The entrepreneur Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Opsware and currently…
The entrepreneur Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Opsware and currently a venture capitalist, found himself confronted sev. eral years ago with a management problem. Two outstanding departments at a company he managed Customer Support and Sales Engineering-were at loggerheads. Sales Engineer-ing accused Customer Support of not responding promptly enough to customers, thereby hampering sales. Customer Sup-port accused Sales Engineering of writing defective code and ignoring their suggestions for improvement. Obviously it was essential the two departments work closely together. Consid-ered separately, both were well managed and superbly staffed. Appealing to them to try and see things from each other's per-spective accomplished little, but then Horowitz had an idea. He made the head of Customer Support the head of Sales Engineering-and vice versa. Not temporarily, mind you. Per-manently. Both were initially horrified, but a week after step-ping into their antagonist's shoes they had got to the bottom of the conflict. Over the following weeks they adjusted their operations, and from then on the two departments cooperated better than any others at the firm.
— from Communication & Conflict (Communication/Conflict) · Art of the Good Life: Clear Thinking for Business and a Better Life by Rolf Dobelli
In the book
When you are stuck, try the literal version of empathy: step into the other person's shoes. One executive ended a vicious feud between two departments not by lecturing them to "see each other's perspective," but by swapping the two department heads — and within a week, each had understood the other's world from the inside. When you do propose a way forward, offer several possibilities at once and invite the other side to improve on them, rather than defending a single demand. […] In conflict, say less — and look inward first. Open by asking what you contributed; disagree without being disagreeable; and dig for the shared value beneath the fight. Negotiate both-sides, never zero-sum. Ask why it matters to them, build trust before you bargain, and when you can, step into their shoes. Refuse the poison. Never decide the other person is evil — the line runs through every heart; and let no resolution produce a loser. — Communication & Conflict (Communication/Conflict)