LibraryScenariosHow procurement teams develop informal rules to avoid organizational conflict
Scenario

How procurement teams develop informal rules to avoid organizational conflict

Our procurement team has this unspoken agreement that we don't dig too hard into certain vendor relationships because we've learned that asking the wrong questions creates problems for people above us, and we've all gotten really good at doing thorough work within invisible boundaries. I know we're all uncomfortable with it but we've never actually discussed what we're not discussing, and I think that's exactly the problem.

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More people experience this than they realize.

What we've seen

Your team quietly avoids digging into certain vendors, and no one will say out loud why.

Ideas that help explain it
Worth thinking about

“Where Are You with Government — Public Administration?”

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