The Regenerate Web

Timothy Johnson over at Carpe Factum has proffered a post about office politics. While I agree with everything he said, I have some additional things to say. He was covering a post by David Maister which I also liked. Office politics, like all relationship games, is about hidden agendas. When you want to get things done, you need to find out who might be offended by that.

I hear most of you asking, "Why would anyone be offended by my getting things done?" Simple answers are the easiest:

1. They see the job as theirs to do. 
2. They see the job as cheese (more about that later). 
3. They simply can't see how they benefit from your getting it done. 

Those three reasons go along way to describe office politics and why reasonable people often present as roadblocks, or at least speed bumps. I can remember a time, in a meeting when I lost my patience and told someone who was blocking my progress that they were looking an awful lot like a speed bump. As you can imagine, they didn't like it too much.

So let's see how we can overcome these kind of issues.

1. Threatened - If they see you as a threat, and trying to steal credit, or hog the glory, or make them look bad they will certainly try to get in your way. In this case, they might be passive, or underhanded especially if they are directed to "help". If you really want to get this person on your side, you need them to trust you. That requires you to trust them first, and they need to believe that they are essential to the success of this effort, and that there will be recognition. You need to go out of your way to build a relationship, and help this person understand they your role is not to marginalize them. 
2. Cheese monger - If they are concerned with building an empire (hoarding cheese), they may react in a way that is protective of their turf.  This is really the manager's version of a "threatened" response.  Since their sphere of influence and control extends well past their own work, they become territorial.  It is not uncommon for turf wars to get in the way of doing good work.  When your project starts to look like it is encroaching on contested boundaries within the organization, you will need to get creative.  Turf wars and boundary skirmishes often go unnoticed by senior management, doing untold harm to the organization because middle managers (warring clan chieftains) don't expose this upward.  Your strategy start with one simple tenet - explaining how this helps them get what they want.  If they want more cheese, you may need to negotiate how this will enable them to get that.  How you stage this will depend on your role in relationship to the obstructing manager.  If you work for him, in some fashion, you can build a relationship with him and gain his trust.  You need to expose how this might be in his or her advantage, and how it may benefit them longer term.  If you are not working for them, then you need to build a strategy with your management (especially their counterpart in your chain of command) to compromise.  Ultimately you could escalate to senior management, but you then risk of them going passive.  Passive strategies might appear like them prioritizing other work and putting your time line at risk, or sabotaging your project by withholding information until it is too late to avoid a delay.
3. Self-Focused - The truth is that all of us can be self-focused at times.  We all have to evaluate our motivations on every project, in every situation.  It takes discipline and practice to hold our opinions or ideas loosely.  It takes discipline for us to be open to evaluating all opportunities.  It also takes discipline to "put ourselves in someone else's shoes" so that we can see why someone not be fully on board with whatever the mission is.  There should be a healthy give and take - for a given initiative, we should identify all of the possible gains that can be had - by all parties and then cost an prioritize.  In the end, I really don't expect everyone to be a good corporate drone, and go along with every initiative.  I think that it is more likely that people will "sign up" when they perceive some direct benefit.  So look for that, use it, and persuade them to get on board.

When I was younger and less cynical, I felt that office politics was always a "necessary evil" of the work place.  I felt that it was dirty and frustrating.  I used to whine to colleagues, "Why can't people just do the right thing?", and refuse to participate.  As I have gotten older, I realized that we are dealing with human nature, which hasn't changed in thousands of years.  I also realized that understanding how to diffuse political problems can be a weapon and an ally.  Being good at negotiating truces in turf wars and border skirmishes is a skill that can be leveraged over and over in every workplace.  It help one to be perceived as valuable in two ways: overall effectiveness - it helps get things done, and as a consultant or "therapist" that others come to when they are dealing with a tough situation.  

Here are some principles for "Intelligent Engagement" (I love that phrase):

1. Maintain your integrity - just because other people have hidden agendas, and ulterior motives, you don't have to.  You can usually succeed by telling the truth, or when that is less obvious telling your observations.  This requires you to separate your opinions from your observations.  Allow others to draw conclusions, rather than sharing yours.  Make sure that you are clear about your goals, both personal and corporate, and don't be afraid to share them.  This should be done with care, in ways that build trust (i.e. coming clean) rather than in an arrogant or demanding way.  The trust that is built through your candor will help you build relationships that you need to be effective.
2. Be sensitive not vulnerable - seek to understand why others hold the opinions and draw conclusions as they do.  Don't write people off because they disagree with you.  Sometimes your strongest ally can start on the opposite side of an issue from you.  Appreciate the courage of individuals who speak their mind.  This is much less common than we might like, and we can win trust by respecting our adversary.  Should we be guarded?  As long as you can be guarded without being rigid.  Perhaps, but not in ways that demonstrate a lack of confidence, or a vulnerability.  It requires greater strength to bend than to be rigid.
3. Respect comes before trust - on your way to trusting someone you must decide whether they can be respected.  Likewise, before you earn someone's trust you must earn their respect.  I would genuinely like to trust everyone.  Recognize that an atmosphere of trust is the most healthy environment.  Regardless of your role, you can demonstrate trust for those you respect, and act in ways that will earn respect, and ultimately trust.  You can do your part to diffuse the politics by building trust within your own network.  
4. Invest in Outcomes - many people become deeply invested in a principle, a practice, a method, tactic, strategy or even a goal.  This emotional investment creates bias and momentum or inertia.  It makes it more difficult for them to change course or take direction.  While it is good to imerse yourself in something, you also need to hold it loosely.  You need to evaluate whether the things that you think are important are really essential to the desired outcome.  If you have the discipline to do this for yourself, you can also see how others have been come similarly invested and understand their bias.  

Sometimes in frustration, you feel that you have to do the right thing even if it gets you fired.  That implies a hero mentality, going down in a blaze of glory, and so forth.  I would submit, that you should very carefully consider if you can't find a way to make the right thing happen, without needing to become a heroic failure.  Most times it is easier to be an unrecognized success.