
Mustang stallions fighting. With tooth and hoof, stallions use these fights — most often — to settle differences of opinion about reproductive rights. The mares usually accept the result of these conflicts, though they do occasionally object. The social system of the wild horse functions to optimize the fitness of the next generation, because in Nature, there's little room for anything less than the best. Organizations can learn much from Nature's systems. Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey.
The mythology about best practices is that they universally improve every organization. The truth is more likely that organizations are so idiosyncratic that any practice born elsewhere probably needs tailoring before it can be imported. My old shoes are very comfortable for me, but they probably aren't for you.
Worst practices are different — they're almost universally disastrous. We know this because, sadly, nearly everyone tries them. Here's a short list of some worst practices.
- Provide only outdated equipment. Even better: make people share outdated equipment.
- For security, lock all portable computers to desks
- Never, ever train anybody
- Use training as a reward. Provide it only to those who need it least.
- To increase productivity, increase pressure
- Let acrimony persist until it's truly injurious
- Leave in place people who are clearly incapable of doing much of anything
- Assign blame
- Spend time defending yourself in case someone, someday decides to assign blame
- Take credit for work done by subordinates or colleagues
- Give credit to one person for what was a team effort, ignoring everyone else's contributions
- Kill the messenger: punish people who deliver bad news
- Kill the nonmessenger: after you get bad news, punish those who knew about it but didn't tell you because you have a reputation for killing the messenger
- Force consensus by shaming or punishing those few souls foolish enough to disagree with the "correct" position
- Force consensus without allowing time for sufficient discussion
- Make decisions autocratically even when there's time for consensus
- Have favorite subordinates who can do no wrong
- The worst thing about
worst practices isn't their
consequences; it's that we
keep using them despite
their consequencesHave troubled subordinates who can do no right, even when they do right - As team owner, publicly castigate team members
- Publicly overrule a subordinate manager, citing information obtained from one of his or her subordinates
- "Sit in" on a subordinate's meeting unannounced
- Make the problem excessively complicated by raising herds of ancillary minor issues
- Angrily say things that hurt people, damaging the group's ability to collaborate
- Add new people to the team. Even better: do it in a way that raises questions about the abilities of incumbents
- "Temporarily" transfer some team member(s) to another effort
- Conduct "emergency" project reviews regularly
- Increase the budget without warning
- Decrease the budget
- Circulate rumors that maybe we'll be cutting the budget
- Tighten project scope to maintain schedule
- Use (faked) schedule urgency as a way of managing spending
- Remove or relax some requirements
- After work is well underway, add new requirements or tighten existing requirements
- Reassign some work from one team member to another
- Assign the same work to two people (or teams) without their knowing it
- Assign to one person work already completed by another
- Assign work to two people, together, without designating either one as lead
Count how many of these you've seen. Even scarier: count how many you've done. Top
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Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
Managing Risk Revision
- Prudent risk management begins by accepting the possibility that unpleasant events might actually happen.
But when organizations try to achieve goals that are a bit out of reach, they're often tempted to stretch
resources by revising or denying risks. Here's a tactic for managing risk revision.
Beyond Our Control
- When bad things happen, despite our plans and our best efforts, we sometimes feel responsible. We failed.
We could have done more. But is that really true? Aren't some things beyond our control?
The Deck Chairs of the Titanic: Obvious Waste
- Among the most futile and irrelevant actions ever taken in crisis is rearranging the deck chairs of
the Titanic, which, of course, never actually happened. But in the workplace, we engage in
activities just as futile and irrelevant, often outside our awareness. Recognition is the first step
to prevention.
Just Make It Happen
- Many idolize the no-nonsense manager who says, "I don't want to hear excuses, just make it happen."
We associate that stance with strong leadership. Sometimes, though, it's little more than abuse motivated
by ambition or ignorance — or both.
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 for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming February 8: Kerfuffles That Seem Like Something More
- Much of what we regard as political conflict is a series of squabbles commonly called kerfuffles. They captivate us while they're underway, but after a month or two they're forgotten. Why do they happen? Why do they persist? Available here and by RSS on February 8.
And on February 15: Four Razors for Organizational Behavior
- Deviant organizational behavior can harm the people and the organization. In choosing responses, we consider what drives the perpetrators. Considering Malice, Incompetence, Ignorance, and Greed, we can devise four guidelines for making these choices. Available here and by RSS on February 15.
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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