Oct. 28, 2009 - Dealing with Disruption

“I have an individual member who is so negative, condescending and questioning EVERYTHING!   He does not follow procedure, and has put the Association in compromising situations with local political figures…Now he has asked to see all the financials to the Association.   What advice do you have to help an AE who would like to SCREAM….”go sell real estate and get off it!””

Well, THAT question brought back memories! One of the longest years of my professional career came from dealing with “Tom”. I’d forgotten about Tom until this question arrived in my email inbox—and then it all came back.

Tom was a member of our association. He didn’t really sell real estate—he was one of those young men who had a working wife and not much going for him in the way a personality: his real estate sales were negligible. In fact, he spent much more time as a self-proclaimed geek, with delusions of Bill Gates dancing in his head. He earned some money producing statistical analyses for brokers, based on MLS data. At least he did, until our MLS upgraded its computer system and there were more statistic reports available than the brokers quite knew what to do with.

End of Tom’s fledgling career—and he was very angry. “The Board (and the AE, of course) had made a huge mistake with the computer system: the reports were faulty, the statistics unacceptable, etc, etc.” From then on Tom spent all his excess energy questioning the staff, the directors, the MLS committee—everyone in sight. He became obsessed with finding fault and sent out blast faxes to the membership and even went to city hall to take out a permit to hold a protest on the busy street in front of the association office. The madness went on for a year or more: phone calls at home, legal threats, scathing emails and letters to the local newspaper. It was a nightmare for everyone.

I learned some things as I was living this scenario—not easy lessons, because this is not an easy problem. And the first thing I learned is not to place much faith in the Pollyanna Prescriptions: you know the ones that say “Address the problem head on, try and understand the motivation for the behavior, and act with sympathy and acknowledgement. “  Uh-uh. This advice is usually offered by behavior specialists and optimists. The fact is, you are too busy being a leader or manager with lots of people claiming your time and you aren’t a trained psychologist. You have neither resources nor training for this approach.

Secondly, understand that compulsively distructive persons are truly dysfunctional. There is most likely an emotional disconnect which interferes with their perception of reality: they don’t care if they are respected or their actions valued. They are focused on disruption. Sounds melodramatic, but we all know people like this and it stands to reason that some of them will be members of our associations.

Thirdly, know that folks like Tom can win at the games they play. We’ve heard the horror stories: the AE who finds her desk cleared out after she returns from vacation, the association president who resigns midway through his term because he hasn’t the energy and resources to continue the job, the leadership team that becomes increasingly lethargic and gloomy because all it ever hears is criticism, the members who lose faith in the benefits of the association and discontinue their support.

What to do? Here are some thoughts:

1. Practice the “red ant” theory of association management. Former CEO of the American Society of Association Executives, Jim Low explained this theory at the ceremony in which he presented me with my CAE designation. “Too often we dignify the loudest and most negative member with a position on the committee in order to show him ‘how everything works’. This is disrespectful to your other members. You should do with this guy what you do with red ants: STOMP him!”

2. Keep your association attorney up to speed on the problems. Chances are the disgruntled member will threaten court action—doesn’t everyone these days? Get some advice on proactive precautions such as having a witness whenever you talk to the offending member and always acting in accordance with the bylaws and written policies.

3. Train your staff and your leadership team in their responsibilities. Again, part of this training should be legal: knowing what to say, how to respond, and what information to release is all a part of the precautionary strategy.

4. Keep a meticulous record of every interaction with the disruptive person. I asked my staff to assist me with a log of all of Tom’s contact with us—phone calls, emails and so on—and the amount of time they spent on any request he made. Eventually I begin to assign dollar figures to this log: what was the monetary value of the staff time he demanded? What kind of legal fees were incurred because of his threats? The directors and some of the other leaders began to contribute to this effort as well and the results were astonishing. It became clear to everyone the extent of his demands on association resources.

5. Never appear adversarial. When Tom applied for a permit to picket in front of the association office, I panicked, envisioning a front page photo in the daily newspaper. “Don’t worry,” our attorney advised. “Make a big pitcher of lemonade and take it out to him when the photographers are there.”

6. Take advantage of the situation to develop a code of conduct as a part of your association operational policies. The AMA did just that in 2008 with a model medical staff code of conduct. It in, the descriptions of appropriate, inappropriate, and disruptive behavior are defined, as well as remedies which may be taken should this code be breached. While you may not feel a need to go to the extent the AMA did, certainly drawing up guidelines for those who wish to object, question or protest is a useful approach to take, and will assist when similar issues arise in the future.

There’s no quick fix to the problem of a disruptive member. Tom finally got discouraged and, following the advice of his attorney, dropped his efforts and did not renew his membership. Thinking back, what is important for me to remember is that his presence caused greater accountability awareness on my part and on the part of the leadership, and that we learned how unfair and enervating his disproportionate demands were to the rest of the membership.