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OFFICE POLITICS

Introduction

How to Be Successful

Managing Your Team

“YOU CAN’T AVOID OFFICE POLITICS.IT’S A FACT OF LIFE.

YOU MAY HAVE NEGATIVE FEELINGS ABOUT IT. YOU MAY THINK YOU’RE TAKING THE HIGH ROAD BY IGNORING IT.

HOWEVER, YOUR LACK OF ATTENTION TO WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE WORKPLACE CAN BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE (AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN) WORKING IN A COMPETITIVE (MALE-DOMINATED) COMPANY.”

BONNIE MARCUS

TOPICS

Acknowledgment

Definition

Reality

Spectrum

Examples

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I feel the need to acknowledge a few things before starting this topic.

I have a reasonably large social network; it is limited in several ways.

It is primarily made up of people in high technology.

It is heavily Caucasian, with decent representation of Indian and Asian.

It is primarily heterosexual male.

Most are from the US, west of Colorado. Although there is good representation from India and Ireland.

I have traveled to many countries, most to India, but have never worked outside of the US.

Even within high technology, my direct experience has primarily been in engineering.

I did spend a couple of years in IT and another couple of years in Customer Support.

I am a social introvert.

I have very strong introvert traits (enjoy solitude, being around lots of people drains my energy, small group of close friends).

Yet I am social (think / interact on my feet, plan activities, maybe talk too much).

DEFINITION

Workplace politics is the process and

behavior in human interactions involving

power and authority. ... It is also known as

office politics and organizational politics.

It is the use of power and social networking

within an organization to achieve changes

that benefit the organization or individuals

within it.

Wikipedia

often disapproving

: the activities, attitudes, or behaviors that are

used to get or keep power or an advantage

within a business or company

Merriam Webster

REALITY

Politics is neither good or bad, it just is.

Politics is a part of how an organization or company works.

Politics is a part of the culture.

Politics does not require that you sell your soul.

But politics is something that you need to understand and navigate in order to be successful

SPECTRUM

Good

Decisions are challenged in an impersonal way.

There is a system that needs to be navigated, but that system is reasonably well understood.

The system is based on relationships, shared understanding of goals, and working to find alignment through constructive discussion and debate.

Change is a part of the culture.

Accomplishment and teaming is rewarded.

Decisions are made quickly, with just enough information.

Bad

An individual's personal rewards do not completely align with organizational objectives.

There is a system that needs to be worked, and the best navigators are rewarded.

The system operates through several clique*.

Urgency takes a back seat to process, and the stakeholders in the status quo become threatened by change.

People who do not regularly produce results don't get fired or reprimanded.

The average employee has little knowledge of and visibility into the company's decision-making.

* A clique is an exclusive group of associates that rarely allows others to join.

EXAMPLE 1REDUCED INVESTMENT IN IMPORTANT PRODUCT

Politics?

Leadership reduced investment in a recovery product from our storage team

Why were they taking a product that was used by most of our customers and reducing investment?

Why were they eliminating jobs?

Why - when the product needed enhancements to be competitive with other products being delivered?

Why do this to an organization generating solid revenue?

Business?

A new storage product was in the works, and ready for additional investment

Even in an environment of growth, tradeoffs were needed.

The organization got some additional investment, but needed more

They had to pull from one team to fund the other

This worked AMAZINGLY well. They have since increased the investment in the recovery product.

T1 T2 T3 T4

Investment

Investment

EXAMPLE 2ORGANIZATIONS MERGED

Politics?

A decision was made to move support engineering and merging it with management product engineering

Why would they take away such a critical resource in support, where the NPS was better than all the competitors?

Why would they move a customer focused team into a product focused organization?

Why would this make ANYTHING better for the customers?

Business?

Support is in the process of significant change

Data driven

Automation

Tight alignment with engineering

Customers want the same tools that the support teams are using

Therefore it made sense to combine the two teams.

There will be challenges in supporting two different “customers”, but it makes sense to provide one set of tools (products)

EXAMPLE 3SOFTWARE AS IMPORTANT AS HARDWARE

Politics?

A discussion took place as to whether the platform software organization should have a GM and report into executive leadership at the same level as the hardware organizations.

The initial thinking was to proceed with this change. Then abruptly the change was called off.

Why did they change their minds?

Why would a company that is struggling to grow remaining stagnant with respect to software as the future?

Business?

The company is very hierarchical.

The founder, who has a hardware background, continues to have veto power over major structural changes.

Therefore even though the executive leadership thought it was the right answer, they were overruled.

The change did not take place. And the company continues to struggle.

TAKE ACTION

I have a very simple action for you this week.

Take stock of yourself. Think about who you are, what you

want, what you like doing and that give you energy and what

takes away your energy.

This will be helpful next week…