Have you ever found yourself wondering why there is so much politics in the office? And how this wrecks both value-creation and many a career?
For example: Brendan, a smart new hire with an MBA, was the most junior member of a team that was put together to analyze growth possibilities for the company. Sensing a threat, others on the team "forgot" to brief Brendan before a key meeting, delegated to him time-consuming and low-level tasks, or picked his ideas to death. Eventually he threw in the towel -- and took his good ideas to a competitor.
When we lift the lid on office politics, what we find are "games." The game that was played with Brendan we call the "Marginalize" game: subtle exclusion, cutting people out of decision-making loops, for personal or political reasons.
But there are many more games that are played at work and over time they sabotage the workplace by destroying trust, stifling innovation, preventing learning and diverting time from customers to internal bickering.
Examples of games:
Gotcha: identifying and communicating others' mistakes to the boss.
The Boss Said: invoking the name of a senior executive to imply that what they are saying is gospel.
Big Splash Career Hopper: starting a new job with a great "big idea" that seems bold and requires massive change, marketing the heck out of it to senior managers, and then getting promoted quickly enough that you don't have to live with the consequences of the mess you have caused.
Kill the Messenger: destroying the people bringing you bad news, so that soon you are isolated from the truth and surrounded by "yes men."
Sandbagging: deliberately low-balling your sales estimates to impact your bonus.
Games flourish in certain environments, and you need to factor this into your choice of employer and workplace.
Telltale signs of game-playing at work:
· Large egos that are unmanaged
· High levels of paranoia about others
· Intense pressure for short-term results or else
· High level of virtual environment combined with e-mail communication
· Low levels of trust, high levels of finger pointing
· People bad-mouthing their bosses or peers in front of their teams
· Extreme hierarchy
What really sucks about game playing is that in addition to creating a workplace that is toxic, it is also bad for business. And if it is bad for business, it is bad for longer-term employment also. It is bad for business because it distorts and sabotages some of these major functions that need to be carried out in a business:
Decision making
How can you make good decisions when people are playing "Old War Hero," a game where someone who has "seen it all" downplays all new ideas? Or when bosses play "Token Involvement," a game in which they pretend they want input but have already made up their mind?
Budgeting
How can you plan for the company's financial future when people are playing "Slush Fund," a game where a manager squirrels away and mislabels a special part of the budget for a rainy day? Or someone is playing "Channel Stuffing," a game where sales are "created" by feeding the distribution channels to meet a year-end goal, while distorting the real sales picture in the process?
Objective setting and performance management
How can you set goals and measure performance when people are playing "Marginalize" or "No Bad Feedback," a game where the boss suppresses negative feedback to the employee to avoid uncomfortable discussions, thus preventing the employee from having a chance to improve? Or when "Entitlement" is played (where a long-standing relationship causes soft goal-setting and subjective evaluations)?
Driving change
How can you drive change when people are playing "Let's Not Rock the Boat" or "Gray Zone" (a game where the boss creates deliberate ambiguity to avoid direct confrontations)?
Games seem to fulfill basic human needs for control, for security, for attention. But ultimately, playing games is playing to lose. Companies where games are played a lot collapse in on themselves eventually. If you want to have a long and successful career, start by picking a company where it´s not so much about players, but really about colleagues.
By Philip Read and Mauricio Goldstein authors of "Games at Work: How to Recognize and Reduce Office Politics" published by Jossey-Bass. For more information visit: www.games-at-work.com.
For example: Brendan, a smart new hire with an MBA, was the most junior member of a team that was put together to analyze growth possibilities for the company. Sensing a threat, others on the team "forgot" to brief Brendan before a key meeting, delegated to him time-consuming and low-level tasks, or picked his ideas to death. Eventually he threw in the towel -- and took his good ideas to a competitor.
When we lift the lid on office politics, what we find are "games." The game that was played with Brendan we call the "Marginalize" game: subtle exclusion, cutting people out of decision-making loops, for personal or political reasons.
But there are many more games that are played at work and over time they sabotage the workplace by destroying trust, stifling innovation, preventing learning and diverting time from customers to internal bickering.
Examples of games:
Gotcha: identifying and communicating others' mistakes to the boss.
The Boss Said: invoking the name of a senior executive to imply that what they are saying is gospel.
Big Splash Career Hopper: starting a new job with a great "big idea" that seems bold and requires massive change, marketing the heck out of it to senior managers, and then getting promoted quickly enough that you don't have to live with the consequences of the mess you have caused.
Kill the Messenger: destroying the people bringing you bad news, so that soon you are isolated from the truth and surrounded by "yes men."
Sandbagging: deliberately low-balling your sales estimates to impact your bonus.
Games flourish in certain environments, and you need to factor this into your choice of employer and workplace.
Telltale signs of game-playing at work:
· Large egos that are unmanaged
· High levels of paranoia about others
· Intense pressure for short-term results or else
· High level of virtual environment combined with e-mail communication
· Low levels of trust, high levels of finger pointing
· People bad-mouthing their bosses or peers in front of their teams
· Extreme hierarchy
What really sucks about game playing is that in addition to creating a workplace that is toxic, it is also bad for business. And if it is bad for business, it is bad for longer-term employment also. It is bad for business because it distorts and sabotages some of these major functions that need to be carried out in a business:
Decision making
How can you make good decisions when people are playing "Old War Hero," a game where someone who has "seen it all" downplays all new ideas? Or when bosses play "Token Involvement," a game in which they pretend they want input but have already made up their mind?
Budgeting
How can you plan for the company's financial future when people are playing "Slush Fund," a game where a manager squirrels away and mislabels a special part of the budget for a rainy day? Or someone is playing "Channel Stuffing," a game where sales are "created" by feeding the distribution channels to meet a year-end goal, while distorting the real sales picture in the process?
Objective setting and performance management
How can you set goals and measure performance when people are playing "Marginalize" or "No Bad Feedback," a game where the boss suppresses negative feedback to the employee to avoid uncomfortable discussions, thus preventing the employee from having a chance to improve? Or when "Entitlement" is played (where a long-standing relationship causes soft goal-setting and subjective evaluations)?
Driving change
How can you drive change when people are playing "Let's Not Rock the Boat" or "Gray Zone" (a game where the boss creates deliberate ambiguity to avoid direct confrontations)?
Games seem to fulfill basic human needs for control, for security, for attention. But ultimately, playing games is playing to lose. Companies where games are played a lot collapse in on themselves eventually. If you want to have a long and successful career, start by picking a company where it´s not so much about players, but really about colleagues.
By Philip Read and Mauricio Goldstein authors of "Games at Work: How to Recognize and Reduce Office Politics" published by Jossey-Bass. For more information visit: www.games-at-work.com.
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Playing Games at Work - How office politics sabotage the workplace Updated at :
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
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