It was soul-sucking.

I had spent weeks putting together the processes, documentation, and tools to help my team work better with the product team. However, without buy-in from the VP of product, all my efforts were doomed from the start. The VP never bought into a problem ever existing in the first place, never committed to putting in the work to fix it, and definitely didn't want to follow through with actually putting the plans into action.

I've since learned a lesson: Buy-In And Commitment First, Help Second.

I thought if I were to subscribe to a "commitment first" philosophy that would go against my principles of lending a hand at every opportunity. I reality, getting commitment first allowed me to do more work, and more meaningful work, to help my team and others. I discovered that good intentions only get you so far. To successfully collaborate with others, I need ultimate buy-in from everyone to turn intentions into a solution.