By assigning a task to two or more impossibly incompatible people, the political operator creates a three-legged race. Perhaps you remember the races from picnics long ago — participants pair up, and standing side-by-side, the right-hand partners tie their left legs to the right legs of the left-hand partners. The pairs then run a race, and comical spills are inevitable.
Three-legged races might be funny at picnics, but in business they're extremely dangerous, because the political operator who selects the race partners has likely arranged for failure. By exploiting a past history of conflict, leadership ambiguity, organizational tensions, or contention for the same promotion, the operator ensures project sabotage, or damage to one or both careers.
Three-legged races are especially challenging when the partners hold joint responsibility for mission success. But even if one is designated lead, there can still be significant trouble if one partner is required to accept the other and is ordered to "make it work."
Three-legged races
might be funny
at picnics, but
in business
they're dangerousEven if you aren't now engaged in a three-legged race, look around. If others are lashed together, or have been in the past, check for patterns. Is it cultural? Does one specific player repeatedly create three-legged races? If so, your turn will come.
If you find yourself in a three-legged race, what can you do?
- Show your partner this essay
- Giving a name to this dynamic helps you both talk about it together. When you both see that someone else has arranged for your troubles, you can see your common interest more clearly.
- Come to consensus about your situation
- Whoever tied you together might be unaware of how destructive the arrangement can be, but more often, the tactic is a cynical attempt to undermine the project or to damage careers. Try to come to consensus about what's really going on.
- Ask for help
- If you can't work things out between you, ask for outside assistance. A professional mediator or facilitator can help both of you see things a bit differently. Avoid asking for help from the operator who lashed you together. By now, you know where that leads.
- If you can't work it out, prepare contingencies
- Things may be so far gone that consensus is impossible, even with the help of a professional. If you're unable to agree, head for the exit. Even if you have enough power in the situation to prevail, your partner usually has enough strength to sabotage the effort. Getting out might be your best option.
Perhaps, as a manager, you arrange three-legged races to give warring parties a chance to "work together" to resolve their problems. Even though you mean well, find another way to help them — this method puts them and the organization at risk. Get help. Dealing with interpersonal difficulties directly actually does work. Top Next Issue
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Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
- Why Don't They Believe Me?
- When we want people to believe us, and they don't, it just might be a result of our own actions or demeanor.
How does this happen?
- Kinds of Organizational Authority: the Informal
- Understanding Power, Authority, and Influence depends on familiarity with the kinds of authority found
in organizations. Here's Part II of a little catalog of authority, emphasizing informal authority.
- Before You Blow the Whistle: I
- When organizations know that they've done something they shouldn't have, or they haven't done something
they should have, they often try to conceal the bad news. When dealing with whistleblowers, they can
be especially ruthless.
- The End-to-End Cost of Meetings: II
- Few of us realize where all the costs of meetings really are. Some of the most significant cost sources
are outside the meeting room. Here's Part II of our exploration of meeting costs.
- The Perils of Limited Agreement
- When a group member agrees to a proposal, even with conditions, the group can move forward. Such agreement
is constructive, but there are risks. What are those risks and what can we do about them?
See also Workplace Politics, Managing Your Boss and Devious Political Tactics for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
- Coming April 24: Antipatterns for Time-Constrained Communication: 1
- Knowing how to recognize just a few patterns that can lead to miscommunication can be helpful in reducing the incidence of problems. Here is Part 1 of a collection of communication antipatterns that arise in technical communication under time pressure. Available here and by RSS on April 24.
- And on May 1: Antipatterns for Time-Constrained Communication: 2
- Recognizing just a few patterns that can lead to miscommunication can reduce the incidence of problems. Here is Part 2 of a collection of antipatterns that arise in technical communication under time pressure, emphasizing those that depend on content. Available here and by RSS on May 1.
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Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group