders want as few people in the room when hard decisions are being made. They will pick people who are most helpful in considering multiple aspects of a decision. Too many cooks is a real problem leaders try to avoid. Of course it is possible someone is deliberately leaving you out, or you have a broken relationship, which is more complicated. However, attempts at efficiency, or ignorance about your needs, are more likely reasons than someone going out of their way to make your job harder.
What to do next time. Put your ego aside to ask: of those who were in the room, who would have benefited the most from having you there? How can you convince them it’s in their interest to make sure you are included? Or let you take their seat (which assumes you can represent their needs.) If you can do any of these things, the problem takes care of itself.
Use your allies. Ask them for their advice, they may know something that you don’t. Do you really need to be in the room when the decision is made? Wouldn’t it be better if someone powerful who you trusted was there to represent your interests? Sometimes you benefit more from the decision being made without you. If you can, reframe the issue so it can be solved. Often “important meetings” are just theater and the real decision was made in some side conversation the day before. Who can represent you in that conversation?
What other difficult situations have you experienced that you want our advice on? Let us know in the comments.
