When Projects and Politics Collide
Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.
As long as people are involved in the project process, project managers will have to deal with politics. As intuitively obvious as that statement might be, it must remain an enigma to many project managers because they seem to be very politically challenged. Perhaps PMs that can’t seem to cope with political issues that buffet their projects fail to understand that projects are comprised of people (each with their own views, agendas and values) who must find a way to work together toward a common goal.
Unfortunately, when some of those people don’t share a vested interest in that goal, political undercurrents can become a riptide--dragging the project off course, disrupting progress and even resulting in project failure. It is therefore imperative that PMs consciously, purposefully and continually assess their projects through the lens politic.
In his whitepaper entitled “Understanding the Role of Politics in Successful Project Management”, Jeffrey K. Pinto (the Samuel A. and Elizabeth B. Breene Fellow and Associate Professor of Management at Penn State), shares the following reasons why projects are “fraught with political processes”:
“First, because project managers in many companies do not have a stable base of power (either high status or over-riding authority), they must learn to cultivate other methods of influence …
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"Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow." - Oscar Wilde |
