Politics and “The Dance”

With the presidential election theater going on these days, it’s hard to avoid conversations about politics at the Ideasphere offices, even with some of our clients.   Even though I generally reserve conversations about personal, political, and religious beliefs for a very small group  of close friends, I got to thinking about similarities between politics in the public service arena and politics in the corporate world.  So, even though not my regular practical blog entry about operations or management, here are some thoughts to consider about politics in general and corporate politics in particular.   As always, I would love to hear from you and post your replies to this blog at c.papageorgiou@ideasphere.com.

I think most of us developed our political beliefs based on some initial ideas from our family and upbringing, and some from our cumulative life experiences.  We are what, and who, we are because of the ideas we collected and the choices we made at various point in our lives.   As one of my favored Zen saying goes:  Careful what you think; It becomes what you say.  Careful what you say; It becomes what you believe.  Careful what you believe; It becomes what you do.  Careful what you do; It becomes who you are.

What we think about inevitably shapes who we are.  Our political beliefs depend on the Thought-to-Action path we traveled and the path dependency is the same one that shapes our approach to corporate politics.  Just like our political beliefs, our view of corporate politics is either the result of a conscious process, or one of random occurrences and happenstance we have allowed to shape our thoughts and actions.  Depending on how we came to acquire our political beliefs, we either have an appreciation of the political theater going on in America today, can see the benefits of the ebb and flow of power – and appreciate the maneuvering – or we have a disdain for one party or another and all we want is for our candidate to win and our beliefs to prevail regardless of the process.  Politics; If we can objectively appreciate the process, it can be a great learning experience.  If not, what a shame to be part of such a great show and choose not to pay attention.

So here I go where angels fear to tread:  Corporate Politics, a necessary evil that if it did not exist we would have to invent it.

How do we arrive at our beliefs about politics or political ideas in general and why we choose to see it as a necessary evil or just evil?  I think it depends on the path we chose to take, either through exploration and discovery, or by just by following the path others set for us.  One data point does not a trend make, but from many conversations with friends, as well as clients who have become friends over the years, I think my story is an example of the “necessary evil” view of politics, both public service and corporate, that came from exploration and discovery. 

I was born and raised on the Greek side of a small country, Cyprus, and came to America because I wanted to get the best engineering education that would help me build a company back in Cyprus.  My initial beliefs about America where shaped as much by third hand information and skepticism of a political system that sounded too good to be true, as much as by reading books by American authors and listening to Radio Free America.  I arrived in this county with enough money to pay bills and tuition for a couple of semesters and set out to get my engineering degree so I could go back as soon as I could. 

Ha!…  As my friend Paul says:  Want to make God laugh; Tell Her your plans (‘cause everything you think you know including God’s gender is probably not so). I fell in love with the American ideal and, at some point along the way, I made the mental and emotional switch and became an American-By-Choice.  Early on, I was lucky enough to have people around me who believed understanding politics and the political system was a part of being an American, and they helped me grasp its intricacies.  Making the decision was a conscious process.  Before I made the transition from immigrant to American-By-Choice, I spent time reading about what it meant to be an American.  From the Constitution to the Federalist Papers and the biographies of great, and not so great, presidents, to the stories of everyday people and famous American figures, I developed an understanding of the complexities of political decisions and an appreciation of "The Political Dance", or what Governor Schwarzenegger calls “the Kabuki.”  That appreciation of public service politics has taught me to see politics in the context of “The Dance” and to go out of my way to separate facts and agendas from spin and the need to do “The Dance,” before assessing a candidate, a position, or a decision.  Over the years I recognized the parallels between “The Political Dance” and “The Corporate Dance” and developed an appreciation for it.  Whether I am running a company, working on a turnaround, or helping a company through an inflection point, I count “The Dance” as an important aspect to consider just like Operations, Technology, Marketing, or Finance.

The Political Dance is neither good, nor bad.  It’s just the mating ritual societies undertake with ideas and those who represent them -those strange birds called politicians- before they choose who to mate with, at least for a while.  Same for The Corporate Dance;  It’s just the mating ritual organizations undertake with missions, visions, and agendas and those who drive them – those strange birds called managers – before they choose who to follow and what to do, at least for the time they are employed by that company.

Like my introduction to public service politics, I was lucky enough that my first real job was working for a couple of great guys who understood politics as a part of corporate life.  They took the time to explain “The Dance” to a rookie manager and helped me maneuver the political landscape.  One of them, a great mentor who has since passed away at too young an age, used to tell me “if you step onto the dance floor and don’t know the steps, and can’t learn on your feet, and can’t hear the tempo, you will have your toes stepped on; and bruised toes are bad for dancing.”  That quote, and the desire to learn the dance steps so I could succeed in corporate America, prompted me to get my first business book by Peter Drucker, and start a collection that over the last 20 years has grown into a nice reference library.  I fell in love with the idea of being a manager and over the many years that have followed, I have become a Manager-By-Choice and, just like I appreciate "The Political Dance," I have developed an appreciation of “The Corporate Dance”.  It’s not that I enjoy the time invested in political maneuvering; I would much rather be doing something that generates revenue or profits, or coaching young executives on how to be better managers!  It’s just a recognition that it is a necessary evil that would exist even when you only had a three person vegetable stand.  A necessary little troll who needs to be paid its proper due in most cases otherwise it becomes an unruly trouble maker, or needs to be shot on the spot before it can grow into an evil monster.  Like, when the dance is unethical or illegal.  Those are the times when I’ve chosen not to dance, or have stopped the music, and the companies and the clients I work with are better for it.

Now compare my view of The Dance with the view of a dear friend, with whom I avoid having any conversations about politics, corporate or public service, so we can stay friends.  From a public service political view he has arrived at his beliefs without any examination of his thoughts.  As I half-jokingly tell him, rather than American-by-choice he happens to be an American-by-spatially-random-combination-of-sperm-and-egg who’s parents inducted him in a political party at birth.  He is an American, and one of a certain political persuasion, by default.  His love for America and dislike of the political system are abstract rather than based on a conscious decision.  I mean, how could anyone be against Apple Pie and Motherhood and not dislike politicians and the evil ways they have of screwing it up for the rest of us?  His view is one of pure disdain and his appreciation of “The Poli
tical Dance” negative and dismissive.  He just can’t understand why his party can’t just be the one that sets the course of the country and decide what ideas our society should fall in love with.  He chooses not to participate in debates and votes a straight party line on everything without considering the opposing view.  If his party’s ideas get rejected it’s because of those other guys and not because they were bad ideas.  Being internally consistent, he has the same beliefs about the political games in his company.  His disdain for “political animals”, as he calls anyone in power, is palpable and he refuses to see any value to “The Dance” inside his organization.  He is proud of the fact he has never read a “management” book and he confines his business reading to technical publications.  He chooses to present everything as black and white and the only thing we can have a spirited and genuine discussion about, is technology!  He refuses to even acknowledge "The Dance," let alone consciously choose whether or not to participate.  His view is that all good ideas should get funding, especially if they are his, and all political issues should be ignored, especially if they involve debate about his ideas.  Because of that, the challenge he faces all the time is selling his ideas and getting his projects funded, even though many times he is spot on. 

Because he refuses to even acknowledge "The Dance," let alone appreciate it and step onto the dance floor, the only time he succeeds is when someone else, usually an executive with good political skills and an eye for good ideas, willfully becomes a proxy for him and steps on to the dance floor on his behalf.  When it happens, he celebrates the fact he won without having to “do the dance,” even though he just happened to do a different dance off the main dance floor.  It does not occur to him that he just let a substitute do the dance for him and missed the opportunity to learn a few new moves and maybe even make his idea better.  That, if you ask me, is a darn shame.