Sarah gazed at the email thread that bounced back and forth for three days. The marketing and sales teams locked horns over the upcoming product launch schedule. Marketing claimed they needed six more weeks to polish the campaign, while Sales contended that a delay would cost them a vital seasonal chance worth $2 million in revenue.
The clash had grown beyond work-related disagreement. Marketing head James had looped in the CEO on an email questioning Sales’ “pie-in-the-sky hopes,” while Sales boss Patricia had fired back by pointing out Marketing’s “track record of holdups” in a message to the whole company. Other teams picked sides, and the office mood turned sour.
As the new Operations Manager, Sarah saw this as her first big challenge. The CEO had made it clear that whoever could fix this mess might get a shot at the upcoming VP role. But both teams answered to different top brass, neither of whom wanted to give in and look weak.
Sarah had tried the usual tricks: setting up joint talks (which turned into yelling contests), offering middle ground (shot down by both camps), and even floating the idea of outside help (deemed too pricey).
The launch date was locked in because of contracts with retail partners, but Marketing needed extra time to avoid putting out a campaign that could hurt the company.
As stress grew and work slowed down across the company, Sarah saw she had to try something new. The answer wouldn’t come from making either side give up what they needed. Instead, she had to figure out how to give both teams what they wanted while sticking to the launch schedule.
View the answer
The Fix:
Sarah used the 80/20 rule to tackle the conflict. She saw that 80% of the friction stemmed from both teams feeling ignored and undervalued, while 20% related to the actual schedule. Rather than focusing on the timeline, she set up separate meetings where each department could present their concerns to the CEO—but with a twist. The other team had to defend and champion their “rival’s” stance. This swap made both sides grasp each other’s limits naturally guiding them to team up and find a middle ground: a soft launch with basic stuff in three weeks to grab the seasonal chance then a full campaign launch two weeks later once Marketing had enough time to prepare.
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