Why ‘office politics’ is good, and how we could embrace it?

In organizations and teams, when people perceive unfairness that leads to anger, a loss that leads to sadness, and a threat that leads to fear, the easiest thing for them to do is to externalize and do those things, and have those conversations that lead to something that is collectively perceived as politics!

Reasonably so, because it’s a challenge to articulate and find reasons for those emotional states, in a very complex organizational context. There are usually multiple events and conversations, over a period of time that could have led to their perceptions and emotions, and hence a state of perceived politics.

Hence office politics is just the symptom, and it’s not the problem in itself. And we know symptoms are important, because through them we will know the problems that need to be addressed and solved. We don’t attempt to solve politics, because we can’t, rather, we solve the problems underneath it.

By the way, anger, sadness, and fear are all natural emotions. They are not bad, but sometimes actions driven by them are!

Doing, thinking and feeling are the three realms in which people express themselves and contribute in organizations. While organizations usually have metrics and processes to measure the doing (tasks & results), and thinking (knowledge, ideas, POV’s, IP etc), there are usually no formal metrics, processes and systems to measure contribution through the realm of feeling. Hence in the absence of such systems, office politics becomes an informal, but a crucial metric to understand (and correlate with) the level of contribution from people. Lesser the politics, better is the contribution.

That’s why office politics is good, especially if you are a leader. Because it gives you very crucial information to determine course of action in the context of organizational effectiveness. Exploring, sensing and taking relevant actions is how you embrace politics – That’s top down. Bottom up actions are possible too.

Next time you bump into a conversation on office politics, or politics around you, desist from running away or getting succumbed to it. Rather, get a little curious. And when you do so, you will find answers, the kind of answers that lead to transformative actions on you and outside you.

Then you enable people (and yourself) to move towards celebration and engagement, perceiving a sense of satisfaction that leads to happiness (the fourth natural emotion).

And by the way, happiness in itself is not good, but sometimes action driven by it is!

Looking forward to seeing your comments.

How to deal with an organizational environment that is uncertain and fickle?

We are face-to-face with a work environment that is uncertain and fickle almost on a daily basis.
And that's a good news. I will tell you how.

Uncertain and fickle nature of your organization is a result of it being in sync with the external business environment, which in itself is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA). And that synchronization is the key to sustenance of the organization, and hence the sustenance of your job & career.

There is a particular medical condition called congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP) where a person loses his/her ability to sense physical pain. That's dangerous. For example, with this condition the person would not be able to realize when his/her limb is being cut while asleep. Because of the absence of visual evidence.

All of us can recall a few organizations that existed in full glory, and now they are cut and are extinct. It's highly possible that they had lost their ability to sense and respond to the pain of VUCA world long before they perished.

So when there is unpredictability, inconsistency, and frequent change of priorities in the climate of the organization, you should know that you are in an organization that has the ability to feel the pain of VUCA world, and that it has the capacity to adapt itself, heal, and sustain.

And that's why the uncertainty, and fickle nature of your organization is a good news! But, how do you deal with such an environment? How could you possibly equip yourself for such an environment?

In a managerial development program that I delivered recently, I was facilitating an activity to enable learners to understand what it takes to speak-up and why speaking-up is important. After about 60 minutes of investment on this, just when I thought we had a great experience and that we had learnt a great deal, one of my dear learners spoke-up and said, “Look Naveen, speaking up will not work in this organizational culture. What works here is shutting up, especially with the boss, where most of our conversations happen. Now you shut up!” (Assume a bit of exaggeration here).

The point is that my dear learner spoke up! His skill of speaking up was made evident at that moment. There is no doubt that he is skilled. The point also is that many other manager-learners, though belonged to the same organizational reality, did not speak up.

So I told them the following: It is not about whether speaking up is relevant or not. It is about whether you have the capacity to speak up or not, in the first place. If you have the capacity to speak up and chose not to speak up because it is not relevant in the current organization context, that’s fine. That’s a lot of credit to your discretion. But if you hide behind the organization culture and say you don’t speak up because that’s how your organization wants you to be, then it’s a concern. Because sooner or later organization changes, or your role changes, or you choose to move out, where you are expected to speak up, and not shut up.

So how to deal with uncertainty and frequent changes?

Don’t deal with it. Rather deal with yourself. Build on your repertoire of skills. Be a master of polar extremes and mid-point of multiple skill continuums. Do you have the ability to speak-up, shut-up and talk selectively at the same time? Can you be Aggressive, Passive and Assertive? How about competitive, submissive and collaborative? You could think of many other skills that have two poles and a mid-point.

The key is to create as many number of points in your personality map that will give you enough options to navigate through, depending on how the winds of your role expectations push you. Then you will know that you are equipped to handle an organizational environment that is uncertain and ever changing, because that’s the way things should be.

Some polarities and mid-points that you can master

1. Detach – Belong, or Just be

2. Be an expert – Be ignorant, or Be half-cooked

3. Lead – follow, or collaborate

4. Be aggressive - be passive, or be assertive

5. Create – destroy, or maintain

6. Crunch numbers – hate numbers, or date with numbers

7. Coach – counsel, or observe

8. Laugh – cry, or be numb

9. Embrace - refrain, or watch

10. Talk – listen, or stay away

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Naveen, Principal Consultant

I can be reached at naveen@bisykle.com

Don't give your employees a BIG HIKE, give them value for their time

Reading this article qualifies you to get $1440 every day! I mean it - everyday, the rest of your life. Just hold for a bit before you dismiss that. You actually get it, I am serious, but if only you agree to the following three conditions:

Condition 1: This money can’t be donated or given to someone else, you will have to spend it by yourself.

Condition 2: This money cannot be invested or saved, and be used in the future. It has to be used now.

Condition 3: If you do not use this money, it will be taken away from you. No left overs!

Do you agree to the conditions? I am sure you do with a resounding yes! Well then, you have it. By the way, this offer is called “THE MOST POPULAR OFFER” because it’s offered to everyone irrespective of who. (Also because most of us have heard this, or been part of this conversation)

All of us are given 1440 minutes a day with the conditions mentioned above. It’s just that $ symbol is replaced with the word ‘minutes’. We have 1440 minutes a day that cannot be donated, that cannot be saved to be used later, and when they are not used on that day, they disappear. But you have a fresh deposit of 1440 minutes on your account the next day. That’s amazing.

If only you and I could value our time with a simple equation 1$=1minute. Time is the most significant resource and raw material all of us are generously (and fairly) provided with. It gets used to produce three products in our lives - memories of the past, experience of the present, and dreams of the future. They are priceless. When those products are good and enjoyable, it enables us to celebrate and be engaged with life.

That gives us a clue as to why many fragmented and often manipulative (carrot –stick) stances including salary hikes in an organization fail to engage and retain talent and resourcefulness of employees. Because sooner or later the intrinsic value of money comes down. And in some cases, where they realize that the biggest hike they got in their career is a little lesser than their colleague, the depreciation is almost immediate! (“Do not share your salary details with others” does not seem to work)

How well is your organization enabling your work-force to convert the time they spend with you, into lovable and valuable outcomes for themselves in the form of memories, experiences and dreams? I completely resonate with an article published by Stanford University titled “If money does not make you happy, consider time” (link to the article given at the end). I agree that it’s their responsibility to make their time count. But we as organizational leaders have a role to play too.

My take on employee engagement is this – enable employees to convert their time into valuable and lovable outcomes for themselves, they will be engaged with the organization to create valuable and lovable products and services for our customers. We understand there is complexity, ambiguity, frustration, letting go of the immediate benefits, and a lot hard work involved in striking that equation, but it’s worth the effort.

$1440 per employee per day. That’s a lot considering the size of our organizations. Let’s be wise in spending that resource.

Thanks for investing a few dollars in reading this. Hope it is contributing a little bit in creating a lovable outcome for yourself.

Stanford University Article: - https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/if-money-doesnt-make-you-happy-consider-time