{"id":5165,"date":"2023-11-27T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T07:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/?p=5165"},"modified":"2025-01-31T08:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T06:55:17","slug":"off-handed-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/27\/off-handed-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-Handed Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

In most organisations, power is seen to rest in the hands of managers. The more senior the manager, the more power. Yet in reality, power rests with each and every person in a team. Sometimes exercising that power can have significant effect – and sometimes it can be off-handed and unintentional.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can you remember back to your school days? One thing I can recall is the power of groups. Kids from a very young age would form in-groups. These were groups \u2018by association\u2019 \u2013 young people who saw elements of themselves in others would attract one another and create a group. Children who didn\u2019t fit the image of a group were sometimes cruelly dealt with.<\/p>\n

So we had a group of sporting\u00a0elites who bonded together, we had\u00a0the \u2018troublemakers\u2019 bond together,\u00a0we had young people who were\u00a0more interested in music create a\u00a0group, and so on.<\/p>\n

The strength and independence\u00a0of these groups were often sustained\u00a0by disparaging those who\u00a0were not in them. The \u2018sporting\u00a0elites\u2019 would treat the \u2018troublemakers\u2019\u00a0with scant disregard. And\u00a0the \u2018reading\u2019 group would not dare\u00a0walk the path of the sporting elites.\u00a0Discussions within groups would often\u00a0centre on the inadequacies of\u00a0people in other groups. It was often\u00a0very cruel.<\/p>\n

Perhaps my childhood memories\u00a0have distorted reality, but this is one\u00a0element of behaviour of the very\u00a0young that, in my view has sustained\u00a0itself into adulthood. And I\u00a0see it (and participate in it all too often)\u00a0a great deal.<\/p>\n

Picture this. You are in a work\u00a0group which is in a relaxed mood\u00a0and there is an open discussion taking\u00a0place. Someone from another\u00a0department \u2013 Bob \u2013 is soon to be\u00a0relocating to your department. You\u00a0ask your team-mates, \u201cSo what\u2019s\u00a0the story with Bob? What\u2019s he like?\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to your question, your team mates look at one another and one person speaks up \u2013 \u201cHow do I say this without being too nasty…\u00a0Bob is…..\u201d Another person picks up\u00a0the discussion and says, \u2018I think\u00a0you\u2019ve just said it all\u2019.<\/p>\n

If this group is like most groups in\u00a0these contexts, it will be cordial to\u00a0Bob on his arrival, but it will not offer\u00a0much more. Bob\u2019s reputation precedes\u00a0him, and the group would\u00a0have to be convinced that he is NOT\u00a0as bad as they think he is.<\/p>\n

This is sophisticated as, unlike\u00a0the schoolyard variety, the badmouthing\u00a0is subtle yet pointed. Sometimes, words do not need to\u00a0be used \u2013 facial expressions can\u00a0convey what a person really thinks.\u00a0It is off-handed as it is usually done\u00a0in the recipient\u2019s absence and may\u00a0not even be intended to be malicious.\u00a0The recipient does not know\u00a0that they are being discussed in\u00a0negative terms, yet they suffer the\u00a0consequences. It is powerful in that\u00a0one person\u2019s comments can totally\u00a0influence the group behaviour.<\/p>\n

The UGRs (Unwritten Ground\u00a0Rules) in these contexts are interesting\u00a0to ponder. One UGR might be
\n\u2018Around here, it\u2019s OK (maybe even fun) to bad-mouth other people\u2019<\/em>. Another might be \u2018Around here, our groups are tight-knitted and entry to them is to be guarded against\u2019<\/em>. It\u00a0would be beneficial to all to eliminate\u00a0these UGRs and the consequences\u00a0of them!<\/p>\n

This is what we might consider to be \u2018Sophisticated Off-Handed Power\u2019.
\nOne person badmouths another, and the recipient unknowingly suffers for what might be a lengthy period of time.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In most organisations, power is seen to rest in the hands of managers. The more senior the manager, the more power. Yet in reality, power rests with each and every…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,81,87,88,82,89,90,80],"class_list":["post-5165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workplace-culture","tag-corporate-culture","tag-culture","tag-leadership","tag-leading","tag-organisational-culture","tag-ugrs","tag-unwritten-ground-rules","tag-workplace-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5165"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5170,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165\/revisions\/5170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}