Getting aligned
You may have noticed the disclaimer I've placed in the upper-right corner of all of my digital philosophy articles. One of the philosophies I've subscribed to over the years is: I will always share my recommendations, and I will defend them, but then I will get aligned with whatever my colleagues' consensus is, and help see the project through.
What does this mean?
Disagreements are always going to arise when you're working with a team of people who all have different personalities and different experiences. My job is to be a digital consultant and share my expertise and insights, but I'm often met with resistance to certain things, which can be frustrating — especially in the case of accessibility and ADA compliance, which (in my very strong opinion) should not be up for debate. But sometimes they are! And this goes for everything else regarding digital best practices. The best practices I consult on come directly from seeing the patterns of what works and what doesn't work, across hundreds of projects — but a lot of the time, a team just wants to do what they want to do. Or a client has requested something that goes against best practice, and the team thinks the best course of action is to just give them what they asked for.
So when I say I'll always give my recommendations, I mean just that. In certain cases it may be tempting to just keep quiet when I know that a certain team really doesn't want to hear a certain thing. But it's my job to speak up. I often open this up with, "I'll be very brief here!" to signal to the team that I know they may not want to hear this and I won't bother them with a long speech. But I have to share my opinion. I never want to be accused of being the reason a problem occurred, because I didn't speak up and give my insights. That would mean I wasn't fulfilling my duties.
When I say I will defend my recommendations, I mean that I will do so vigorously, but politely, and briefly. I'll give concrete reasons for why we should do a certain thing a certain way, citing data if that data exists. But I won't go on and on, and butt heads with the team if they strongly disagree. There's no need to make it about ego or to make it about who's right and who's wrong. I give my professional consultation, and then the team can and will do what they choose.
(However, if a team chooses to do something that I know is bad for engagement, accessibility, efficiency, etc, I make sure to put it in writing. I'll send a brief recap to the team saying that we discussed X, I recommended Y and explained my reasons, but the team choose to proceed with Z. I'll do this in the friendliest manner possible. Again, this is just to make sure this situation doesn't come back to bite me.)
Alignment
This is the big takeaway: In order to do our best work as a team, we need to be fully aligned. This can require a mental shift when you really disagree with the direction the team has chosen — but it's worth making the effort to effect this mental shift, and I would submit that it's our responsibility as professionals to do so.
Once we're aligned, I can then focus on contributing whatever I can to make sure the team's chosen direction can be realized as well as it possibly can be. I might even seen some opportunities for new suggestions that will steer that direction back, somewhat, toward my original recommendation. It happens more than you might think! This is way more productive (and way more satisfying) than simply checking out because the team didn't want to listen to me initially.
Getting aligned also helps maintain a good relationship with the team — there's no need to view me as an enemy; I sincerely want to help, even with a plan that I disagreed with. It's my job to help. I also want the team to involve me next time, rather than shut me out. I want them to know that I can collaborate with them and help them even if we all have differing opinions. It's easy to make this happen if you put in the effort. Getting them on your side this time might make them more willing to take your recommendation the next time.
I learned when I was a very young developer that it's never worth getting upset about any of this stuff; we're all just trying to get through our day and do the best work we can do. Give your two cents when you can, and then pitch in and help.
Getting aligned — putting disagreements aside and moving forward together — makes our work better. It's our responsibility to users and to our clients.
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.