What do you do when management is wrong and you are right?

They may not be wrong, they may just be weighing the variables differently than you are. The right technical decision isn’t always the right decision for the business.

If they are truly wrong, good management will be receptive to reasoned feedback. Bad management won’t even listen, in which case it may be time to find a new team.

But if management listens to your point and decides to do something different, that’s their responsibility and why they get paid more. If you can live with their mistake and make the most of it, great. If not better look for a different team.

How do you know management is wrong and you are right? More likely you and your management have different priorities and assumptions. You or management, or both, may suffer from certainty bias.

Accept the learning experience. Sometimes you have to go along with decisions you don't understand or agree with. Do your best and offer helpful suggestions and alternatives.

You can't always get what you want, as one famous person put it.

"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man".

I figure you are not arguing about a physical law, but about a course of action in the future.

First: even if there are only "right" and "wrong" course of action for your issue, you cannot really know ex ante. None of you is right, but maybe one of you will be. In the future.

Second: your situation most likely involves tradeoffs and you may not have all the information, often for valid reasons. You could make a case for any position in the room during debates.

You argue for A, I argue for B. Chances are, A and B are very valid in the absolute and isolation. Education or Healthcare? With infinite resources? Both by all means. With a budget and an external threat? It gets harder because there's a system. "Right" or "wrong" isn't even obvious for a game of chess with clear/finite rules and moves, let alone life.

Our job is to make the case and give options and a course of action for the decision makers to choose from and/or combine and/or weave together, then execute and act on the decision that is made. Doing this allows the team to execute and actually have a course to correct and learn from that.

What's not to do in my opinion is to work half-heartedly and pout because management did not pick "your" option. And if/when the team figures that the course of action chosen isn't working and decides to correct course, the thing not to do is to go "I told you so!".

Your system had some input signals and a desired state or the avoidance of an undesired state, took an action, produced an output, compared it with a desired state, figured there was an error, and now is merely correcting and optimizing given constraints, requirements, and perturbations.

Gently let them know that they are wrong. Depending on the severity of the error, repeat the procedure up to three times with decreasing level of gentleness until they become right. If that doesn't work, don't bother. Also isolate yourself from possible ramifications of the error.

I ask what guided them to the decision on which we disagree.

Typically, you'll find that you have different goals and priorities. And if they are the boss, they get to make the call. If they are a good boss, they'll listen to your reasons before making that call. If you are a good employee, you'll listen to their reasons and accept the result if they choose differently than you would have.

And as an individual, if any of that frustrates you so much that it makes your work difficult, then they are just the boss of your job, not your life. Feel free to make a change.

The manager-tools.com podcast is excellent for things like this. Start with the Professional Subordination one: https://www.manager-tools.com/2010/12/professional-subordina...

I've been on both side of this,you have to know that managers also have a boss. It is the managers job to make whatever plan that was handed down succeed.Depending on the chain of command there may not be a (practical)way for them to push back, think contracts,time constants, lawyers etc.

That would depend entirely on the specifics of the situation.

If management wants to waste money on something stupid and I’ve given my advice, that is their problem, not mine.

If they are violating the law, that’s an entirely different matter.

Prep a plan to save their asses when things blow up. Don't rub it in. Be a hero.

Where do you work dude ? My boss is always right.