#213 Outsmarting Office Politics with Jennifer Selby Long – Part One

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Chief Change Officer™: Ensemble 25 min 2 speakers 6 chapters transcribed
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Why do office politics exist?

Vince Chan 4:00
What factors contribute to the crisis in the modern workplace?

What factors contribute to workplace political crises?

Jennifer Selby Long 4:06
I think it's a very fair and valid question. Why do they exist and what are those factors that contribute to the prevalence of politics in our modern workplaces? In my practice, what I see are two main reasons that office politics exist. The first one is failure to build trust and cohesion, which is, if you will, the subjective or personal reason. And the second one's failure to align on strategy or strategic direction, which is more the business side. I do think politics are part of a human condition, and they always have been. Now, there is a newer factor that I think contributes today, and that's the global and virtual nature of many businesses combined with what I'm going to boldly call a certain willful blindness on the part of nearly everyone to accept some of the hard realities and trade-offs of that situation or condition.

How do virtual work environments impact office dynamics?

Jennifer Selby Long 5:04
So fundamentally, what we know is even in today's more virtual environment, people who need to make difficult decisions together in a complex business environment actually need to be together in person far more often than most of us realize. So the resistance to this comes from both employees who've now gotten used to working at home. They're resisting traveling to get together for off sites, resisting coming to office locations to work together in person. And from senior leaders who went set that travel and entertainment budget that's going to be needed to bring people together who aren't in the same city. Certainly quite a bit more than once a year. Now, Vince, would you like a recent example? Yes, please.

Can in-person meetings resolve team conflicts?

Jennifer Selby Long 5:56
An example would be nice. A leadership team that I worked with over several years now, and they used to work together really well. In fact, when I first started working with them, we didn't even do any sort of team effectiveness assessment because I assessed informally this team is very effective. That's not what they need my help with.

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