Drama can completely ruin a
corporation. I’m not talking about the drama involved in the thrills of a
corporation op gone well, or the drama of 15 corpmates getting on Ventrillo and
getting a little rowdy while playing Eve.
I’m talking about negative drama—the kind
that smears a corporation’s reputation, causes panic or
dissatisfaction, and
can cause members to flee in droves.
The first thing that CEOs and other
corporate leaders need to first understand, is that drama is not usually the
problem. Drama is a symptom, or a direct result of other problems within your
corporation. These problems are usually fixable, and are usually not your
fault. However, if you try cutting down the drama without
addressing the issues
behind it, it will keep coming back.
Weeding out the problem is usually easy.
Taking action can be very hard for some leaders. In any case, you must be
willing to do what you have to do to achieve the result that you want.
Step 1: Identify the source of the
drama. I’m being frank when I say that 9 times out of 10, this involves a
person. Someone being a loudmouth. Someone spreading rumors. Someone talking
about something they know nothing about.
The source can also be related to a
recent negative event, such as a huge pvp loss, corporate thievery, and spying.
However, even these three event are usually tied, again, to a person.
Step 2: Evaluate the Life of the Drama.
Sometimes, responding at all makes things worse. Once you know what the problem
is, evaluate whether it is something that will fizzle out on its own, or something
you need to handle. A one-time bad pvp op should have you a lot less concerned
than an FC that is chronically leading your fleets into destruction.
Step 3: Make an Initial Response. (IE:
Damage Control) Communicate! If something large is happening within your
corporation and you, as a leader, remain silent, it can fuel the fires. You can
be vague. You can offer no information at all. But by way of a corporate mail
or a quick meeting on your voice coms, let your corpmates know that you
understand stuff is going on, and you are currently working to solve the
problem.
Step 4: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 with
others. Bring other leaders and trusted corpmates into the loop. They may have
perspectives, or information that you don’t have. Discuss the issue, but keep
the conversation productive. Remember though, that this is mostly for their
benefit. You may benefit as well, but the primary purpose of this step is
making your ‘trusted’ members feel safe, valued, you get the picture. Make them
feel like they have a say, a voice, a vote…without really giving them one.
Sounds cruel and manipulative, but that’s life.
Step 5: Make your decision and communicate
it to the corporation. There will be whining and complaining. You may have to
kick someone out of corp, or multiple people. You may have to strip roles, or
prohibit certain behaviors. Someone, somewhere wont like it. Do it anyway.
Step 6: Take action and sit back. If
things blow up even more, you probably did something stupid or unnecessary. Or,
people just need some time to digest things. Give it time to blow over.
Step 7: Do Cleanup Control. This may
involve communicating to blues, writing a press release for the Eve Online
forums, etc. If you are smaller and not as well known, it may involve just a
short meeting with corpmates to see what everyone’s current attitude is. Be
prepared to give your reasoning and details about what happened.
Step 8: (Yeah, I know the title says 7
steps. This one is an added bonus.) Do something fun. If you’re a pvp
corporation, go on a big pvp op. Take out tech 1 frigates, or go pirate. Offer
a distraction—don’t let people sit around dwelling on things.
Please notice that these steps can take
place very quickly. Analyzing what’s going on, dragging a director down into a
private channel for a quick meeting, making a decision and executing can happen
very fast. Actually, I’d encourage you to perform these steps fast. Don’t let
things drag on. It’s a game, after all, and people just want to have fun.
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