On stalemates

Riley Edwards
Nov 6 · 2 min read
Photo by Jens Herrndorff on Unsplash

Recently I was talking to a colleague who has reached a stalemate situation, where a significant organisational change cannot move forward due to disagreements with a peer.

I hypothesised that he has three ways out of this situation.

Get a Directive

The shortest term solution is to get a directive from higher up the organisational chain.

This will take leadership.

At the very least, their manager needs to make a tough decision and support it. If they are a good leader, the manager will find a way to do it that doesn’t worsen the relationship between the two who are in conflict.

Build Trust

The medium term (and better) solution is for the two of them to build up trust. That will need to continue until they get to the point where they can resolve the issue between the two of them.

If they follow this path, they won’t just have resolved this stalemate, they’ll have set themselves up to avoid more of them and to work much better together in future.

Wait

The final option is to wait. Eventually the balance of power will shift, whether because one of them leaves or for some other reason. Although it might take a long time, at that point the stalemate can be resolved.

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