# Workplace Surgery #3: The secret Slack channel

- **Episode:** [180](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/180.md) (2025-03-18)
- **Type:** workplace-surgery
- **Tags:** communication, team-dynamics, slack
- **Time:** 42:10–47:16 (start 2530s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/180?t=2530](https://truthliesandwork.com/180?t=2530)

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[42:10] Al Elliott: Question number 3, the secret Slack channel
[42:13] Leanne Elliott: Oh yes, let's see
[42:16] Al Elliott: Yes
[42:17] Leanne Elliott: Very common problem
[42:18] Al Elliott: Very common problem. I recently discovered my team operates a private Slack channel where they discuss work issues, share information about projects, and apparently vent about management decisions. I found out by accident when one team member mentioned what was said in the group about a new policy, assuming I knew about it, but I did not because I'm not invited and neither are any of the other managers. From what I can gather, this isn't just a casual chat. They're making decisions, agreeing approaches to projects, and creating workarounds for processes they don't like. It's essentially a shadow management system. While performance hasn't suffered, I feel undermined and concerned about the implications for transparency and inclusion. Leanne, what do we do?
[42:58] Leanne Elliott: Talk me through the red flags you saw there, Al. I know you saw them
[43:01] Sarah Gashier: I did
[43:02] Leanne Elliott: Come on, red flag number 1
[43:04] Al Elliott: While performance hasn't suffered
[43:06] Leanne Elliott: Red flag number 2
[43:08] Al Elliott: I feel undermined and concerned about the implications for transparency and inclusion. This is not a DEI thing. This Red flag number 3. Part of me wants to confront this head-on and demand to be included
[43:20] Leanne Elliott: Goddammit!
[43:21] Al Elliott: Like, like a petulant child. Listen, I'm so sorry. I know you've written in looking for advice, but we're gonna be— this is, this is with love we say all this. Lee, go
[43:31] Leanne Elliott: Yes, we know, we make light of it because hopefully to help you see how maybe silly this is. Um, and if you still don't see it, then yes, tough love. Performance hasn't suffered
[43:44] Al Elliott: End of that. No more to be said
[43:46] Leanne Elliott: No more to be said
[43:47] Al Elliott: If there was more to be said though, love, what would you say?
[43:50] Leanne Elliott: No, the only thing I would say that you could say, and you have to completely remove your ego from this situation entirely, as long as decisions are being made that you're happy with, as long as people feel capable and able to come to those decisions and it's not a source of stress for them, Then cool, let it carry on. It's great task and social cohesion in action over Slack, which is apparently what we can't do is collaborate and ideate and decision make virtually. The thing that might be useful for you to know is if there are workarounds and policies that are working and doesn't undermine compliance in any way, how do we make this a permanent solution so it's just the way things are done? If you approach this from a, if there are anything in this, anything that comes up in this group that You need help to fix, could be a permanent solution, is around continuous improvement, innovation. Give me that feedback, because if I know, I can do something about it. If I don't know, it'll continue to be a source of frustration for you. And there's always a risk that you'll do some kind of process change that will hit something, you know, not hit something in terms of governance or compliance. That's the only risk factor, and that's the only value add you can, you can bring. Um, that still doesn't mean you need to be part of the group
[45:02] Al Elliott: Should this person let on that they know the group exists?
[45:06] Leanne Elliott: Well, it sounds like there's already one member of the team who thinks you already know it exists, right? So, you could always talk to them about it first of all and go, you know that group that I don't know about? I'm just wondering, would it be beneficial if the team understood that if there was a consistent thing that comes up in this group that they can come to me? You probably want to facilitate that in the one-to-ones, include that as a question. So, tell me, are there any processes driving you nuts at the minute? Is there anything we can do to fix them? Any changes that you've made that could benefit the wider team? It's all about what all of this has done really is given you an in to understand the roadblocks your team currently have. Thankfully, they're, you know, they're innovative enough and motivated enough to fix a lot of these problems themselves. That's not to say they're not going to benefit from you as a manager facilitating that process, and you'll probably be able to help in terms of speed, in terms of authority
[45:59] Sarah Gashier: Yeah
[46:00] Leanne Elliott: In terms of making sure it's all done in, in the right way. That's the, that's the opportunity here and the potential risk if there is processes being changed that shouldn't be. Otherwise, leave it alone
[46:13] Al Elliott: Yeah, I totally agree. I think what we've got here is, according to this, they are self-managing a little bit. Uh, they're overcoming challenges, um, themselves without coming to you with them. They're finding that, uh, you know, maybe senior leadership is saying you have to do some things a certain way. They're finding ways around it, which are still compliant with what senior leadership want. This is— this sounds like a dream team. It sounds like the biggest problem is that you're in the playground and no one will play with you
[46:38] Leanne Elliott: Or being a bit more generous, it could perhaps be making you feel a bit insecure that you're redundant as a manager. You know, these are things that you should be doing and you're not. So, it's understandable that you'd react defensively in that situation. But ultimately, as Al said, you've got a really great self-managing team. This allows you To really help them change the things that they can't change, and also turn your attention to things that are going to, going to make the team environment even better, make your customers even happier, you know, make your senior leadership team even more impressed, and that'll come back to you, um, as the team manager. So yeah, this is a really great situation to be in. It's a very first world problem