In the first article, Organizational Dysfunction Part 1: Claim your Power, we explored the #1 most powerful thing you can do in the face of toxic dysfunction – change your internal relationship to the situation. Sometimes, that’s all you need to do to create significant change. When that process doesn’t yield the change you need, then it’s time to explore other possibilities. This article offers six options for creating change, followed by one important question for you.
But let’s start first with a brainstorm. What are all the options you have in this dysfunctional situation? Get creative and list all the possibilities. Out of the list you create, one or more on that list will likely be the path you pursue.
To help you brainstorm, here are The Six Most Common Options my clients and I have explored.
Option 1: Catalyze Change Through Direct Conversations. Communicate with those creating or entangled in the situation with empathy, understanding, and attunement. Usually, it doesn’t work to blast the doors down and fire criticism at anyone who will listen. Most people get fired for that. Instead, you can have a powerful and positive impact when you lean into empathy and explain the unintended consequences and impacts of what’s happening.
A few keys that can help:
- Put yourself in their shoes. Understand where they are coming from.
- Unintended is the keyword. Dysfunction is often unconscious, and the source(s) of the dysfunction rarely intends to create chaos, challenge, or suffering. Walking them into that awareness carefully can provide healthy insight and breakthroughs while minimizing irrevocable conflict.
- Illuminate new possibilities, or offer to brainstorm solutions from a place of “I want all of us to succeed.” Don’t impose yourself or come across like you know better; simply offer support from a place of “We’re in this together.”
- Choose the right time for the conversation. I recently had a VP complain about a horrible forecasting process, but she realized that she would lose social capital if she pushed back now. If she waits and tries to influence change for the next forecasting round, she will have more impact and power to change the dysfunction.
I have clients creating change in their companies by having tough and honest conversations with board members, employees, CEOs, etc. I’ve done this myself, many times.
This option won’t work if the parties involved or controlling the situation have no will or desire to reflect, change, or do better. In those situations, we have to explore other possibilities.
Option 2: Create, Implement, and Embody Cultural Values. I honestly detest superficial company values, but I have seen firsthand the power of real, aligned, and integrated values. They focus employees on what matters most and why it matters. It allows social pressure to be part of moving the needle of change. Again, this won’t work unless the values are active, visible, visual, talked about, celebrated, and implemented by everyone.
One of my all-time favorite examples was at a company where I worked. We had a culture of giving direct feedback and only talking behind someone’s back when we needed to problem-solve something before we spoke directly to them. It was proactive, productive, and effortlessly increased psychological safety. It also circumvented a lot of organizational dysfunction.
I’ve seen many examples of teams who have used cultural values and instituted those values in their processes, such as certain standards for excellence or creating a culture of learning. A great example of integrating these values is blameless post-mortems on a product launch.
But if this doesn’t apply or won’t work, there are still more options.
Option 3: Create New Systems. Sometimes, the right systems can eradicate dysfunctional behavior or trends. This is an especially helpful tool for leaders trying to correct a dysfunctional set of habits in their teams. Is there a system, protocol, or process that will encourage people on the team to make different choices?
For example, at one of my past jobs, the staff struggled with a large volume of needy, complaint-filled calls. We changed the online portal to narrow and automate customer options. The calls went down from 48 per week to two.
Some other examples I’ve seen include training the staff more thoroughly on already existing systems; creating a better employee review system to give growth feedback; and creating new but efficient review processes for projects or initiatives.
Option 4: Conscious Acceptance. When influencing external change is not an option, it may be time to return to mindset shifts. We went through one round of seeing and accepting the situation as it is in the first article, but what I’m talking about here is making an empowered choice to stay in a dysfunctional situation with open eyes. Accept the situation, the limitations, and their impacts. Find your options to make empowered choices. Don’t take it personally and let everything go that’s not yours.
I have a client who has to stay at her job for a complex set of reasons, but the dysfunction at her company is gobsmacking. She has worked hard to use all her levers of influence and power to no avail. So she had to switch tactics and accept the limitations of the people and systems around her. With her eyes wide open and without getting sucked into the dysfunction, she is making conscious choices to use her time and energy in the highest impact ways possible. Most importantly, she feels free and doesn’t take on the stress of the dysfunction.
Though I think it’s always a good idea to practice acceptance, it’s not always a good idea to stay at your job as it is. For some, it’s too big of a compromise of their integrity or well-being. So there are two more options.
Option 5: Start a Coup. The most radical of all the options, this one requires crystal clarity about a coup’s impacts, consequences, reasons why it’s important, and your alignment with it. It also requires that you have other people who are aligned with you.
This is the wrong option if you want to start a coup from a reactive and highly emotional state. Destroying something out of fear or frustration rarely gets you what you want. Destroying something to create something better out of love for the organization or its mission – now that is powerful.
I don’t usually recommend a coup unless something egregious is going on, like a CEO who is embezzling, abusing employees, sending the company into financial ruin, etc. I have had several clients create coups, almost always with the cooperation of their colleagues and/or the board of directors. In one case, they voted out the whole board and executive team and started fresh.
But what do you do if none of the first five options are viable?
Option 6: Quit. Is it worth it to stay? Is this a poop sandwich you are willing to deal with? If not, then it’s time to move on. My rule of thumb: Don’t just leave a situation you hate; actively choose what you want to go towards. If you only run from a negative, you are likely to recreate a similar situation in your next role. Take the time to map out what you want.
If you need a structure to think through what you want, check out “How to Figure Out Your Next Career Move: Your North Star” and “When Is it Time to Quit?”.
Above all else, what are you learning from the situation? I tell all my clients to harvest every last bit of learning from a challenging situation. The bigger the pain in the ass, often the bigger the learning. Learn everything you can now so you don’t replicate problems in the future. You’re here; might as well get your PhD in this type of dysfunction! I can write this article because of the many PhDs I’ve gained from organizational dysfunction. Sometimes dysfunction teaches us as much if not more than highly functional situations.
If you are struggling with organizational dysfunction, did this article inspire new ideas, clarity, or insight? Email me and let me know.
Is someone in your life struggling with a toxic situation? Share this article with them! Thank you.
If you are in a challenging situation and need support to untangle yourself, I invite you to schedule a session with me. New clients can try out a free 30-minute session. I look forward to exploring with you.