Techniques of Suppression and Counterstrategies

I’ve worked in lots organizations with fairly typical levels of dysfunction and in one that could in fairness be described as toxic. From that, I took away a personal appreciation for the effect, positive or negative, the social climate of a workplace has on its members.

Human beings are a tribal animal and as such our instincts are to form groups and establish hierarchy within them. Those instincts can work in our favor when they appeal to our better nature or can be exploited to manipulate us and work against our interests.

How do you identify and assess toxicity in a workplace or any other group? How and why is that kind environment created and maintained? As individuals, can we actively contribute to a better environment? If the man is keeping us down, we don’t have to passively accept it. We can observe how it works, push back, and try to improve the system in which we operate.

Addressing Power Structures and Changing Social Climates

The term “master suppression techniques” was introduced by Norwegian psychologists Ingjald Nissen and Berit Ås to describe strategies of social manipulation by which a dominant group maintains their position by undermining others.

To some degree, these domination techniques are default human behaviors that we fall into without thinking. It takes conscious effort to push back against the worst in our natures. When leaders practice these dark patterns of behavior and, by example, give others license to do the same, things get ugly.

It’s important to realize that the same environment can be experienced differently by different people. If you’re in the in group, you’re having a different experience from those in the out group and vice versa. Your mileage may vary along dimensions of experience, skillset, gender, ethnicity, personality, etc. An environment that’s great for seniors might be bad for juniors, great for engineering but bad for data science.

The Empowerment Network at Stockholm University proposes counterstrategies to combat dominance techniques and affirmation techniques to promote healthier social climates. Their work was done in the context of women in the workplace, but really applies to any group of humans. Below is a translation (thanks GPT4o) and summary of their paper Bekräftartekniker och motstrategier - sätt att bemöta maktstrukturer och förändra sociala klimat, lightly edited by me.

Dominance Techniques and Counterstrategies

1. Invisibility

   • Technique: Marginalizing people by ignoring or diminishing their contributions, not acknowledging their name or ideas, talking over someone in a meeting.
   • Counterstrategy: Take Space – Assert yourself calmly and confidently, address the behavior directly, and demand recognition.
   • Affirmation Technique: Visibility – Actively acknowledge others by listening, responding, and being constructive.

2. Ridicule

   • Technique: Mocking or belittling.
   • Counterstrategy: Question – Challenge ridicule with calm, logical responses, and directly address demeaning remarks.
   • Affirmation Technique: Respect – Take others seriously. Be supportive and make everyone feel valued.

3. Withholding Information

   • Technique: Deliberately excluding individuals from access to important information or decision-making processes, limiting their ability to act effectively, e.g., not inviting to important meetings.
   • Counterstrategy: Demand Transparency - call out patterns of exclusion.
   • Affirmation Technique: Transparency – Open and inclusive decision-making processes.

4. Double-bind

   • Technique: Criticizing individuals no matter their choice. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
   • Counterstrategy: Break the Pattern – Own your choices without internalizing the imposed conflict, acknowledge trade-offs, define priorities.
   • Affirmation Technique: Double Reward – Support individual choices. Open many paths to success.

5. Blame and Shame

   • Technique: Making individuals feel responsible for situations beyond their control, internalizing blame and undermining self-esteem. Public criticism.
   • Counterstrategy: Intellectualize – Reflect on guilt and shame. Identifying external sources. Don’t internalize. Set your own standards and live by them.
   • Affirmation Technique: Affirm Yourself and Others – Be positive and supportive. Emphasize validation and mutual respect. Own success and failure collectively.

Conclusions

By identifying and countering dominance techniques, individuals can take control of their circumstances and contribute to establishing a healthier workplace. These methods are practical tools to improve interaction patterns and foster more positive norms.

These oppressive strategies exist because they benefit someone. Prestige is a zero-sum game, at least in its shallow forms. Prizes, awards, and titles mean little if everyone gets one. For every winner, there has to be losers - the also-rans, the red shirts. You can stand out by diminishing those around you.

In a better form, social reinforcement can be more of a virtuous cycle. The best bring up the rest. Others build on our successes and we on theirs. This kind of shared flourishing results in something deeper than a charade of prestige. We influence and are influenced by those around us. When a group guides its members toward being their best selves, that character building lifts everyone. In the rare best case, everyone is riffing off of each other like jazz musicians in 1950’s New York or mathematicians at Göttingen. This is what Brian Eco calls scenius, which he defines as “the intelligence and intuition of a whole cultural scene.”

If you find yourself in a toxic environment, get out fast. But, every organization has some level of dysfunction. Creating the kind of working life we want takes effort. If we want a good working environment, we have to play a part in making it good and doing the maintenance. Falling into negative behaviors is easy and contagious. With enlightened self-interest, we have to choose to interact in a positive way and expect the same of those around us.