You may be surprised to hear this, but many people play or visit Verbotomy while they are at work. There is no doubt that these players and readers are doing this because they want to sharpen their creative thinking skills and their vocabularies, so that ultimately they can provide more value to their employers!
Of course, while you are sharpening your vocabulary, many of your co-workers may misinterpret this effort, and get a little huffy and puffy. Yes, you may be unwittingly stirring up a the winds of Office Politics. And that’s why, all next week, we are focusing on Verbotomy on the issues and words that surround office politics. And not only will be be raising the issues, but we will be helping you find the answers. Office Politics expert, author and accomplisment adviser, Timothy Johnson (www.carpefactum.com), will be sharing his words of wisdom with us. And he has promised up a signed copy of his newest book GUST: The “Tale” Wind of Office Politics, as prize for our top verbotomist.
GUST: Verbotomy for Office Politicians
GUST is an acronym which Timothy created to describe his process for approaching, understanding and managing office politics:
- Game – figure out what is being manipulated and the source of friction
- Understand – determine what is behind the players, the behaviors, and the motivations
- Strategize – establish an approach that will get you as close to win-win as possible
- Take Action – get your ducks in a row as you implement your political strategy
In his book, Timothy takes this approach and wraps it into a tale — an engaging office politics fable — so that you can see how it works in the real office environment. It is entertaining and useful. Of course, when I was reading the book I could not help but imagine how GUST would apply to Verbotomy, and being somewhat addicted to word games, I decided to play around with Timothy’s words. And so, here is my verbotomized GUST for the Verbotomy Players:
- Gamalphabeta – figure out how to manipulate the letters, and the definition, to create a source of fiction
- Underpoof – determine what is behind definition (the players, the behaviors, and the motivations) so that you can spoof it properly
- Stratiggy – establish an creative approach that will get your verboticism as close to the pig-win as possible
- Take Quaction – get your ducks, and your words, and your votes, in a row as you implement your apolitical strategy
If you have an idea for an Verbotomy definition that would fit into our GUST office politics theme week, please submit it on our definition page. We have already had some wonderfully fun, and incredibly funny ideas for special office politics rules. Read the comments on posted “This is the real me!”
For more creative ideas and tips for handling Office Politics see Timothy Johnson’s blog at: www.carpefactum.com And check out his answers at www.officepolitics.com.
Official Stuff:
The winner will be chosen based on the final stats on the Verbotomy Weekly Author Ranking for the week starting on Monday May 21, 2007.
Prize: GUST: The ‘Tale” Wind of Office Politics, Trade Paperback Edition. (Approximate Retail Value $14.95 US.)
Contest Start Date: June 11, 2007 at 12:01:00 am EDT
Contest End Date: June 17 2007 at 11:59:00 pm EDT
For Weekly Author Ranking see:
See: https://www.verbotomy.com/verbotomists.php
For complete contest rules and regulations please see our Verbotomy Contest Rules and Regulations.
