You know, I don't have a horse in this race, but the sentiments you express in this comment would definitely make me think twice about hiring you if your resume ever crossed my desk.
Sometimes businesses, large or small, make questionable or even outright stupid decisions. But past a certain point it's time to bury the "I told you so"s and work to get something done. If what's being done is illegal or unethical, then that's one thing, but you're talking about setting a strategy for a game site. People get their say, and things go up the chain of command until it reaches the person whose job it is to make the decision. Then they make the decision, and everybody moves on and does the best job they can at trying to make the business successful based on the decision that was made.
When something's been shipped and/or new information is available, there may come another time when that decision is revisited or further strategic direction is necessary. At that point, making a case for a different direction is, once again, entirely appropriate. Until then, people who are on the team should be working to accomplish the team's goals, even if you fear they might be wrong.
If you disagree strongly enough with a decision, it may be appropriate to say to your management, "I'm sorry, but I can't agree with you on your strategic direction for the product" and either ask to be reassigned to something else or seek employment elsewhere. That's perfectly reasonable, and a professional way to handle a disagreement.
But if I read your post correctly, you were inciting open insurrection on a team after key decisions had been made. That's categorically inappropriate. Even if everything you said makes you look like Nostradamus in retrospect, that still makes you a bad team player.
Having people who can work as a team to accomplish a common goal is at least as important as having the right goal. There are many, many stories of teams who built the wrong thing, then adapted accordingly to produce something better. I can think of virtually no stories where a product succeeded despite a divided team that could not work toward a common goal.
I actually faded pretty quickly on the Games issue because, you're right, it was a bad decision but this wasn't an ethics problem. Once it was clear that it wasn't going to go the right way, I stopped trying to change it.
Comments
You know, I don't have a horse in this race, but the sentiments you express in this comment would definitely make me think twice about hiring you if your resume ever crossed my desk.
Sometimes businesses, large or small, make questionable or even outright stupid decisions. But past a certain point it's time to bury the "I told you so"s and work to get something done. If what's being done is illegal or unethical, then that's one thing, but you're talking about setting a strategy for a game site. People get their say, and things go up the chain of command until it reaches the person whose job it is to make the decision. Then they make the decision, and everybody moves on and does the best job they can at trying to make the business successful based on the decision that was made.
When something's been shipped and/or new information is available, there may come another time when that decision is revisited or further strategic direction is necessary. At that point, making a case for a different direction is, once again, entirely appropriate. Until then, people who are on the team should be working to accomplish the team's goals, even if you fear they might be wrong.
If you disagree strongly enough with a decision, it may be appropriate to say to your management, "I'm sorry, but I can't agree with you on your strategic direction for the product" and either ask to be reassigned to something else or seek employment elsewhere. That's perfectly reasonable, and a professional way to handle a disagreement.
But if I read your post correctly, you were inciting open insurrection on a team after key decisions had been made. That's categorically inappropriate. Even if everything you said makes you look like Nostradamus in retrospect, that still makes you a bad team player.
Having people who can work as a team to accomplish a common goal is at least as important as having the right goal. There are many, many stories of teams who built the wrong thing, then adapted accordingly to produce something better. I can think of virtually no stories where a product succeeded despite a divided team that could not work toward a common goal.
I actually faded pretty quickly on the Games issue because, you're right, it was a bad decision but this wasn't an ethics problem. Once it was clear that it wasn't going to go the right way, I stopped trying to change it.
THIS!
You hit everything right on the dot. This is what a lot of people aren't able to say publicly. But you've got the right read.