Drama at Work is a Symptom
If you are noticing a lot of drama in your workplace, then there is definitely a lack of boundaries happening.
It’s time to reorient your team with some new agreements. To do this you need to sit everyone down and decide where lines are being crossed. Then you all have to decide what agreements need to be made to slow down this toxic behavior. Is it possible you have too many people talking trash about each other? Consequently, it is time to make the agreement that you will go to the person with problems.
Agreements are directly linked to people’s identities
Go to the Person: An Agreement
For this agreement, a good place to start is with sentence stems. Your employees might have not had much chance to practice this skill and sentence stems help. Some sentences stems could be:
So, Sally, the story I’m telling myself is_______, can you clarify for me if I’m thinking in the right direction?
Or: Jaiden, I am noticing ______ and this is how I see it, can you tell me if my perception is off here?
You can try: Hi, Kenyatta, I’m feeling some type of way about our last interaction and I need you to challenge my thinking.
There are a lot of sentence stems on the internet. As everyone practices these communication tools, you will notice a big change in culture.
Why Agreements?
Agreements are directly linked to people’s identities. In an organization, you hold each other to these agreements, which are also known as boundaries. With boundaries you can have A LOT of “appropriate” fun and bring joy back into your workspace.