The Drama-Free Workplace

6 Anticipating and Preparing for Drama-Causing Events

Assuming you’re able to resist the pull of irrational fear when deciding whether to make the trek to the top of the Healthy Workplace Culture Pyramid, you might astutely recognize the need to identify hazards that you might encounter along the way.  And you might equally recognize the need to identify ways to avoid or prepare for these potential threats.

Anticipating Workplace Drama

Too few companies identify critical turning points, moments in time that inevitably give rise to workplace drama. Although my experience as an investigator brought me to the workplace when a crisis was already unfolding, I was able to identify the point in time when a conflict turned into full-blown drama. I could write a timeline that spotted the moment a decision was made, an action was taken (or not taken) or a word was spoken (or not spoken) that turned run-of-the-mill workplace strife into full-blown drama.

I began to see patterns and categorized the triggers that helped to predict drama and also identified steps companies could and should take to head drama off at the pass.

Many drama triggers are behavior-based and are outlined in detail in the chapters about sexual harassment (Chapter 2), bias and diversity (Chapter 3), and ethics lapses (Chapter 4). But what I’ve seen over and over in the workplace is drama triggered not only by the way in which someone was treated (disrespectful interaction), but also because of:

• A perception of unfair ...