These are simple tools to help us stop power abuse in the workplace and thus encouraging us to speak up and speak out

1. GOSSIPPING
OBSEQUIOUS
…why?
Why do organizations look like this?
ACQUIESENCE
ASSENTING to authority
CONFORMITY
Politically Correct
Failing to ask “dumb questions”
Compromising
SYCOPHANTS
Walking on Eggshells
discomfort

2. Power Abuse
FEAR
• FEAR of being ABUSED
• FEAR of being ABUSIVE
• FEAR the difficult conversation (because of ABUSE)
• FEAR of getting fired or excluded unfairly (ABUSED)
“shut the f#*k up!” of
“Getting in Trouble!”

3. The offender’s favorite TOOLS ….
Browbeating
The Offender
is Offensive… DOGMA
Blaming Rhetorical Questions
NAGGING
Volume
Tone
Intimidation
Manipulation
Steamrolling
MISLEADING
Sulking
Humiliating
GASLIGHTINGIgnoring
(silent treatment)
SARCASM
Coercion
ThreateningDEADLINES

4. SNOWFLAKE
Go with the flow
Let SLEEPING DOGS lie
Don’t ROCK the BOAT!
Don’t make WAVES!
Don’t upset the applecart
Suck it up BUTTERCUP
Have a THICK SKIN
Get OVER IT!
Don’t be a SNITCH!
The victim’s favorite TOOLS….
The Offended
is Passive…
So SENSITIVE!

6. Psychological Health & Safety
Someday these tools will be
mandatory also
some day.
Occupational Health & Safety
Mandatory tools in the workplace.
Psychological Health & Safety

7. Adding safety is exhausting…
or…to remember….
Too much….
reading…. workshops….

8. or use simple tools to stop abuse…
“want to teach…
don’t bother…
give them a tool…
which leads to new
ways of thinking”
Buckminster Fuller

9. First we need to AGREE
object to
disagree
with
behavior… …in real-time
content.

10. When one feels offended simply…
The offender.. Or escalate to
like a ref’s Whistle……
“ ”

11. or escalate to
like a ref’s Whistle……Yellow Card
When one feels offended simply…
“ ” “ ”
The offender..

12. like a ref’s Whistle……Yellow Card……Red Card
When one feels offended simply…
“ ” “ ” “ ”
The offender..

13. …our peers decide if still unresolved
...not HR!

14. What people are saying…
“
”
Very interesting point, Desmond.
Democratize organizational power as we do
political power, so (we) can vote people out
Timothy R. Clark
Author of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

15. …the sky’s the limit
…no more walking on eggshells
When we stop power abuse