“Can you believe that jerk took credit for the idea that our team came up with? And can you believe the big cheese boss bought it, hook, line and sinker? Won’t they be surprised when they run into the fatal flaw? That will fix their wagon.”

I often hang out at the water cooler, especially with new clients. The official issues facing most companies are often smoke-screens for the unofficial issues I hear about at the water cooler. And for my money, the unofficial issues are much more dangerous and tougher to deal with than the official issues.

In psychological lingo, this water cooler talk is known as “pairing” behavior, where a pair of people leave a group to advance (gossip about) an underground agenda. These conversations carry more insight to the real roadblocks facing most organizations.

Unfortunately, most managers ignore these real problems, hoping to deal with the smoke-screen official problems. And then, wonder why no real progress is being made in the organization.

Spend some time at the water cooler. That’s what I do. -TF