Customer Reviews

Dear Office-Politics: the game everyone plays

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In December, 2009, the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium featured games from the Dear Office-Politics book in presentations to audiences totaling nearly 450 attendees. We used two of the scenarios to facilitate group discussions and they certainly provided some thought-provoking opportunities. This book is a wonderful tool to use in bringing sensitive issues out into the open in a non-threatening way that results in constructive processing. I highly recommend it!

I have personally enjoyed the book and especially love the graphics! This was one of our most successful programs and the feedback from participants has been terrific! --- Shannon Warren, Founder, Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium

The workplace, more than anything, is a collection of interactions between people, and people who likely have only partial choice in who surrounds them and who they must depend upon. With our inevitable differences, getting along, let alone thriving, is hardly guaranteed.

If there are more than two people in a room, politics is in play. Best we embrace the fact of office politics, and get good at it. Ignoring it won't make it go away, and being clumsy, coarse and aggressive with it only makes the workplace unbearable. Why not get better at office politics through something both playful and serious?

"Dear Office-Politics" is a social game that puts participants in the position of adviser. By attempting to answer ostensibly hypothetical but realistic dilemmas, players explore their own biases and assumptions, as well as those of other players (their coworkers).

The dilemmas included in the book are very good choices: often recognizable but never trivial. The advice that "Dear Office-Politics" offers to each dilemma (don't peek in the second part of the book or you'll spoil the game!) is thoughtful and balanced, reflecting that real-life, even at work, can't be lived by formula.

I think "Dear Office Politics" is an illuminating and entertaining way to explore how your team functions at work, how they can work better together.

If you've ever read "Dear Office Politics" and thought "I would have handled that differently" this book is a chance to put in your two-cents worth without risking your year-end bonus. The front cover (surrounded by sharks) and the back cover (back stabber) are just a sample of the fun and funny photos and illustrations inside. I enjoyed thumbing through the book even before I played the game. Then I played it with a group of friends, some of whom have and some have not worked in the corporate environment. It was a revelation to all of us! (Full disclosure, I have never worked for a corporation and this book was proof positive that I made the right decision. I would have been fired the first week.)

Franke James is a very talented woman. Love her original artwork!