Creating A Strategy To Survive A Toxic Organization

 

In last week’s blog I discussed a sequential series of steps that Project Management Offices can (will?) go through as they cycle between states of disarray and excellence. I have to admit that, when I saw ProjectManagement.com’s theme for November, Organizational Culture, the temptation was to pass along horror stories of orgs that I had worked for that took “dysfunction” to amazing levels. Upon further review, though, I began to realize that each of those horrific teams had one thing in common: they had distinctly moved away from (or abandoned altogether) basing hiring, firing, and promotion/demotion decisions on merit.

Of course, railing against non-meritocracy-based organizations is easy. But such finger-wagging helps not at all those caught in such establishments. In most cases, if the truly talented could leave, they would, meaning that the two most intuitive remedies for the condition of being caught in a toxic work environment – leaving, or getting everybody to behave as if they’re in a meritocracy, – aren’t practically available. So, what’s left? What’s needed is a strategy for surviving the toxic work environment, one that provides for maintaining an existing status at least, provides hope for advancement, or transfer across (or even up) to a nearby organization. And for that, let’s take a look at one of the most potentially toxic environments on Earth, the dysfunctional family unit.

I’m going to adjust the definitions of the archetypal roles assumed by children in a dysfunctional family unit gleaned from the Out of the Storm website (https://www.outofthestorm.website/dysfunctional-family-roles) for use in a business setting, so:

• The Golden Child is a clear favorite, almost to the point of never being perceived as doing anything wrong.
• The Mascot overtly displays loyalty to the parents in an attempt to avoid the more negative aspects of being in that particular family.
• The Lost Child attempts to go about their business with minimal interaction with the negative familial environment.
• The Scapegoat receives the brunt of the blame for everything that’s wrong with the family, whether it’s deserved or not.

This interpretation brings the dysfunctional family roles more in line with my favorite organizational archetype structure, that proffered by Michael Maccoby in his book The Gamesman (Simon and Schuster, 1976):

• The Gamesman sees his particular industry as a type of game. Because of this, he is more likely to have mastered the “rules,” as well as being more likely to take chances.
• The Company Man tends to assume the persona of the team around him.
• The Craftsman doesn’t care so much about who he works for, but cares a great deal about the quality of his particular output.
• The Jungle Fighter gets ahead through political machinations and deceit more than actual performance.

When I was doing the research for my third book The Unavoidable Hierarchy: Who’s Who In Your Organization, And Why (Routledge Publishing, 2016) I was struck by the similarities in these two structures, even before I learned about other analogous categorizations (e.g., archetypes in massive, multi-player online role-playing games posited by Richard Bartle). Combining these structures with the game theorists’ favorite tool, the payoff grid, we see:

Based on this analysis/structure, the way to formulate a strategy to survive the toxic work environment is as follows:

• If you’re a Golden Child, your merit is assumed, true or not. The only real threat here is if you are ever perceived to be disloyal, which is probably the angle that the Jungle Fighters will use to attack. Really not much you can do about this, but that’s the price for succeeding in a dysfunctional organization.
• The Mascot can try to establish their value to the organization, but, by definition, the toxic work environment doesn’t reward talent as much as it does loyalty. Simply continue fawning over showing support for you superiors, and you should be okay.
• The dysfunctional organization views the Lost Child/Craftsman as necessary in pursuing the team’s goals, but unwelcome. This archetype is the one most likely to recognize any errors in the stated technical agenda, making their exposure more likely. If you are in this category, simply continue making yourself valuable to the execution of the technical agenda, and try to keep off of the exec’s radar screen. You can outlast them, or last long enough to leave on your terms.

• I lumped the Scapegoats in with the Jungle Fighters because, generally speaking, neither can point to a specific contribution to the technical agenda as a reason for their placement in the group. However, it’s not unusual for truly broken teams to try to force a Craftsman into this bracket in order to minimize their influence. If you are a true contributor, and find yourself in this category, do whatever it takes to move towards Lost Child/Craftsman. Otherwise, it will become fairly easy to make your work life more miserable, if not bring it to an abrupt end altogether.

Dark subject, I know. But if you are in such an organization, don’t bother to tape a hard copy of this blog on your dysfunctional boss’ door. If he isn’t maladjusted, nothing here is relevant. And, if he is, then he won’t take a long, hard look at his management style, and contemplate returning to a merit-based system. He’ll just frantically hunt for the person who dared to tape such a communication to his door.