Scenario planning for political uncertainty

 

Unless you understand what is going on at a political level around your project, you are unlikely to be totally effective at making things happen in any reasonable sized organisation.

Each organisation is full of powerful and ambitious people with agendas. If you invest time on a regular basis deepening your knowledge of the way people are pursuing their objectives, you will be able to increasingly develop the most successful strategy for what you are doing.

You will also be in an extremely good position to defend yourself proactively. It is not necessary (or even desirable) to become Machiavelli, but you do need to learn what is really going on.

• What problems and challenges is your organisation facing?
• What strategy is it adopting to meet these?
• Who are the key players involved in this strategy?
• How do their agendas match and mismatch?
• What will change in the next six or twelve months?
• How does all of this affect your project?