Workplace Poker

Workplace Poker teaches the readers about office politics, interpersonal effectiveness and games
people play.
Dan Rust, the author, writes one of the best books I have read on career advancement.

Bullet Summary
 Work your boss, but never make it seem like you’re working him
 HR and bosses want you to believe the workplace is like a family. But you better not to buy
that.
 Too much of a thin skin won’t allow you to maximize your potential and too thick a skin
won’t allow you to develop a deep connection. You gotta be closer to the thick skin, but not
all the way

Full Summary
Workplace Poker has lots of stories that help you understand the finer points of psychology and
intrigue. I will skip them for this summary.

#1. Observe… Without Getting Emotionally Involved

Dan Rust says that to understand people you have to look at them without getting too emotionally
involved and without attaching label on them.
The moment you label someone “nice” or “jerk”, you start avoiding them, or looking for
confirmation… Or don’t look much at all. And you decrease your ability to really understand that
person.

You can’t get inside someone else’s head until you get out of your own

Over time you will develop a realistic understanding of people that will become your “baseline” for
your observations. Once they deviate from that baseline, you know that you need to pay attention.
The author says that 83% answered they know their colleagues “well” or “very well” on a recent
survey. Yet they couldn’t answer basic questions about them.
But to master workplace poker, you need to know the players.
You need to know what’s important to them, how driven are they, how introverted/extraverted they
are, what they think of the company and the boss. Even meet their spouses any time you can.

#2. There is No Family At Work

Businesses love to talk about human resources and some bosses love to talk about their employees
like family (as in Onward, the story of Starbucks).
Well, don’t buy that BS.
Employees don’t really matter: it’s their output that matters.
And when it comes to downsizing, there is no family.
So don’t be the laid-off employee who thought he was in a “family”.
There is no family at work: families don’t have HR department, laws and etiquettes. And families
don’t fire people, not even when things go terribly wrong.
There is nothing wrong with it, it’s just the nature of things.

#3. Extreme Corporate Cultures

Dun Rust goes a bit into corporate culture and differentiates five of them:
 Cult of personality
It revolves around the ego of a key decision maker or founder, with Marissa Mayer and Donald
Trump as two examples.
To survive in these companies understand that everything revolves around the boss and everything
is about propping up the boss. Understand what he wants and likes, but know that whatever you do
it might never be enough.
 Culture of Contraction
It’s a culture of paranoia where people are always watching their backs.
 Coliseum Culture
It’s those environment built to maximize the competition among employees. You will see ranking
and scorecards to keep employees striving for the top.
 Perma-Grin Culture
These are cultures where everyone must smile and keep a positive attitude.
 Inbred Culture
Companies who have been around for a while, with leaders who have been in the company for
decades. They take pride in their insular environment and in “how we do things over here”.

#4. Maximizing Your Output

Workplace Poker also has has a deep, extremely valuable chapter on how to perform at our best.
Some of the information I take away:
 Schedule block of works of 90-120 minutes
 Take a short 15 minutes break between sessions (not longer or you’ll have troubles getting
back to your task)
 Enjoy a late afternoon nap of 20 minutes

#5. Strike A Balance Between Emotional Thin Skinned &

Bulldozer Thick Skinned
Some of my favorite parts of Workplace Poker was in the author’s description of personalities.
Particularly I enjoyed the descriptions of what Dan Rust calls “Velcro Butterflies” -very touchy and
sensitive to rejection- and “Teflon Rhinos” -nothing penetrates their thick exterior-.
There are a lot of advantages in being thick-skinned, including:
  Rejections don’t slow you down
 Not intimidated by influential and powerful people
 Ignore useless criticism
 Persevere through obstacles
 Accept no excuse
 Drive yourself and people around very hard
However, there are also some drawbacks.
Not allowing the “bad stuff” in also often means that rhinos don’t let the good stuff, which makes it
harder for them to develop deep and genuine connections.
People also often feel “railroaded” by their intensity and directness and they choose to avoid them.
In the continuum, the most successful people tend to be on the thick-skinned side, but without
going to the extreme.
In the face of rejection, they acknowledge the pain and they’re honest with themselves when they
feel the fear of rejection and judgment holds them back.
People who hit the ideal sweet spot also learn to be less reactive, overcoming the butterflies lashing
out -internally and with passive-aggressive style– and the rhinos’ shutdowns.
Extreme Rhinos: extreme rhinos tend to do well… For a while. But their extreme overconfidence
eventually leads to major mistakes and missteps and to spectacular crash and burns.

#6. Think Well Of Your Steps

Some people “go with the flow” and tell themselves that “every mistake is a chance to learn”.
Sure, that much is true, but you should still think deeply of important decisions in your life and
strive to maximize your potential -and diminish your mistakes-.
What you choose for your college, first job, career changes, industry changes… They all have major
impacts on your life.
This was particularly eye-opening for me as I saw myself doing some of the mistakes Dan Rust
talks about.
For example:
 Being drawn to the novelty and possibilities and not considering the drawbacks of a new job
 Need to move away from mistakes by changing job
 Impatience of moving on and seeing only the positives of a new job

#7. Working Your Boss

Dan Rusk has some great tips on how to improve your relationship with your boss.
This is just an appetizer:
 Let him see you work
If you are too quick on your work though, there is a danger it might seem like it wasn’t complicated
enough. You want your boss to think you are quick, not that the job was easy.
The solution is to “romance” the process and sell it as part of your personal branding.
A good way of doing it is to mention the difficulties you have had and overcome in the process:
 Hi, I am done with the job. It wasn’t easy to find all the information so I asked Brian
from accounting. Some of the figures were missing, but fortunately I could secure a
meeting with Cristina and she filled me in on the missing data.

If you finish ahead of time and now are free, say something like this:
I just wanted to let you know that I finished the project ahead of schedule, so I have
some extra capacity. Do you know of anyone who could use my help?

This is a double yummy: he gets to know you are done early, that you want to help, and that you
respect him so much to ask him first. Now he will put you on what he thinks is the priority, thus
further increasing your visibility.
 Let him know you take extra work
before deciding to help someone on a project you should mention it to your boss. Something like:
I’m planning to help Donna on the Mayfair project, but I wanted to run it past you first
just in case there are other projects that you think should be a higher priority, or need a
little extra help.

 Don’t let them see you sweat

If you are having real challenges, it’s best to work on your weaknesses on your own and not letting
your boss see your mighty struggles.
I remember on my very first as a project manager. I had taken over a project way too big for my
knowledge and sent a wrong email with all the “important” stakeholder in CC. The previous project
manager, who was still responsible for it was furious. He called m up and reamed me on the phone.
As he screamed on the phone, I just kept repeating, calmly “yes. Yes. You’re right. Aha. That makes
sense”.
Then I picked up my mobile, called him, apologized and told me I wasn’t comfortable with his tone.
Why did I do that move?
Because my boss was sitting nearby. And he never got to know of my blunder.

Real Life Applications

 Go To Company Events
Always take part in company events, go to after party, mingle and make new friends. It’s not only
an opportunity to make friends and deepen your network, but also to observe colleagues in a more
natural event.
It was always eye-opening for me to see how your colleagues operate when drunk -and you might
even get laid ;)-.
 Leverage Your Subconscious For Judgement
The author says, righteously, that most of what you read on body language on the media is designed
to grab attention more than to enlighten on the subject. The biggest misconception is that specific
movements have a specific meaning behind that, but that’s often not true.
Instead, take a brief look at someone and then look away. Chances are that your unconscious will be
better at a snap judgment than a conscious look trying to “decode” single gestures.
  Be Careful Not to Take All The Blame
Taking the blame is what leaders do. It’s what John Maxwell says in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of
Leadership and what the Navy SEALS Willink and Babin say in Extreme Ownership. And they are
right.
But many people are no in a position to safely do that, points out Dan Rust, and I couldn’t agree
more. Make sure then that you don’t let other responsible people off the hook if that would mean
career suicide for you.
 Don’t Give Space to Enemies
If you have an enemy at work, too nice people will keep a lot of distance out of discomfort. But this
gives them room to maneuver against you. It’s best instead to stay very close to them. Without
being aggressive, but show you’re not afraid, show they’re not getting under your skin and show
them they better drop it.. Because you are no easy target.