Sharp elbows, fierce loyalties, and frequent turf battles were hallmarks of Ford’s management culture: The tough guys won.
\n____________
\nHe drives performance the way he did at Boeing, with the Business Plan Review, a meeting with his direct reports, held early every Thursday… There are no pre-meetings or briefing books.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nGreat.\u00a0 We had just been discussing “lining up your ducks” — where one gathers support and influences potential supporters before a decision meeting.\u00a0 And here’s an article with an executive outlawing that very technique.\u00a0 What’s going on?<\/p>\n
Usually, when I hear someone use the term “it’s political,” it is being used pejoratively.\u00a0 The speaker is usually describing a situation where decisions are being made: A)\u00a0 with which the speaker does not agree; and B) that can only be explained by non-rational reasons (e.g. playing favorites, coercion, and a big #$*%^ mystery).<\/p>\n
On the other hand, “influencing” seems to have a much better reputation.\u00a0 Isn’t it our job as PMs to influence people on the project?\u00a0 To find ways to get our stakeholders onboard?\u00a0 I would say, “absolutely!”\u00a0 I would go further and say that as PMs, we communicate (and communicate and communicate) expressly in order to influence getting to a mutually beneficial outcome.<\/p>\n
On the other hand (my mind seems to need a lot of hands these days), could it be that one person’s influencing can be another’s political manipulation?<\/p>\n
Hmmm…. well, it is true that some of the same techniques can be employed.<\/p>\n
Some things do\u00a0 seem to be key differences:<\/p>\n
A) Open to scrutiny — Political manipulation seems to occur most often behind a veil;\u00a0 there is an opaqueness to processes.<\/p>\n
B) Source of power — Influencing more often relies upon the “power” of facts\/data\u00a0 (this is not to say that “facts” are ever purely objective), as opposed to political power of reward\/punishment.<\/p>\n
C) Who benefits — Political motivation seems to be focused more on benefitting a small sub-group rather than a wide and inclusive\u00a0 view.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0 PMs we are living and breathing influencers.\u00a0 But, do we ever cross over into political manipulation?\u00a0 Probably, and we should think about the implications — is it ever justified?<\/p>\n
However, I guess I’m more worried about if, in our zeal to influence, we can be perceived as political players in the perjorative sense.\u00a0 What if some people see our numerous (and often unscheduled) meetings and conversations as furtive and secretive?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What if they don’t understand the rational basis of our position?\u00a0 What if some people see our success as evidence of politics and don’t see how the stakeholders as a whole benefit?<\/p>\n
As our discussions went on, it became pretty evident that there is a spectrum between clearly benign influencing and clearly evil political manipulation — and there’s the issue of perception.<\/p>\n
Ford’s CEO is trying to shine a bright light into the backrooms.\u00a0 And maybe that’s one test on whether we’ve crossed over to the dark side:\u00a0 can our influencing actions withstand\u00a0 scrutiny?\u00a0 Would our parents be proud?<\/p>\n
Alan Tsuda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ability to influence people is a good skill for a project manager. Isn’t it?
\nIsn’t it our job as PMs to influence people on the project? To find ways to get our stakeholders onboard? <\/p>\n
Could it be that one person’s influencing can be another’s political manipulation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[64,496,542],"class_list":["post-2284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-communications","tag-communication","tag-influence","tag-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14237,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions\/14237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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The ability to influence people is a good skill for a project manager.\u00a0 Isn’t it?<\/p>\n