Two managers who cannot resolve a conflict take it to their common boss together, laying out both views and the options, so the call comes quickly and neither has gone around the other.
An example
At a national home-goods retailer, the head of e-commerce and the head of store operations had argued for two months over who would staff the counters where online orders were picked up. E-commerce wanted dedicated staff; stores wanted to use existing floor associates. Each had complained to the chief operating officer separately, and each time she sent them back to work it out. The head of store operations proposed going to her together. They wrote a two-page memo: the problem, each side's view in its own words, three options with costs, and what each of them recommended. They presented it together at her weekly meeting. She asked a few questions, chose a hybrid with dedicated staff in the forty busiest stores, and asked for a report in a quarter. The two heads began meeting weekly on the rollout.
Why it works
Conflicts between peers stall because each manager fears that escalating alone will look like going around the other. Taking it up together, with both views laid out fairly, makes the decision easier for everyone: the boss gets a clear choice and can decide quickly, and neither manager loses standing with the other. What it needs is a common boss willing to decide, peers who can describe each other's views fairly, and real options to choose among. It fails when one side presents the other's view weakly, and the boss can usually tell.
The thinking behind it
Jeff Weiss Weiss and Hughes, in Want Collaboration? Accept and Actively Manage Conflict (2005), argue that conflict is a natural result of cross-unit work and should be managed, among other ways by establishing and enforcing a requirement of joint escalation, in which the parties bring a disagreement to their bosses together. The retailer's two heads used that method on their own initiative, and their boss decided in a single meeting.
Jonathan Hughes In the same article, Weiss and Hughes explain that joint escalation gives the decision-maker every side of the dispute and removes the advantage of getting to one's own boss first. That is why the page asks each manager to let the other edit the account of their view: the boss must hear both cases at full strength, and a weakened account brings back the race to be first.
When it fits
Peers in a matrix or across functions, reporting to the same executive and each with a legitimate stake, are the natural users. It needs enough trust to write a joint memo and a boss who prefers clear choices to vague complaints. It is most useful when the conflict is genuine and neither side can settle it without authority above them.
How to use it well
Propose joint escalation to your counterpart before going up alone, and frame it as the faster way to a decision.
- Write a joint memo: the problem, each side's view in its own words, the options with costs, and each side's recommendation.
- Let your counterpart edit your description of their view until they are satisfied.
- Present it together, and let the boss question both of you.
- Accept the decision and work on it together afterward.
If your counterpart refuses, tell them you will escalate on your own and offer to show them what you send. That keeps the escalation open, and it often changes their mind.
What it costs and where it backfires
You have to describe your counterpart's view fairly, which may strengthen it, and you give up the advantage of going up alone with your own version. If the boss decides against you, you agreed to the process and must accept it. The method breaks down when either side uses the joint memo to make the other look bad. Fairness in the memo is the condition for using it a second time.
When it is used on you
Agree when a counterpart proposes taking a conflict up together, and make sure the memo describes your view the way you would. Make your case clearly and let the boss decide. If they then escalate alone after agreeing to the joint route, raise that with the boss directly.