Polarized Politics: Help Your Team Cope

In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, political polarization and tension seem to increase daily. That tension spills over into the workplace in the form of incivility. And it’s costing U.S. workplaces $1.2 billion in lost daily productivity and an additional $828 million owing to excessive absenteeism, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s recently launched Civility Index. Leaders must address the lack of civility in today’s workplaces — but navigating the U.S. political divide is tough work for anyone, including executives.

In the article below, Robert D. Costigan and Kyle E. Brink share a research-backed technique that leaders can use to give colleagues an effective and collegial way to disagree better at work. They suggest you try out the technique with a trusted friend or relative first – so perhaps you can even cool political tensions at your next family gathering.

— Laurianne McLaughlin , senior editor, digital, MIT Sloan Management Review

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Liberals Versus Conservatives in Your Office: How to Cool Tensions

By Costigan Robert and Kyle Brink

The U.S. sociopolitical environment is increasingly becoming polarized and divisive. In recent years, multiple hot-button issues have caused deep concern for many people. Among them are climate change, pandemic-related policies, competing views of rights (regarding gender, LGBTQ+ people, and religion), immigration and border security, income (such as minimum wage, inflation, taxes, unemployment/welfare, and executive compensation), and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Then there’s the matter of the 2020 and upcoming 2024 elections. Although the dividing line in many of these disputes is rooted in the political values of conservatism versus liberalism, they are not limited to political and personal realms. They spill over into the workplace, and leaders must address the level — or lack — of civility in today’s workplaces.

Indeed, the workplace has become so interpersonally divisive that the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently launched the Civility Index to track civility trends across the nation. According to SHRM, incivility in U.S. workplaces accounts for a $1.2 billion loss in daily productivity and an additional loss of $828 million owing to excessive absenteeism, which adds up to an astounding $2 billion each workday. Yet, managing conflict related to thorny topics can be difficult for everyone, including executives.

Our goal is to offer an effective and collegial way to disagree better, especially in the context of workplace conversations. That’s important not only for watercooler conversation but also because many of these disputes directly relate to organizational policies and practices. Leaders need communication strategies that soften extreme stands on both ends of the sociopolitical spectrum and help people find common ground while diffusing strong emotions rather than ramping them up.

Meet the Jujutsu Persuasion Technique

People may use off-the-cuff, inflammatory rhetoric in workplace exchanges about politics, widening the gaps. While research-based communication techniques are available that can help managers bring people of different viewpoints together, the following options are seldom used.

Influence techniques. Soft influence practices, such as collaboration, consultation, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, and personal appeals, tend to be effective in cultivating relationships and accomplishing tasks. Hard influence approaches, which include pressuring, forming coalitions, and relying on one’s legitimate authority, are less effective and more likely to drive a bigger wedge in the division, and may even increase resistance. Therefore, with tough conversations, influencing softly would seem much more appropriate than the off-putting strong-arm tactics that are so often used instead.

Communication techniques. Voices and viewpoints, though differing, need to be recognized and heard. Effective listening is the most important type of oral communication for successful job performance.1 Good listening generates other favorable outcomes, including relationship-building and satisfaction; a reduction of defensiveness and anxiety; and improvement in psychological safety, esteem, well-being, and trust.2 These outcomes are not based on the efficacy of any particular listening strategy but are more simply grounded in the listener giving their full attention and responding appropriately to what the speaker said and how it was said.3 Unlike shouting louder, good, straightforward listening has the capacity to improve difficult discussions.

Jujutsu persuasion. Jujutsu persuasion is a recently developed technique that effectively combines both soft influencing and effective listening.4 It can be used by liberals and conservatives to defuse perceived threats to their positions. Jujutsu persuasion requires listening carefully to an adversary’s arguments and then responding with respectful counterarguments framed with the adversary’s values instead of one’s own.

Using others’ values in the context of persuasion and influence is not a new concept. This principle is used in negotiations, with negotiators pitching positions around others’ values, and in transformational leadership, with leaders appealing to their followers’ values. Jujutsu persuasion has been shown to be an effective practice in moderating the divisions between opposing viewpoints, thus lessening the possibility of friction and incivility in workplace relationships.5

How Jujutsu Persuasion Works

To better grasp how divisions on contentious issues can arise, it is important to distinguish surface attitudes and attitude roots.6 Surface attitudes are specific, superficial opinions, whereas attitude roots are the hidden motivations beneath them. Even deeper beneath surface attitudes are values. “Us versus them” positions on many issues are formed on opposing value systems. It is difficult to change someone’s attitude without focusing first on the values beneath the attitude. Nonsensically, most people try to persuade others by using their own values. It is a common persuasion tactic that involves arguing — an approach that we understand and favor. Our opponent’s attitude remains unchanged because arguments are framed with values that are unrelatable to them. We keep arguing in the same ineffective manner — while producing negative reactions and only heightening the interpersonal division.

We suggest that instead of beginning with your own values and moving forward to form arguments, you should do the opposite: Begin with an opponent’s most preferred values and then work backward to create rational counterarguments framed with the other person’s favored values. Evidence indicates that jujutsu persuasion is effective for discussing polarizing topics in a manner that is less defensive and argumentative, resulting in enhanced listening and a better understanding of each other’s perspectives.7 Exchanging views using this soft influence approach is more likely to bring about an opinion change.

Often, we do not know the precise values that other people live by, but we do know whether they lean toward liberalism or conservativism. Some traditional liberal values consist of moral convictions such as care for others, protection of others from harm, fairness, equality, justice, benevolence, and nurturance.8 Some conservative values include moral convictions such as loyalty, patriotism, respect for authority, traditionalism, strictness, self-discipline, and religious sanctity.9 Both sets of values are often held firm and lasting.

Jujutsu Persuasion in Action: Discussing Minimum Wage

An example of how you could use liberal/conservative values to frame positions is laid out below for a discussion of whether the minimum wage should be retained or raised.10

Sample liberal arguments for moderating a conservative’s opinion with conservative values:

• Increasing the minimum wage to a livable wage will boost a large number of low-wage earners out of poverty. They will be less reliant on welfare, Medicaid, and other forms of government handouts, eventually lowering the taxes that support these programs.
• Raising the minimum wage will increase the take-home pay of many workers, which will stimulate more spending and fuel economic growth nationally. This is how our capitalistic system is supposed to work.
• A study in a major retail chain showed that a raise in the minimum wage mandated by a change in state or municipal law resulted in increases in worker productivity and their intention to stay at the company. These are traditional economic values that we embrace.

Sample conservative arguments for moderating a liberal’s opinion with liberal values:

• Labor economists mostly agree that smaller companies will have the hardest time surviving a rise in the minimum wage. They will need to operate with fewer employees, which means layoffs for less-skilled workers. The lives of so many people will be harmed by this.
• Companies will adopt labor-saving technologies that will lead to a permanent reduction in the size of their workforces. For example, self-serving kiosks have become common in fast-food restaurants. Again, the less-skilled folks will suffer the most.
• Studies show that raising the minimum wage is actually inflationary, leading to a higher cost of living for those who are supposed to be most helped by the wage increase. This isn’t fair. Keeping the minimum wage as is shows more care toward vulnerable workers.

Developing Jujutsu Persuasion Skills

Making the change from persuasion with your own values to jujutsu persuasion won’t come easily without extensive practice and feedback. Leaders can take the following steps to learn and develop jujutsu persuasion and coach their teammates to do the same.

1. Read published articles to learn more about the jujutsu technique and to review other examples of its use.11

2. Next, have a role-play conversation on a sensitive sociopolitical topic with a trusted friend or relative. Preplanning one’s arguments and identifying the other person’s most cherished conservative/liberal values is recommended.12 Notice how listening and soft influence play into the development of this persuasion technique. Good listening leads to better understanding and respect for others. Having an expectation of nudging one’s adversary to a less-extreme position instead of anticipating a radical opinion shift contributes to a softer-influencing mindset. After completing the role-play, informally critique the activity with the assistance of the role-play partner’s input, considering the following questions:

• Was the partner’s attitude changed in any way?
• How civil did they think the discussion was?
• What could have been said or done differently that would have improved the experience?

3. Now use jujutsu persuasion in real-life nonwork conversations that involve divisive issues. Assess each conversation using similar follow-up questions.

4. Finally, use jujutsu persuasion in a workplace conversation. Assess the process and outcomes on your own, as a self-reflection activity.

Given the high cost of incivility to organizations in lost productivity and higher absenteeism, applying research-backed strategies to mitigate such losses makes sense. The jujutsu persuasion strategy lets leaders draw on soft influence and listening techniques to yield increased civility in difficult workplace conversations. More specifically, two sets of key values (liberal and conservative) can play an important role in diffusing heated arguments. Both liberals and conservatives can make use of others’ values in jujutsu persuasion.

Admittedly, jujutsu persuasion could be viewed as manipulative. Leaders should take note: This form of persuasion shouldn’t be used with the intention of winning arguments. Rather, you should aim for both parties to listen, better understand one another’s perspectives, suspend making quick judgments, and end the discussion with a less-polarized position — hopefully, having found some common ground. We believe that the process of using the other individual’s values to influence them softly is noble because it is built on respectful change. If you use jujutsu persuasion properly, progress toward collegiality and civility will characterize both the process and its outcomes.

About the Authors

Robert D. Costigan is an emeritus professor of management at St. John Fisher University. Kyle E. Brink is a professor of management at Grand Valley State University. They have coauthored multiple articles on oral communication, including its use and development in the workplace and in business education.

References (12)

1. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Oral Communication Skills: Are the Priorities of the Workplace and AACSB-Accredited Business Programs Aligned?” Academy of Management Learning & Education 14, no. 2 (June 2015): 205-221.

2. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Development of Listening Competence in Business Education,” Current Opinion in Psychology 50 (April 2023): 1-9; and A.N. Kluger, M. Lehmann, H. Aguinis, et al., “A Meta-Analytic Systematic Review and Theory of the Effects of Perceived Listening on Work Outcomes,” Journal of Business and Psychology 39, no. 2 (April 2024): 295-344.

3. Kluger et al., “A Meta-Analytic Systematic Review,” 295-344.

4. M.J. Hornsey and K.S. Fielding, “Attitude Roots and Jiu Jitsu Persuasion: Understanding and Overcoming the Motivated Rejection of Science,” American Psychologist 72, no. 5 (July-August 2017): 459-473; and R.D. Costigan and K.E. Brink, “Jujutsu Persuasion: Learning How to Coopt With Another’s Values,” Business Education Innovation Journal 14, no. 1 (June 2022): 82-92.

5. R.D. Costigan and K.E. Brink, “Persuading With a Collocutor’s Values,” Business Education Innovation Journal 13, no. 2 (December 2021): 86-94; and M. Feinberg and R. Willer, “From Gulf to Bridge: When Do Moral Arguments Facilitate Political Influence?” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 41, no. 12 (December 2015): 1665-1681.

6. Hornsey and Fielding, “Attitude Roots and Jiu Jitsu Persuasion,” 459-473.

7. Feinberg and Willer, “From Gulf to Bridge,” 1665-1681.

8. J. Graham, J. Haidt, and B.A. Nosek, “Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Sets of Moral Foundations,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96, no. 5 (May 2009): 1029-1046.

9. Ibid.

10. Costigan and Brink, “Persuading With a Collocutor’s Values,” 86-94.

11. Costigan and Brink, “Jujutsu Persuasion,” 82-92; Costigan and Brink, “Persuading With a Collocutor’s Values,” 86-94; and Feinberg and Willer, “From Gulf to Bridge,” 1665-1681.

12. Costigan and Brink, “Jujutsu Persuasion,” 82-92; and Costigan and Brink, “Persuading With a Collocutor’s Values,” 86-94.