This Focused Performance Weblog started life as a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective, but is in the process of evolving towards primary content on interactive and mobile marketing. Think of it as about Focusing marketing messages for enhanced Performance. If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Friday, June 25, 2004
A Political Process: -- Word association...When I say "organizational politics," what comes to mind?
Is your response negative, positive, or neutral? Are organizational politics something you try to avoid? Or do you relish "the game" of complex interpersonal relationships? Or do you view politics simply as necessary for making meaningful things happen?
How one views the subject -- as power struggles, ego stroking, or just another tool -- will influence how one addresses it. Politics is just a catchall term that encompasses a spectrum of activity that ranges from clear communication to convincing persuasion to cajoling to conniving to coercion. To the extent that things in your organization get accomplished at the communication end of that spectrum versus coercion probably colors your feelings about omnipresent politics.
A culture based on effective realpolitik, i.e., pragmatic and practical politics, comes from clearly understanding and communicating where one wants to go, why to go there, and plans for getting there. Along the way, one needs to bring people to understand what's in it for them and that going there won't cause new problems.
One of the most important pieces of the TOC body of knowledge -- the Six Layers of Resistance (to change) -- provides a process to guide one through a potential political morass. In the order listed, focus on getting and moving from:
Agreement on the real problem, to
Agreement on a direction for a solution, to
Agreement on the efficacy of the solution, to
Agreement that the solution won’t cause new problems, to
Agreement on a plan, and to
Agreement to proceed
Logically addressing these steps, and making sure that earlier steps are dealt with before moving on to later ones, will help to turn political endeavors from one of conniving and coercion to growing collaboration and co-ownership.
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