Politics is something that I try to keep out of and avoid at all costs. I am not really a very political animal, I always try to play fairly and hope that people will look to do the right thing.
Unfortunately, this is a very naive attitude.
Politics is very much a part of everyday life, whether we like it or not.
A great friend of mine always tells me the same, ‘I fully support your view that we should be able to ignore politics, but unfortunately thats just not the case’. And he always reminds me of a quote, which sums it up quite well, ‘just because you claim to be a vegetarian, do not believe that the lion will not eat you’.
Politically speaking, I am a vegetarian, and yes it is true that I have been attacked by many lions, and occasionally eaten.
I do believe that there is good politics and bad politics, and I look to try and participate in good politics only, but here I still think this is me trying to be a better vegetarian, hoping that the lion won’t still eat me 🙂 But this is still m being nave.
One of the best ways to combat politics, is to have a very strong network, this can be beneficial in several ways: it can give you early warning of any politicking being done against you, giving you time to react; it can also be a source of great support in fighting politicking against you.
Ultimately to be successful: we need to master politics, that doesn’t necessarily mean we need to become back stabbers ourselves, but we need to be able to protect ourselves from back stabbings; and we also need to understand where and how decisions are made.
I have been a member of a large number of committees which were the top decision making body throughout my career, but I can tell you, many of the most important decisions were made outside of those committee rooms.
They were sometimes made on the golf course, in the bar in the early hours, or over a small dinner with only a handful of participants.
Often the committees I was a member of only served to be the place where decisions were communicated, rather than made. Sure there may have been a vote, but often this was just a hollow process, looking to follow agreed protocol.
To be truly successful we need to understand how decisions are made in our organisations, where does the real power lie, which groups do we need to be part of in order to be at least involved in the key discussions.
Sometimes these groups are closed and very difficult to break into, and if we are not successful in joining them, we will only have limited success in defeating them.
When dealing with politics, I am not suggesting we should fight dirty, but I am saying that we need to be prepared for a dirty fight, we shouldn’t assume that our opponents will fight fairly.
If we understand and accept this it will help us be better prepared. You don’t need to be a lion to defeat a lion, but it does help.
In one company I worked in we were looking to choose between 3 software packages. The IBM solution was without doubt the best, it was the fastest, cheapest and most scalable, which were the three criteria we were basing the decision upon. I had prepared an excellent presentation, and was looking forward to presenting and winning the vote.
When the meeting was held, I was informed that we had a very tight agenda and there would be no time for me to present, but given that everyone had read the presentation, which was very clear and easy to understand, we could skip straight to the vote.
To cut a long story short, we didn’t choose the IBM solution, nor did we choose the 2nd best option, but we chose the third option, which was bottom on all categories. The voting was something like 2-0-9, which was practically unanimous. The chairman said, given we had a clear winner, there was no need for further discussion, and we could just record the decision and move on.
Given that we had such a strong case, and a clear presentation I didn’t do the lobbying with the other committee members to ensure I would be successful, I thought it was a clear cut case.
One of my colleagues, whom shall remain nameless, who had supported the third placed product had done a great deal of lobbying and had told people that the results I was presenting were biased and inaccurate, and should be ignored. It wasn’t that I was faking the results, it was more I didn’t fully understand the topic and had been misled by the vendor.
Given the size of the defeat there was no opportunity to re-open the discussion, I just had to accept it.
This was a case of the vegetarian being eaten by a toothless lion!
I’d made the mistake of believing that being right and having clear facts, would win the day.
I didn’t take politics into account, and I paid the price.
These are tough lessons to learn, but we need to learn from them, because being right, or having the best idea, is no guarantee of success.
I am not suggesting that we should do the same, and look to promote second rate ideas, or taking underhand actions in order to get lessor solutions accepted.
No, I suggesting that when we have the best solution we need to ensure that we do what needs to be done to protect that solution and ensure that decisions are based on merit rather than politics.
If we just hope that will happen, then we are being naive, and we are just serving up a tasty treat to the lion.
Have you ever been the victim of politics? If so what form did it take?
Gordon Tredgold
Made me smile… There is no way to avoid the politcs…this comes in many forms and worst of them is back stabbers…. the only way to counter them is POLITICS…..if bad things can be done by politics than why not good things…. success lies in identifying the wind as early as possible which is possible most of time…but some time cant do much than just wait…. ” When pond is full of water…Fish eats the ants and when there is no water..Ant eats the wish “…..
Gordon mentioned a great way to combat politics, which is having a large network of people who know you well in terms of skills and attitude, as well as understanding the “power structure” of your work place.
A lot of understanding happens of this “power structure” happen in the first day when you start you work. And if you are a good observer, you can get a lot of understanding from the first sight.
I’ve been working in a small consultancy based in Europa and with a local office in my country. The local office had a local manager but the real power would lie in the hand of the European project manager working permanently at the local office.
Both were nice and cooperative when I first met them, however given that I had some good experience in both cultures, I got this hunch that one with power was the expat project manager and not the manager of the office. So I became friend with.
This way I was able to avoid the “wars” that were going on between many employees and managers in a very elegant way. So being friends especially with the big fishes is a great way to avoid back stabbers.
Another important thing is not to show all your guns. Being transparent and honest is important, however never give away too much information about yourself without a reasons, especially about your strength and weaknesses and especially to your coworkers. All this might be used against you one day. Maintain an status were people, whether good ones or bad ones, have always to guess how strong you really are, even if you aren’t that strong. Having an unpredictable mysterious side in your personality will turn back stabbers crazy because they can’t calculate what your response might be.
I was naive and too nice at the beginning but when I realized that this was wrong I did make use of that and let all the others think that I’m always nice (and naive). However in a specific situation I showed my teeth which drove the politickers crazy because they had to recalculate everything about me once again. I enjoyed the uncertainty I had created about my personality and completed my work at the company without the need for too much politicking.
This is a great piece. Personally I have always tried to be a conscientious objector when it came to politics, but much like you mentioned the power of the good idea or the power of being right really didn’t help too much. I have watched many decisions being made purely on the power of sharing a beer or a meal as opposed to logic – and it starts to wear down your desire to fight the uphill battles. For me – most of the politics I have experienced in my career have been regional based politics in a global company, it’s only natural that being close geographically builds trust and being distant only reduces it. In my opinion regional based politics don’t really help global organizations – rather they focus decision making on criteria such as “how does it affect region A”, rather than “how does it effect the global operations”. I have accepted it is a fact of life in a global company – especially one with strong management in one particular region.
Self interest used to make decisions is so obvious, people think they are being smart, but its clear to everyone.
I always want us to do the right thing, and when i see us doing the wrong thing because of self interest, this really drives me nuts
its not leadership, its self interest, but its rife
I agree with you Gordon. We cannot avoid politics but we must learn how to deal with that. Since ignoring or avoiding never solve anything. I have learnt that hard way. A great article again simple and succinct to the point. I LOVE FAST.