Escalation: does it ever really work at work?
I’ve worked at a lot of large tech companies, where “escalation” is a go-to tactic for resolving conflict. Have an uncooperative stakeholder? Escalate. Have a colleague or team that is resistant to your great idea? Escalate! Have a dependency on another organization to make your products work together? ESCALATE!
But does that work? Really? By its very nature, the word “escalate” connotes conflict. It conjures visions of cold-war militaries, ready to strike with nuclear weapons. What it doesn’t imply is “I am here to work. With you.”
In my experience, when we escalate an issue, it is intended to do two things: (1) inform higher-ups that there is a problem and (2) get those higher-ups to resolve that problem for you.
Let’s take the best-case scenario — or what seems to be the best-case scenario at first blush. You escalate an issue to your manager or your manager’s manager, and they resolve the problem to your satisfaction. Yay! You are so happy! Your problem is solved … Now what? What do you do the next time you have a problem with the same person or team? How willing will they be to work it out with you? Likely, they are already unhappy with you for escalating the last time, so rather than cooperate this time, they can just wait for you to escalate again. Your choice is to defer to them or to escalate again. Now who looks like the problem? Your manager is probably thinking, “Why can’t Robert just get this done on his own? Why do I have to intervene every time?”
What escalation says to your colleague is “I’m done working with you.” It’s like having a fight with your sibling and taking it to mom or dad to legislate. What escalation says to your manager is, “Here — this is your problem to solve.” By escalating, you are potentially damaging a work relationship as well as damaging your brand with your manager.
We are in an age of corporate diversity and inclusion, not just because it’s the “right” thing to do, but because diversity produces better results: better financial results, better employee satisfaction, better employee retention, and better ideas by providing more alternatives. But why? I’ll posit that “escalation” is a more traditional masculine approach to conflict resolution. So I’ll share with you my more feminine, and in my experience more effective, alternative.
Rather than escalate, ask for help.
I want you to pause and really ponder the difference between those two verbs. Words matter.
Because when I ask for help from my manager, it means that I want to solve the problem, and it’s my problem to solve, I just need some assistance. Better yet, if it never gets to my manager. Instead, by asking the difficult person or team for help in solving the problem, it shows that I want to work with them. It’s not my way or the highway. And we can figure this out together. There may not be a clear winner or loser. It might mean that I have to give something to get what I want; but I will be more likely to get the result that I want, both now and in the future.
Let’s try this in practice with a couple of fictional examples.
Asking stakeholders/peers for help: The design team needs more complete requirements for their designs. When the lead designer asks for more detail, the answer she gets is that “it’s obvious”. Rather than escalate, the designer sets up a meeting with PM and engineering to discuss some of the questions she has. She writes to the PM stakeholders and says, “I have some questions about the design, and I really need your help.” In the meeting, the designer demonstrates how differences in requirements will drastically change the design of the feature, the number of screens, and the cost and time to implement. Now they are having a discussion and trying to solve the problem together.
Asking my manager for help: As the UX leader, I have asked and asked that a new design that shows clear customer value to be prioritized for development. The people from the field as well as the executive team have seen the mockups and have wanted us to implement these new designs for over a year. While the story has been on the roadmap, it always slips below the line for development in any given quarter. I tell my manager, “I really need your help. I don’t know how to get this work developed.” She replies with a question — “Have you sized the amount of work it would be to implement the designs?” Ummm. No, because it never got high enough on the priority list to be sized. She suggests that if we know what the size is, maybe it’ll be easier to prioritize. Dang. That’s a good answer. Now I have a new strategy, I can work with my team to define what would be needed for an MVP versus a full implementation, and I set up a meeting with my PM and Engineering partners.
Asking for help will do two things: (1) inform people that there is a problem and (2) to get those people to resolve that problem with you. It may not be the most macho approach, but it may be the most effective.
