Most people hate the politics. Bizarre but true.
If you want examples, take a look at the first article linked at the foot of this article.
Which is a bit of a problem, because if this is true for you, you will shy away from this essential phenomena in organisational cultures.
Ringing any bells with you? Read on.
With my Private Clients, I like help them to cultivate curiosity around the politics. Curiosity is a positive mindset. We are curious about strange things, intriguing mysteries and such like, and have an interest in getting to the bottom of it.
This raises motivation and hence activity. And will (positive) activity will come insight and learning.
The problem most people have in doing this is settling down the negative emotions long enough to allow curiosity to bubble up. How you do this will vary, but resetting your notion of what politics is will help enormously.
Many consider it to be the duplicitous actions of the self-serving characters that warp the way things happen, or block what should be happening. I get that.
Private clients learn to see it as a necessary dynamic of decisions, at individual and group levels, that facilitate how things get done. Yes, some are more driven by their own personal agendas, but it is still behaviour that moves towards decisions.
From that perspective, your job is to puzzle it out, get fascinated by how they are making decisions and how this interplays with others. Can you find the answer? It’s there, perhaps right under your nose. Perhaps this needs to expand into a team game?!
Getting More Curious About the Politics
- Corporate Politics: Necessary Evil or Waste of Time
- Making Sense of Political Upheaval
- Developing Political Curiosity
- Puzzling Out Organisational Politics
- Mastering the Politics: Course Outline
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