You may feel you work in a place rife with drama.  Each day you’re faced with clandestine meetings behind closed doors, rampant complaints about bosses, co-workers quietly crying in the bathroom and colleagues that have raised back-biting and undermining to a fine-art.

That’s drama.

Or, you may experience very little drama at work.  What drama does exist is limited to a few kill-joys; the guy in accounting who never cracks a smile or the self-important executive assistant who with-holds information like a CIA operative behind enemy lines.

And if you feel there is absolutely no drama at work, you might look again.  Drama comes in many clever disguises;

The…. Friendly Gossip, Change Resistor, Incessant Complainer, Conflict Avoider, Blame Deflector, Reality Arguer and more…

According to Cy Wakeman, Founder of Reality Based Leadership; The average person spends 2½ hours per day engaged in drama at their workplace.

Wait.  Two and a half hours per day of drama?

So, minimizing drama in the workplace is the goal, but where to begin?

Coach Me Quick Tips to make your workplace a “No-Drama” zone:

1. No-Gossip Zone.  Complaining gives oxygen to problems.  Implement a No Gossip plan.  If a team member has a challenge, they speak directly to the person who can help them identify and implement a solution.
2. No-Blame Zone.  If people are concerned about being blamed, they deflect and make excuses.  If you eliminate blame by diverting any blame-based commentary to solution-based conversations, people will start taking responsibility faster.
3. No-Hiding Zone.  Trust your team to rise to any occasion by empowering them to step up.  Put the change resister in charge of smooth changes and the conflict avoider, on the front lines to solve problems.
4. No-Playing-It-Safe Zone.  Make everyone personally responsible for their outcomes and empowered to produce results.
5.  No-Ego Zone.  Train your team to win by working together.  Support your team members when they successfully collaborate.

Can you eliminate 30 minutes of drama per day?  If so, that’s a whopping 2 1/5 hours of extra productivity per employee, per week.  Even if that time is spent napping, it’ll be more productive!

Zzzzzzzzzzing in L.A.

Jamee

P.S.  For more on this topic, check out Cy Wakeman’s keynote at the 2018 SXSW/No Ego: Ditch Drama& Drive Big Results