Most people roll their eyes at politics. They say, “I hate politics.” They have in their head, presidential elections and sleazy congress people making deals with the devil while living on lavish expense accounts. They also do not like politics within their own sphere either. Politics may refer to the negotiations that go on at your work or other organization. People are always jockeying for position. That is what we are, driven by hierarchy and goaded by the knowledge of what we do not have – paraphrasing my favorite philosopher Kenneth Burke.
However, I have come to the realization that since Adam and Eve walked from the forest, or the tiny salamander climbed from the pond and grew legs – we have become political animals. We deal, barter, and trade with each other. It is just what we do. Those of us that are good at it, tend to be successful. Those that ignore this, find themselves getting played by those that do. It is just simply the defining characteristic of humanity. One of the greatest cop outs is this, when you fail at playing politics successfully, you fall back on the idea – I just hate politics, I do not want to get involved. Easy to act like it does not bother you, the fact of the matter it effects you. We all know it does. So perhaps we just have to accept the harsh reality that we are by very definition, political.
Which leads me to the idea that we need to really focus on our political skills. Not just the ability to work well with others, but the ability craft a sensible argument, the practice of negotiation, mediation and even rhetoric. I got my college degree in Argumentation and Rhetoric. I always viewed that as a complete joke, I got my degree in arguing I would always say. However, looking back, I realize now that I am older what a valuable skill I picked up attending all those speech and debate tournaments in college. However, now that I am older, do I need to practice and refine this skill? Absolutely.
Most of us get our initial set of skills growing up as we negotiate on the playground, with siblings, extended family and our parents. We then learn through the school of hard knocks as we grow up the consequences of being a bad negotiator. The kids that have a mind for this quickly rise to the top in playground politics. As young people mature and gain more confidence you will see others take the main stage and then you find out just how important politics is when you get your first job. Most young people get hit in the face by this when they do not get the raise, get passed up on promotion or whatever it is they are trying to achieve. Results come to those that work toward them, and in most cases will come to those that know how to ask for what they want.
My first major job, I saw this play out pretty quickly. A company ran by some highly emotional people that happened to get their claws into a rich man. They had an oversized playground by which to experiment, torture and otherwise intimidate. When the rich man finally started to ask for his return, it was interesting to watch the antics of the people involved. I was a young kid, just starting out, but I could already see the writing on the wall. That company did indeed fail, leadership all changed. I had a brief moment of becoming the leader, not by my negotiating skills, but my ability to survive longer.
After this job, I went on to take a job as a college professor. That was a great move for me, and fun too. However, I soon discovered that I was in an absolute den of snakes when it came to political trading and negotiating for position of power. I was ignorant to this, and usually left on the outside of it all. I was mostly out maneuvered by people and the only thing that kept me at a safe distance was because the subject matter that I taught was something that no one really understood. Try negotiating your new curricula you want to do with the Department Chair of the English department. If you can get through that, well, you can just about negotiate anything!
I have seen this same phenomena in every organization I have been involved in, small or large. They are all the same. When people gather together, the negotiation and political trading begins. So rather than fighting it, perhaps we should just learn to be good at it. After all we are all just political animals.
Guy Reams
