Sometimes it even happens in democratic companies that latent power relations evolve. How do we handle these? Do we pretend that we haven't noticed anything? Or do we just silently acknowledge that there are some banned topics here, which we simply don't speak? Or do we bear down immediately and report it to someone? May others have recognized this, too?
I've gained quite in-depth knowledge about our company culture not just through Kulcsi's articles, but also I've experienced it myself day by day, and I aim to continue adding something constructive to it. But there is a topic we've never dealt with, and I am unsure whether this is something we can talk about. Is there any reason that we shouldn't be? But why haven't we then discussed this before? And where could this topic be escalated if we start talking about it?
We don't like hierarchy. As a flat organization, we state that it doesn't matter who is brown and who is blond. As I arrived here, I sometimes felt that this is not always obvious, but I thought this was because I was the greenhorn, and some colleagues were still a bit skeptical. These relationships have changed a lot since then, and I am feeling confident. We mentioned a few examples with my associates, which I apprehended from outside. Still, I had an ambivalent feeling, as I had socialized for many years at workplaces where the hierarchical structure was entirely natural. If I had told my manager that he shouldn't force me to do this or that, just because he is at a higher position, then he would either think I am kidding and make fun of me, or write my termination letter immediately, and goodbye! And all this because he was sitting in that chair due to some imaginary extra talents, and the throne authorized him misusing power. But at least the power relations were apparent, they were declared and written down, and if you still had doubts, you could take a walk to the dining room, where the corporate hierarchy graph was hanging on the wall, and you could check your position.
At IV, we prefer democracy, which manifests in several processes. We make decisions together, and we function transparently both internally and externally, we improve ourselves in a self-organized manner, we proceed along with proven patterns. However, I sometimes experienced movements that I thought shouldn't work this way in this kind of culture, but I couldn't express what made me annoyed. I pretended that I hadn't noticed anything. On the next occasion, I started to catch that some kind of power appeared; however, it was hidden. Maybe this is a natural symptom on any type of organization, but it was strange for me that we hadn't ever mentioned this here. I read all our articles about organizational culture once again but didn't find anything.
I started to beat around the bush in my thoughts, how should I bring up this topic? Then suddenly, on a retro session, Kulcsi brought it up. Uuh, then I am not the only one who was bothered by this? He even brought a perfect suggestion to solve this. There are some areas where NVC preferred by us did not bring proper impact, so he had invited an expert, Judit Wirth, to hold a workshop series about hidden power relations and assertive communication. I couldn't believe it, I nodded, and I was grateful that Kulcsi came before me. I am pleased that he raised this topic, and believe it is an excellent idea to analyze this question together with an external expert.
We had the first workshop already a few days later. Quite many of us were interested, we gathered in the blue room and listened to what Judit prepared for us. We collected on the whiteboard what came to our mind when talking about power relations, and what we expect from this training series. Everyone put something to this common thought. I recognized those expressions on the board, which somehow were present, but I couldn't put them into words. Now the term was associated with the feeling.
In the next session, we are going to deal with these terms. I mentioned in the closing round that this is a bit like a thrilling series, it is hard to stop here, and I'm looking forward to continuing.
Since then, I am kind of relaxed, we are dealing with a topic we have never spoken about before, and in a way, that we learn to handle these issues at the same time. We still don't have to bury our heads in the sand.
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