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A few columns ago I mentioned a science fiction story titled “The Political Engineer” and asked if anyone remembered the authors. Patrick Berry remembered reading it in an anthology of stories by Cyril Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl titled Critical Mass.

Thanks, Patrick.

Lots of IS Survivalists expressed their appreciation for that column. Many see themselves as apolitical engineers treated poorly by politicized corporate cultures. So here’s a question: What are you going to do about it?

You have three choices: leave, learn enough about corporate politics to avoid being victimized, or suffer. Pick one.

The problem my correspondents described — nontechnical managers making technical decisions without involving the engineers — has nothing to do with politics, though. Not the good kind (figuring out how to move forward when legitimately different points of view collide) nor the bad (back-stabbing and hidden agendas).

While it may seem to be politics, the problem is our natural tendency, as human beings, to trust and associate with those most like us. It’s a lack of appreciation for diversity.

Think of the executive ranks of your company. Can you think of anyone who’s there without any visible achievements that seem to warrant it? Think about the fast-trackers who aren’t executives, but who obviously will be. What is it about them that makes them fast-trackers? Ability? Maybe.

In many businesses there’s a sort of executive club. Some people belong to it. Others don’t. Its members can spot each other from a distance and say, “Yes, he’s one of us.” Nonmembers mistakenly call it the old boys’ network, but it’s nothing of the kind. It’s a club and you’re either a member or you’re not.

It’s depressingly like a high school clique, where you know who’s in it and you know you’re not. I suspect sociologists have written oodles of research papers on this subject (if not, it’s fertile soil for some Ph.D. candidate) but we don’t need research papers. We need a manual. Nobody has ever written a step-by-step instruction manual for joining the clique. (Memo to IDG Books: Publish Joining Cliques for Dummies.)

That’s why so much of today’s diversity training is completely ineffectual. While discrimination based on race and ethnicity still happens (and is inexcusable) far more comes from distrusting people with different thought patterns than skin color. As a friend put it, lots of companies hire and promote people of all races, creeds and backgrounds, as long as they think alike. Real diversity comes from differing points of view, perspectives, priorities, and values. Valuing real diversity is the antithesis of being part of the clique.

Did I say “the clique”? I meant “a clique,” because there’s more than one. Techies have cliques, too. So do most other identifiable groups. If you’re part of a clique, you probably don’t even recognize it. That changes nothing.

How well do you look at the world from the other person’s perspective when the other person doesn’t think the way you do? Do you try to see the world through her eyes, or do you take the easy way out, applying a convenient label that trivializes or demonizes a perspective that makes you uncomfortable?

“Aw, that’s just politics!” means, “You didn’t make this decision the way I would have,” just as much as “They’re just techies — they don’t think the way we do” does.

It’s time for all of us to appreciate real diversity — and that means listening to those least like ourselves, discovering how it is they perceive the world.

After all, listening to members of your own groups is a whole lot like listening to yourself.

How much will you learn doing that?

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|In: Leadership|Last Updated:

I have, in my day, gone through lots of leadership training.

I’ve learned how to recognize excellent personal and team performance with recognition and a variety of financial and non-financial incentives. How to deal with difficult situations, like personal crises, policy violations, substandard performance, and terminations. How to facilitate meetings. Delegate tasks. Coach employees who make mistakes without demoralizing them.

Serious stuff.

I have to be fair. I’ve also received training in how to provide small rewards and incentives as morale-builders, such as T-shirts, pizza, or tickets to movies or plays. The small stuff is important in creating an atmosphere where good work and good attitude are appreciated.

But in all my training, I never once heard anyone talk about the single most common situation most managers have to deal with: Minor infractions.

I’m heartily sick of the phrase, “… potentially leading to termination.” Regular readers will recall an employee who received a one-week suspension without pay for sending a joke over his company’s e-mail. As Mom used to say, they made a federal case out of it.

Have you established techniques for dealing with minor infractions? Small stuff like lateness for meetings, dead-horse-beating in discussions, or slightly too long lunch breaks? It’s important to do so. If you let minor matters go unchallenged, they eventually grow into significant problems. On the other hand, if every time you see some trivial problem you call the offender into your office for a solemn conversation, you’ve established an image … as a pompous twit.

So if you can neither ignore the problem nor counsel the offender, what can you do?

I learned the answer the hard way. After a reorganization I walked into the weekly staff meeting of one of my new teams 5 minutes late. Another attendee, who’d apparently arrived 4 minutes late, breathed a sigh of relief and said, cheerily, “You bring the donuts next week!”

A front-line supervisor in a company with whom I’ve consulted has a similar strategy: When someone breaks the rules he holds a “kangaroo court” and when the accused is found guilty they impose the cookie penalty. You guessed it — the guilty party has to provide cookies for everyone.

Donuts or cookies, it was minor, good-natured, expected, and public. Since the penalty directly benefited the team it boosted morale in the bargain, even if it did harm the aorta a little bit. And these are the keys.

Keeping your penalties small emphasizes your own sense of perspective. Mom would have approved — no federal case.

Keeping the atmosphere good-natured reinforces the desirability of an open, casual environment where you don’t lead by intimidation.

Unlike rewards, where inventiveness is the key, minor penalties should establish a team tradition. Traditions are important in building teams, just as with any other kind of community.

It’s important to publicly razz the trouble-maker in this kind of situation. You get to make the point to everyone that whatever the behavior is, it isn’t appropriate. You again reinforce an open communications environment where nobody has to measure every word they speak.

It’s important for the penalty to benefit other team members, which is why desserts are such a great punishment, as is making the guilty party take notes at the next meeting. Since the offender does something good for teammates, the sentence amounts to community service and builds up the team (whereas each minor infraction incrementally damages team cohesiveness).

And although some companies (for example, those whose IT departments gripe about screen-savers) don’t seem to value it very much, you get to make the workplace just a wee bit more fun.

Maybe you’re the kind of sourpuss who doesn’t see the value of all this. If so, I have the perfect solution.

You get to bring the next plate of cookies.

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