Tagged with: cheat • cheating • dark side • deviant-behavior • different rule sets • dishonesty • elephant in the room • hidden agenda • information pollution • leading by example • poli • politics • rules of engagement • transparency
Ever tried to have a conversation while your aunt Edna is yapping, loud, having a chat with someone else one feet away?
It’s hard to concentrate when another conversation is interfering with yours. Your communication channel gets polluted.
Aunty Edna isn’t aware of what see is doing. She didn’t intend to sabotage my conversation. I guess. I hope.
If in a team all members are interacting using the same rules, you can get stellar results. No need for central coordination.
Polluting Interactions
Problems arise when the interactions get polluted, when people are operating under a different rule set. By accident or on purpose.
If someone is unaware of the rules of engagement the solution is very simple: you address it, you talk about it.
The Dark Side
If someone is cheating, if a person is showing his dark side by knowingly polluting the communication channel (using corporate politics, pushing his own agenda, being dishonest) you use the same strategy: address it. If there is an elephant in the room, it is best to introduce him.
A good cure against people using their own rules is transparency. Make the actions within the team visible to the team.
No, you should not tell everyone that Joe is slow and late as always. But you should make sure that the team gets the proper metrics and progress information to determine the “health” of their operation.
And always, always lead by example. Show the team how it’s done.
Sometimes when the culture of the entire organization is polluted then it really becomes difficult to find a solution. So the better strategy is to walk out of that place as soon as possible.
Hi Priya, exactly! I was pondering on this point for a future post. For transparency to work, to keep people honest/inline/fair/etc, the surrounding environment/larger organization must be honest/fair/etc. otherwise this will not work.
And in that case, you are quite right, a sincere option is to walk away.
Bas-
Your post does a grand job of setting ground rules for group interplay and communication standards. Face it: if you can’t get the communication to proper standard, what areas won’t the project suffer in?
A recent post at How to Manage a Camel by Elizabeth Harrin also addressed the Communication standard issue: It’s available at http://projectcentric.co.uk/how_to_manage_a_camel/projectmanagement/communicate_three_times/.
Many thanks for this post and the chance to comment.
Dan Strayer
PR Co-ordinator
Arras People
http://www.arraspeople.co.uk
Priya I disagree with you because if such situation is created in an entire organization and the organization size is too large than it is the real chance for you to show the leadership skills to prove your skills. For me the better strategy is to stay and by using your skills overcome the pollution(if you have the skills and you think you can!).