This, from Fast Company, is excellent:
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Politically Proactive
Make things happen by mastering the game of day-to-day politics.
From: May 2005 Page 93 By: Samuel B. Bacharach
Most of us regard politics in organizational life with a degree of suspicion. Office politics -- that behind-the-back world of gossip, whispering, manipulation, and Machiavelli -- has tainted the positive aspects of having political skills. The difference between someone who can get an idea off the ground and accepted in an organization and someone who can't isn't a question of who has the better idea. It's a question of who has political competence.
Political competence isn't something you're born with, but a skill you learn. It's an out-in-the-open process of methodically mapping the political terrain, building coalitions, and leading them to get your idea adopted. Building a coalition lets you improve your chances of implementing your proposal, increases your chances for surviving any unintended consequences of your initiative, and enhances your position for pursuing future opportunities. Many of us absorb these things as we go, but a systematic approach can be helpful. Think of it as Brooklyn meets Harvard Business School. Here are a few ways to start learning those skills.
You want others to see your idea as you see it. The only way to do that is to constantly reverse the process and think about them and their needs as related to your idea. You have to anticipate what people will say. If you're a newly appointed leader who wants to shift your organization's strategy, there's bound to be resistance. Some may think it's too risky, while others may believe it'll make things worse or wouldn't change a thing. What would you expect? That your colleagues would wrap their arms around you as if this was what they'd been waiting for?
Political competence is methodical. Only through careful preparation and analysis can you understand to what degree key people in your company share your goals and approach. Few people will directly tell you their agenda, so you have to figure it out. Ask yourself: What are their goals? How do they approach implementing change? Determining potential allies and resisters to your idea will make it easier to build a coalition.
Words and approach matter. Persuading people to buy into your coalition is a question of language, expression, and the use of words. It's critical that you not talk past them; you need to make sure that you're talking to them on the same level. If Jeff is talking about IT security and droning on about servers and "Active-X controls," he's going to lose Melinda, whose knowledge of computers stops with email and the Web. Some may view your proposal as being broad and ideological; they're going to want to discuss subtle issues of meaning, symbols, and understanding. Others may consider your idea very specific and will want to get into the who, what, when, where, and why.
The small stuff makes a big difference. Ideally, in trying to persuade others, you should deal with big-picture issues first and then work out the nuts-and-bolts tactical matters. That said, tactical details can be the key to winning over those who disagree with your strategic goals. It may be easier to begin the dialogue with the details and develop trust and understanding that will result in consensus. You have the opportunity to persuade folks on a line-by-line basis. Consider politics in the Middle East. No one can agree on what the broader, strategic goal of peace means. So it's difficult to build a coalition that can support conflicting notions of peace -- everything from "live and let live" to significant cultural and commercial exchange. Rather than being caught in the continual debate, if Israeli and Palestinian leaders could negotiate the basics of a shared industrial zone, maybe peace would follow. You need to know when to focus on nuts and bolts and when to focus on principles.
Proactive political competence is empowering and essential to good leadership. And if done correctly, it'll serve you well.
Samuel B. Bacharach is McKelvey-Grant Professor at Cornell University and director of its Institute for Workplace Studies. He's the author of Get Them on Your Side (Platinum Press, May 2005).
2 comments:
Office politics is okay when it works for you, but not okay when you don't get what you want. It is there regardless, so it pays to learn how to play the game.
It helps to write down your goals, put it on a paper under your blotter on your desk. The first question you ask whenever somebody comes up with an idea is "how will this aid the achievement of my goals". Second question..."If I support that fellow on his tangent, will it affect me and my goals in any way?"
Unfortunately, if they are brutally honest, most goals people would write down on that paper they slide under their blotter is "I want to get paid, get promoted, and look good to the boss, my wife, her brother and my employees." Fair enough...of course, nothing will get done as long as management rewards that goal.
As a boss myself, I would ride roughshod over the office politics, making myself thoroughly unpopular with most people, getting the job done better than anybody had ever done it, but getting no loyalty from the organization when something goes wrong. And it did...eventually something blew up in my face, and I was disiplined not for messing up, but for not picking up a problem my idiot underling did.
When did I become cynical? Well, maybe it was when a person I trained got promoted over me who had never done anything but organize office parties. He never fixed a problem, just worked in the front office handling the reports from the workers, filing them, collating them, being in front of the bosses all the time. We were aircraft technicians, and this joker got promoted without ever setting foot on an aircraft in his entire career.
All cynicism aside, it was very instructive for me and my group to observe this, and re-define our goals based on solid observation....sucking up to the bosses works....so if you want to get promoted, buy the knee pads, and start organizing parties. We did that, the aircrafts languished, eventually being retired because they were "too difficult to keep repaired", and we partied like there was no tomorrow. In retrospect, with the loss of the aircraft, we all lost our jobs as well, but hey, ya gotta do what works. At least we didn't end up in jail as the last person repairing the aircraft which crashes frequently tends to do.
Hey, this was a good rant...I think I'll put it on my blog....grin!
I've never cared for office politics, but I will admit that I wish I was better at it. Since I am not, I adopt an attitude of aloof indifference that fools no one.
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