Navigating Organizational Politics

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Navigating Organizational Politics

Mark Mullaly, PMP

February 16, 2010






Last month’s article explored the fact that while requirements definition is an essential aspect of project management, of equal or greater importance is the management of expectations. These expectations represent the cultural values that operate within any and every organization--in terms of risk tolerance, acceptance of innovation, sharing of resources, valuing of collaboration and approach to communications. In essence, we need to understand the environment in which we work, what is valued and what isn’t, and adjust our behaviors appropriately in order to ensure success.
While this is all well and good in theory, the fundamental challenge is how to actually manage this process. We have to be able to understand the environment in which we and our projects are operating in, and more importantly we also have to be able to operate and manage effectively within it. With acceptance of this reality, we quickly find ourselves firmly within the realm of organizational politics.



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"Nearly every great advance in science arises from a crisis in the old theory, through an endeavor to find a way out of the difficulties created. We must examine old ideas, old theories, although they belong to the past, for this is the only way to understand the importance of the new ones and the extent of their validity."
- Albert Einstein