The Bully-Free Workplace: Stop Jerks, Weasels, and Snakes From Killing Your Organization

Leader Task 4: Support the Antibullying Campaign

You can support the antibullying effort in your organization by funding the startup and not interfering with the subsequent procedures to comply with a new policy. When our Blueprint system is implemented fully, you (as well as everyone else) will be held accountable for violations, that is, for bullying. Hundreds or thousands in your organization are hoping to make their workplace free from bullying. Please make that happen.

In meetings, where so much bullying is manifested, designate on a rotating basis a formal dissenter. That person, regardless of his or her personal opinion, has to shoot holes into decisions made by the group. Make, and abide by, the rule that ideas are disembodied things, not attached to their inventors. Foster true innovation by enabling free thinking. Critical thought that requires dissent rather than robotic agreement produces better decisions. Let go of the control (as impossible as this sounds). For fun, be sure to take your turn as designated dissenter. You will find yourself seeing the downside of some of your best ideas. It's a good cognitive stretch exercise.

Bullies use meetings to insult and dehumanize team members they don't like. If you get a warning that you have just leveled someone in a very hurtful way, make an adjustment. You may have thought that you were merely correcting that person. From the recipient's point of view, it was a devastating blow to his or her integrity. How would you react ...