Every organization has drama.
Drama is virtually impossible to avoid because organizations consist of people and when you have two or more people together, the potential for drama exists.
That’s not cynical, in my experience, that’s just how things work. Whether it’s good or bad depends on how the organization reacts to and anticipates drama. Organizational drama usually comes from one or more of four sources.
Primary Drama Sources
- The drama that your organization creates.
- The drama that your customers/clients create.
- The drama that your people create.
- The drama that your people bring to your organization
For three of the sources, the leaders of organizations can influence the size, the scope, and extent of drama; however, the fourth and final source is largely outside of your control.
The drama that your organization creates. Awareness that organizations create much of their workplace drama through their systems, processes, and how they communicate surprises many leaders. This revelation, however, can help to avoid or reduce the amount of drama in their organizations. For example, a leading cause of workplace drama is scheduling, for more detail see SCHEDULING. Schedules have a major impact on everyone, organizations should make their schedules fair, balancing work and people’s lives; ensuring good and bad shifts are shared equally. Are your schedules prepared far enough in advance to allow people to make and keep plans?
Other examples of organizational activities that can cause drama or resentment include,
- Not approving time-off requests promptly,
- Unfair rules or policies, for example, having people who are sick being forced to find their own replacements,
- Inconsistent application of policies or rules,
- Arbitrarily changing or lowering commission rates,
- Inability or unwillingness to deal with issues promptly,
- Overt favoritism, and
- Perhaps the worst example, is managers/supervisors losing the faith and respect of their people by not doing what they said they would.
These examples and many others can all be avoided through better awareness and appreciation of the impacts decisions that employers’ decisions have on their people.
Additionally, when hiring, leaders should look for people who have skills, attitudes, and experiences that will help build the organization’s culture. Interview for chemistry, complementary attitudes, and behavior. Check references. Genuinely get to know your people.
The drama that your customers/clients create. Your clients and customers can be a powerful source of drama. Upset or difficult people, see HOW TO DEAL WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE, create drama by upsetting the work environment. This is compounded if your people or co-workers have not been trained properly and lack support to handle those situations. Resentment, anger, and feelings of betrayal can infect an organization and cause severe damage to morale and staff retention.
Proper training, both initial on-boarding and continuous development are two measures within an organization’s control to avoid drama-creating situations. Having upper-level assistance that is consistently available whenever required is important so your people feel supported.
The drama that your people create. Often as a by-product of situations and decisions that one person might feel is unfair, that person can create drama that affects a multitude of people. Many times the drama is created because “the slighted person” creates a whisper campaign and complains to everyone in the organization except those people who can solve, resolve, or clarify the situation. Because of the lack of clarity or understanding, gaps are filled with guesses or innuendo instead of truth.
To avoid drama, good leaders are approachable; they anticipate and know how important it is to explain situations. Perhaps most importantly they have built a culture that is open and transparent. When people know they can ask about why things happen, this kind of drama never takes root because people know and feel their opinions matter and are treated with dignity and respect.
The drama that people bring to your organization. Everyone does this at different times. Life happens and many times the resulting drama is just a by-product of external factors outside of the organization, some are good and some are bad. Knowing what attributes to look for when hiring is helpful. Some extreme personalities seem to thrive on creating drama and this can be revealed when interviewing, particularly if your organization utilizes multiple interviewers. Doing regular performance conversations and taking, the time to learn about your people can help diffuse opportunities and prevent drama from occurring.
Perhaps the real key to reducing organizational drama is appreciating that it is going to happen and having plans on how to manage people and situations that foster the development of drama.
Organizations have some choices,
- Choose to ignore the drama in their organization,
- Intercede and attempt to eliminate all forms of drama,
- Blended approach,
Unchecked, drama can explode from relatively minor incidents to full-blown disasters. I do not recommend only “allowing people to sort it out” themselves. The inequities among your people will reward dominant personalities and punish potential victims even more.
Conversely, I have seen owners, managers, and supervisors try to eliminate any drama from their organizations because of the costs to their business, their people, and their customers. Adopting a “zero tolerance” philosophy to drama usually results in extreme “micromanagement” situations that only succeed in making everyone miserable.
A better approach is a blended methodology. To succeed, a blended approach must have some essential ground rules that are clearly communicated to everyone,
- Treat everyone fairly and as equitably as possible. It is important to understand that equity doesn’t automatically mean equal. A person with four small children under five will require more accommodation when they are sick than a person who has no children; however, the compassion shown to the former can be equitably applied if the other person has an elderly parent who requires extra care.
- Pay attention to issues that your people have. Listen and build a culture of open communication. The best way to reduce drama is to prevent it from occurring. Have “vent” meetings where your people are allowed to complain, without penalty, about things that are bothering them.
- If the issue is about a certain individual, protect the privacy of the complainant and the problem person. Ensure that your people feel comfortable about reporting problems and aren’t worried about retribution. Ask the person complaining about their suggestions on possible solutions. Ask if they would prefer to be anonymous.
- Do not allow harassment, bullying, or discrimination. Communicate and post what your organization’s standards are.
- Do not allow issues to escalate. If your organization prefers that people work out their differences ensure that everyone understands if the issue cannot be resolved then the organization will investigate and then will impose a solution.
- Owners, managers, and supervisors have a responsibility to resolve issues. Abdicating or waffling when a clearly established line has been crossed erodes trust, confidence, and faith in the culture of the organization and its leadership
Have an action plan
Remember the adage is “Aim, ready, shoot,” too many times action is not planned or rushed and the “law of unintended consequences” comes into play. When dealing with the perpetrators of drama, try to be calm and poised, and avoid being drawn into the drama yourself. Decide on the desired outcome that you want to see and create a plan to get there. Your plan should appreciate the maturity of those involved and you should acknowledge your other people are watching to ensure that you deal with the problem. Know that at least one person will likely be unhappy with your solution and anticipate that as part of your action plan.
Have a key person “red-team” (see USING RED TEAMS) your plan and create some “what if …,” plans, and then implement your plan.
Drama is always going to exist.
Anticipate the sources of drama and manage your organization to prevent as many issues as possible. Appreciate that your policies and practices may be one of the largest causes of drama. Hire people who fit into your organizational culture. Encourage “venting” as a relief valve. And, when drama occurs, evaluate the level and intensity of the drama and take the required action.
You are going to make mistakes.
Learn from them, and do your best.
Good luck,
Paul.