Many of us unknowingly fall into dysfunctional roles that quickly escalate workplace conflict, stall progress and can create unrest during our day. Jane Gunn explores Karpman’s Drama Triangle, its impact on teams, and how professionals can move beyond blame and bad feeling towards empowerment, assertiveness and better outcomes for everyone.
If you often find yourself walking on eggshells with a colleague, want to rescue a co-worker who is struggling, or feel you often need to give guidance to others who then don’t take your advice, you may be unknowingly trapped in a dysfunctional and damaging dynamic known as Karpman’s Drama Triangle. According to CIPD’s Good Work Index 2024, eight million UK employees, which is one in four, experienced workplace conflict in the previous year. This drama in the workplace disrupts relationships, productivity, performance, engagement, collaboration and morale, and undermines leadership.
Recognising the drama triangle at work
In the workplace, the drama triangle provides a set of behavioural frameworks that people instinctively revert to in times of crisis. The drama triangle comprises three psychologically unhealthy roles and their relationship involves a routinely used, yet ineffective, response to conflict and crisis:
- The Victim, constantly seeks help and approval
- The Persecutor, is perceived as the pot stirrer
- The Rescuer, wants to be seen as virtuous but gets overly involved
A lot of effort goes into establishing or trying to escape these roles. A healthier resolution is to move away from personal validation and the drama, towards solutions.
The Victim employee constantly feels overwhelmed, powerless and unsupported, employing an unhealthy mindset of “Why is this always happening to me?”. They passively rely heavily on others to fix their problems rather than using their initiative and taking ownership. This erodes the Victim’s self-confidence and problem-solving skills, as they never feel they have the answers or resources. The Victim may use early escalation to senior management or HR, making complaints or grievances, or going off sick, thereby possibly also sabotaging their own progress at work, as well as other relationships, projects, or processes.
The Rescuer repeatedly intervenes to de-escalate conflicts without being asked to because they feel it is the right thing to do. While driven by good intentions, they often take over tasks completely rather than empowering the Victim to find their own solutions, creating dependency and undermining the Victim’s professional growth. This often results in the Rescuer colleague prioritising others’ needs over their own, potentially damaging their career, prolonging the drama, and reinforcing the Victim’s sense of helplessness.
The Persecutor may be unaware of their role in the triangle, or they may not mean to create drama but inadvertently contribute to it, partly due to their style and personality. Narcissists, for example, don’t necessarily recognise what they are doing and the effect they have on others. Persecutors are likely to be demanding and have a desire for control. They often blame others without offering guidance or constructive criticism and have a mentality which just wants things done.
It’s important to note that we can move between the roles. For example, in attempting to reclaim their voice, the colleague in the Victim role may unintentionally adopt an aggressive or defensive tone, slipping into the ‘Persecutor’ role instead.
Why this matters in the workplace
Drama in the workplace can be caused by just about anything, from personality clashes, different points of view, backgrounds, narratives and perspectives and miscommunication. The drama triangle can also go undetected, especially when it becomes embedded in poor work culture.
As we become more polarised, conflict escalates more rapidly and we become both adversarial and aggressive, unable to explore and seek to understand alternative narratives. Finding ways to de-escalate is increasingly likely to be paramount for organisations going forward.
How to break the cycle at work
- Self-awareness to recognise the roles we all play. Knowing you might be involved in a drama and recognising your part of it is important. You can then gain awareness and understanding of your pattern of reactivity, defensiveness and victimhood. Determine your position in the triangle and notice whether you feel trapped. Show curiosity and actively decide to free yourself from these invisible but limiting roles. To step away, develop your assertiveness, compassion, empathy, and, most importantly, self-awareness.
- Step into the triangle’s centre and recognise the elements of all three roles. Pause and reflect before reacting to conflict. Then move outside it using your new self-awareness. Ask yourself: Am I expecting others to fix my problems without explicitly asking them? Am I blaming colleagues when we have different objectives? Noticing your patterns is key to adapting them. Identify the real issue.
- Embrace the empowerment dynamic. Developed by David Emerald Womeldorff, the empowerment triangle offers an alternative to the dysfunctional roles of the drama triangle. The roles change from Victims to Creators, Rescuers to Coaches and Leaders, and Persecutors to Challengers. These roles can work together to move from problems to finding good outcomes and building trust.
Being a Creator means taking ownership of problems and proactively seeking solutions rather than waiting for someone else to fix them. They set boundaries and remain focused on their core responsibilities, trusting their judgement in isolation from the ‘Rescuer’.
The Coach encourages others to explore solutions for themselves while being compassionate and asking guiding questions, offering resources, or simply holding space for a colleague to resolve their issues. They can also say no when appropriate.
Challengers can continue to maintain high standards but change their communication style to ask questions, offer constructive rather than harmful feedback, and encourage others to think differently. This approach motivates and uplifts, giving others a chance to reflect and grow. - Take a critical step back and recognise your response to conflict. Consider the alternatives available to shift the dynamic from drama and excuses to solutions. Think differently and deeply to challenge accepted narratives.
- Stay in adult mode. Recognise your responsibility and accountability and what goes with your role and communicate effectively. We are often encouraged and drawn to convenience and the easy way out these days. Recognise responsibility and where to draw the line in supporting people.
- Use calm, non-blaming language and focus on empathy, clarity and understanding to harmoniously shift conversations away from blame and towards practical solutions.
- Review the options for solutions. Understand the expectations and experience of everyone involved. Do you need to gather more information? What do you need to do to look after yourself whilst you are in the midst of the drama? Sometimes people become very entrenched in their roles and resist moving beyond the drama triangle, especially if their roles have not been self-identified. Ask someone to help you with this, such as a coach.
- If you notice a ‘drama’ playing out in your team, the first thing is not to join in. Aim to remain independent and in a calm state. See who else is being dragged into the drama triangle. Ensure you have a broad perspective on the issue. Encourage them not to escalate but to find their own solutions with support and to be self-determining.
- Have a resolutionary framework or processes in place that empowers colleagues to explore issues early, before they get stuck in specific roles and conflict.
- Build a healthy culture of good communication, open dialogue and deep listening. A victim mentality, for example, can get embedded into a culture very quickly. Ultimately, tension is defused by creating psychological safety within the workplace, where people feel supported rather than attacked.
Workplace drama isn’t inevitable; it’s a pattern we can interrupt. By stepping away from old roles and embracing curiosity, empathy and responsibility, we can shift how we respond to conflict and how we support others. The invitation is clear: be the person who helps rewrite the script, not replay it.
