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Play to the Positives of Workplace Politics: Workshop
By Adam Hardiman | July 26, 2010
Workplace politics have overwhelmingly negative associations for most people. “Frustration,” “dysfunction,” “stress” and “unaccountability” were just some of the terms participants offered during a Monday afternoon workshop at MPI’s 2010 World Education Congress.
David Bancroft-Turner, founder of the Academy for Political Intelligence, noted that businesses suffer when people don’t trust each other. Reduced productivity, decreased morale and loss of valuable talent are among the fallout of workplace politics.
Bancroft-Turner developed the concept of “political intelligence,” (PI) to describe how power and influence function in organizations, and he said workplace politics don’t have to be negative: they can actually be a positive, powerfully transformative force to influence your own—and your client’s—organization.
“Organizations are just big families,” Bancroft-Turner said. “I believe that everything that gets done in a large organization is done through informal channels.”
Just as a child figures out how to get what he or she wants by watching the family dynamics, employees can decode their organization’s “system.” Understanding how the behind-the-scenes decisions are made will boost workplace success.
We must accept that we are all political animals, Bancroft-Turner said. Considering everyone else to be the problem is not useful, as negative beliefs will drive behavior and dictate the outcome.
“Politics isn’t what I do, it’s why you think I’m doing it,” Bancroft-Turner said.
Topics: Business Issues, Meeting Professionals International, News Capsules, Value of Meetings |
Comments Feed
August 8th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
This is an excellent article, and was obviously a great session. Thank you for this, whoever this reporter is. When we spend so much of our time at work, if every organization understood what they represent and then could translate that out so that each employee understands how they fit and contribute (and when they don’t and need to seek a change) what a better way for each of us to spend that 1/3+ of our lives. In an industry that ultimately is created to provide service, we do have to believe this service does improve lives, and enjoy doing it! Embrace the politics!