How to Use Group Dynamics to Stamp Out Ugly Politics

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Over lunch, my friend provided an update on his career at a thriving start-up. Previously when Adam talked about his job, he enthused about the challenges and teamwork.

Today, Adam lamented about a subtle shift in culture as the company has grown. For the first time since joining three years ago, politics registered on his threat meter. In some recent exchanges, his meter had gone to red alert.

Since this was causing my friend distress, I suggested that he raise the issue at the next Friday beer bust. (He works in Silicon Valley).  My recommendation was to leverage group dynamics to reinforce the group's values and modulate behavior.

The Game Plan

1. Relate Politics to Broader GoalsAdam would introduce his concern that dysfunctional politics could derail the company from achieving its goals.

2. Make Them See
He would then take specific incidents from his current job --- but change the names and setting. It is critical that he put these examples in context of his previous big company experiences where politics stifled productivity and creativity.

3. Inspire with a "Call To Action"
Next he would challenge the leadership and his colleagues to avoid the fate of so many companies who reach a certain size and experience an explosion of politics. Adam could frame the challenge by asking "How can we work together to avoid that type of energy-sucking behavior? How can we grow-up the company without down-sizing teamwork?"

This Socratic type of questioning should elicit a strong response from leadership on the need to stay focused on the goal and a strong chorus from the troops who also prefer politics-free workplace. In fact, the recent  perpetrators of dysfunctional political behavior are likely to voice support for politics-free.

4. Let Them Figure It Out; Facilitate the Discussion as Needed
Adam should plan on posing some additional questions:

• "What are the types of political behaviors that people find energy draining?" This would add to the few scenarios that Adam already described.  
• "What should we do when we see examples of politics?" This should encourage the group to define  how to hold each other accountable.
• "We still want to have the tough conversations about strategy and issues. How should people raise topics constructively?" Politics-free is not issues free. To continue to grow and thrive, the company will encounter many challenges that need to be reviewed and solved.

If the free-flow discussion covered any of these topics, Adam could briefly summarize the lessons. The important role as facilitator is for Adam to avoid letting the conversation digress into a whine session. The goal is to agree on some positive actions that can be implemented immediately. 
This first discussion should cover a lot of ground. Yet keeping the culture politcs-free will require follow-up to dig deeper and sustain the commitment.
This scenario examined a newer organization. But this approach is effective for older organizations but may take several sessions for honest and helpful dialog to emerge if the team has been hardened by corrosive politics.

Benefits

The benefits of this approach are:

• It calls out bad behavior in a way that people can "save face". Rather than accuse Mark from marketing of making a power play, the behavior rather than the person is the focus.  
• The group setting avoids a one-on-one confrontation that can easily escalate into an unproductive stalemate. The group will confirm that politics-free is not just Adam's value, but a critical component of the company's culture. 
• Those individuals who had started to engage in ugly political behavior can reflect in private and perhaps change on their own.
• The group agrees to what specific types of behavior are political. Otherwise, some people may be too sensitive (everything stressful is politics) while others are too Machiavellian ("the end justifies the means"). 
• Most importantly, there will be agreement by the group on how to diffuse politically charged situations and discuss in a healthy way.  

This is an important crossroad for a growing company. If this change is handled well, it can bring the team closer together and maintain an important advantage --- an open and honest environment that nurtures the creative spark.

And reignite my my friend Adam's enthusiasm for his work.