Understanding Organizational Dysfunction: Part 3 – The “Art” of Resetting Workplace Gossip

A fundamental goal for any organization is to have employees that can work efficiently and creatively together in a forward direction. High-performing organizations thrive on employees being creative and innovative in their work; however, these differences can be seen as disputes and conflicts and can slip into what feels like personal attacks on each other and fuel workplace gossip. Employees with the skills and tools to become better problem solvers and proactively respond to gossip would be a win-win. 

Typically, to get the group to reconnect as a team, mediation is recommended between the primary individuals in conflict, and to provide the group with additional knowledge, terminology, tools and skills in areas such as; conflict resolution, team building, emotional intelligence (EI), and change management. Introducing these skills through training can be highly beneficial to restarting the group, team, or the organization as a whole. However, there are times when this approach hasn't shifted the group in how they work, so having other ideas or methodologies to approach the conflict and group to "reset" could be tested. This is where we have to get creative! 

How do we reset or restart a team that is regretfully entangled in dysfunctional conflict become more effective? How can we leverage the good gossip and diminish the bad to begin building trust? How can we unlearn some of the bad behaviours that negative gossip generates and apply creative approaches to build new positive interactions and behaviours?

To challenge this traditional approach, it presents an opportunity to try an arts-based learning experience to assist employees in moving forward. Designing a learning exercise that utilizes works of art that reflect the individual's behaviours could provide insight and a new perspective for the individual to understand and ponder. To seek the greatest impact in a short time frame with adult learners, experimenting with an interactive art-based methodology could get into their heads (and hearts) – thereby leaving a more lasting experience.

Training and introducing new practices would reduce the needless and destructive forms of gossip while allowing the more constructive and functional forms of gossip to remain. Grosser et al. (2012) noted that these actions and techniques could be formally communicating information, fostering a culture of civility, promoting organizational justice, providing mechanisms for coping with stress or boredom, and dealing with the excessive gossiper.[1] The following sections explore, design and practice an art-based learning technique to deal with gossip in the workplace.

Using an arts-based teaching methodology to promote an engaging adult-learning experience

Expanding our  attitude towards  learning in the twenty-first century, Ippolito (2019) highlights, "Teaching and training at all levels of education and with all ages of learners is taking place against a backdrop of learning objectives that have become more focused in the face of twenty-first-century challenges and realities (Delors 1996)."[2] These new learning theories support creativity and collaboration when problem-solving, building critical thinking skills, and developing emotional intelligence (EI). These skills are now a key focus for management schools of thought and leading business schools to develop and grow modern-thinking leaders.   As Ippolito (2019) highlights, "Over the last two decades there has been increased interest in the use of interdisciplinary learning in education. To access the sensed and felt dimensions of learning, the use of hands-on experiential modalities has become a preferred methodology in professional training and adult learning environments (Kolb and Kolb 2005)."[3]

Over two decades of leading a university-based professional development centre, I concur that adult training extensively uses the Experiential Learning Model (ELM) to deliver training. "While there are other theories of learning, the experiential learning model has been "portrayed as an idealized learning cycle or spiral where the learner 'touches all the bases'—experience, reflecting, thinking and acting—in a recursive process that is responsible to the learning situation and what is being learned" (Mainemelis et al. 2002, 5)."[4] Building this cycle into the training exercise through facilitative conversations, group debriefs, and reflection time allows the participant to gather more information and insight into their learning. Summating the objective and purpose of using an art-based learning technique, Ippolito (2019) "has shown that arts-based teaching and learning offers the possibility for knowledge and skills transfer from one learning domain to another."[5]

This arts-based learning methodology has been applied in various industries and fields. For example, in the medical and hospitality areas, "As the care and hospitality industries face difficulties in staffing and retention…Over the past few years, we have experimented with and scaled up our efforts to use creative, visual arts-based support for staff at all levels of our organization."[6] Business environments in which managers work today are replete with unpredictable threats and opportunities, "Management education has recognized the need to develop artistic sensibilities and aesthetic ways of knowing to approach practice from a more creative perspective. The manager's ability to improvise and respond instinctively in seeking solutions increasing determines the effectiveness of their contribution to the organization."[7] Adler (2006) notes that to build a manager's performance, expanding their improvisational skills provides a shift from linear and sequential approaches to problem-solving and more spontaneity.[8] For example, Adler highlights the work of Rob Nickerson, an actor/director who led Second City Improv's training program for 20 years and now coaches managers and executives from a wide range of industries in the skill.[9] 

Adler (2011) also highlights a Canadian-based High School teacher, Nora Zylstra-Savage, who used storytelling (an art form) to teach high school seniors how to use language more effectively to improve education and learning based on inspiration. By partnering each of her students with a Stage One Alzheimer's patient, the teenagers were charged with writing and presenting the elder's life story to an assembly of his or her family and friends. The student's initial response was an eruption of groans; however, they quickly developed a deep relationship, demanding more time with the elders.[10] Students demanded that "the school provide them with better interviewing and listening skills, better information on Alzheimer's, and more instruction on the right grammar and vocabulary to capture their elder's story."[11] Twofold, this process transformed the students into inspired learners and the Alzheimer's patients into wise elders.

Interested in learning about the interactive art-based learning exercises that could reduce the needless and destructive forms of gossip while allowing the more constructive and functional forms of gossip to remain? Join me as I walk through Part 4: Resetting Workplace Gossip using Art-based Learning Exercises, and subsequent segments.

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[1] Grosser, T. J., Lopez-Kidwell, V., Labianca, G. (Joe), & Ellwardt, L. (2012). Hearing it through the grapevine: Positive and negative workplace gossip. Organizational Dynamics, 41(1), 52–61. P. 56-59.

[2] Delors, J (1996). Within Ippolito, L. (2019) Music, Leadership and Conflict, Palgrave MacMillan. P. 67.

[3] Kolb, A & Kolb, D.(2005). Within Ippolito, L. (2019) Music, Leadership and Conflict, Palgrave MacMillan. P. 67.

[4] Ippolito, L. (2019) Music, Leadership and Conflict, Palgrave MacMillan. P. 69.

[5] Ibid.P. 94.

[6] Babaei Aghbolagh, Maryam and Sattari Ardabili, Farzad (2016). An Overview of the Social Functions of Gossip in the Hospitals. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3347590.

[7] Adler, N. (2006). The Arts & Leadership: Now That We Can Do Anything, What Will We Do?. Academy of Management Learning and Education Journal, Vol. 5 (no. 4), pp. 486-499. P. 492.

[8] Ibid. P. 492.

[9] Ibid. P. 492.

[10] Adler, N.J., (2011). Leading Beautifully: The Creative Economy and Beyond. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20(3), pp. 208-221. p. 216.

[11] Adler, N.J., (2011). Leading Beautifully: The Creative Economy and Beyond. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20(3), pp. 208-221. p. 216.