3 Strategies to Reach Win-Win as a Tech Lead
Win-Win can be a game-changer in your team and company. Here are three strategies that will help you to make the first step towards implementation.
Reaching Win-Win is a great approach to create trust in relationships to others and make them strong and lasting. Knowing the benefits of an approach is the first step to implementation. Still, in this post I want to provide you with three strategies that you can experiment with when implementing your Win-Win tactic.
1. Listening and Caring
The first strategy is to listen carefully. You can do this by practicing active listening.
Make sure to really listen to what everyone has to say. Let them finish their sentences and resist the urge to jump in. If you are unclear about the meaning of something said, ask to clarify.
Show you care by recognizing the feelings and concerns of your counterpart. This builds trust and shows that you appreciate their ideas.
Ask questions that need more than just a yes or no answer. This helps people share more about what they want, which makes it easier to solve problems together. It also shows that you are genuinely interested in what they have to say.
2. Working Together to Solve Problems
The second strategy is about collaboration.
In our interdependent life it is never enough to put your head down and do everything on your own. This will only get you so far. Sooner or later you will need to work together to solve the really big or hard problems.
Instead, get everyone together to think of different ways to solve a problem. Encourage creative ideas and thinking outside the box to find new solutions.
While doing that, do not just think about what each person wants, think about why they want it. This helps find common ground and areas where everyone can agree.
3. Think Outside the Box
Instead of just going with the first idea and focus on it, come up with several solutions that could work for everyone. This gives a better chance of finding something that makes everyone happy.
While thinking about solutions, don't let your mind wander off into implementation mode. Especially engineers try to find the loopholes of an approach early in the process. By doing that you will stifle the creative energy in the room.
Once you decided that you have collected enough ideas, look at the good and bad parts of each one. Be open to changing and combining ideas to find the best solution for everyone.
How to Make These Strategies Work
Those strategies will only work when you set up the right environment.
1. Encourage Open Communication: Make sure everyone in the team (independent of their seniority) can share their thoughts. Use meetings, suggestion boxes, surveys, and casual chats to ensure everyone feels heard.
2. Build a Team Spirit: Encourage working together and teamwork. Reward those who collaborate well. Ask your company to provide training on how to resolve conflicts and negotiate so that everyone can work towards win-win solutions.
3. Set Clear Goals: Clearly explain what the goals are for any discussion or problem-solving process. Make sure everyone knows the goal is to find a win-win solution, setting a positive tone for working together.
An Example from own Experience
I made good experiences with a format called "Event Storming" in the past. It is a great way to get everyone together in one room to understand a problem.
The idea is to learn from each other and figure out how to solve the problem or build a product. Knowing what challenges exist and what questions still need answers make the journey clearer.
Everyone shares their expertise and help solve issues together. On top of that, the participants learn from experts of different domains.
Conclusion
To achieve a win-win situation at work, it’s important to listen carefully, care about others' feelings, work together to solve problems, and come up with multiple solutions.
By using these strategies and promoting open communication and teamwork, you can create a positive environment where everyone benefits, leading to stronger relationships, more satisfaction, and lasting success.
What about you? Challenge yourself and implement one of those strategies in the next week at work! Let me know how it went.
