Comment by nine_zeros
2 years ago
"Buy in" is what you use for people acting in good faith. But managers aren't acting in good faith. They just want it done so that they look good to their own bosses. They don't actually care about the product/service. Their ask to "go faster" is a bad faith argument where there is no real need to go faster except for the manager to look good.
I don't feel the need to get "buy in" for bad faith managers.
> but managers aren’t acting in good faith
An overly broad statement which, my experience, is not true. Managers come in many shapes.
Although, I suppose ironically, if you act in bad faith as a response to this perception, then I think that perception will quickly become true.
Why is asking for requests to be in writing an "act of bad faith"? Literally cna't see a single outcome that would be an act of bad faith here.
If the project fails, and the manager tries to blame it on you, they are de facto acting out of bad faith given the request. Documenting it just identifies this. If the project succeeds or fails, but no one blames you, then the documented request is just there for the record.