Monthly Archive November 30, 2022

PPP: Politics, Projects, and Pitfalls

Allow me to start with a metaphor: it utterly amazes me how little is mentioned in PM trainings & courses about the political storm in which projects (nearly) always sail across the vast and unknown business oceans. Our navigation charts are flawed. (Alas, how poetic! Careful Lord Tennyson, I´m coming for you… LOL). I mean, the focus of the preparation material for a certification – including textbooks, bodies of knowledge, frameworks, professional summits, etc. – most typically hinge around theoretical & technical aspects of the profession. Business politics, in the sense of power dynamics, concealed interests, diplomacy and related are seldom discussed. Let us talk about it.

In my experience, rookie PMs tend to ignore altogether the circumstances that surround the project and assume that everyone is driving against the project charter and its objectives. The premise is that the project operates in a vacuum. Moreover, if there actually some level of situational awareness it tends to focus on external circumstances only and not so much about the internal organizational dynamics. The problem is that, in real life, we know that is not the case. Therefore, and quoting R. Feynman, “The first principle is not to fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool”. We end self-tripping in a cycle of masochistic addiction to a partial, fallacy-driven perspective. Let me explain: human beings love to over-simplify and assume without facts nor data, and even worse, stick to conclusions despite new evidence and arguments proving us wrong. One of the biggest traps is to assume that all the project stakeholders are neatly chasing single common goals as stated in the project manifesto. Many times, this is not the case. Professional jealousy, concealed interests, personal agendas, different sets of priorities, conflicting personalities and cultural differences – particularly at high levels of the organization – may put the project at stakes. I´ll give you an example: say there is a big Program, and two major departments are driving two components to it: Department A drives Project 1, Department B drives Project 2. The Projects are intertwined with each other. Now, if Department B is not making as much progress as expected, it may be of its best interest to slow down Department´s A pace so they (Department B) don’t appear as the sole culprit to Executive Leads. The logic is perverse but worth the shot: the Program delay´s blame will be shared, and if things get rough there is at least the possibility of a finger pointing exercise to dilute the mess. Another example: the Directors of Area X and Area Y have a history of recurrent friction. Not only their personalities don’t mix but they are continuously dragged into F2F conflicts as per their specific roles within the corporation. When an issue arises within the project and it escalates to this level, a political game – and an egos match – triggers. Results are predictable. A third hypothetical yet not very uncommon scenario Business Division Z is facing issues spending the annual R&D budget. They began (as usual) late with their key endeavors, and they will lose the funding for secondary and tertiary priorities if not at least triggered during this year. Therefore, Business Leads for Division Z artificially elevate the priority of their projects, interfering with resource allocation and general Portfolio Management for the entire organization. The result is a management crisis in which well-stewarded & higher priority Projects are derailed when their internal team members are “hijacked” and assigned to less important ones through a political stratagem. The fact that PMs nowadays operate nearly all the time in matrix organizations make the situation even more convoluted for them. Begging for team members time becomes the norm.

“POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduit of public affairs for private advantage.”

Ambrose Pierce

Those are solely three examples, but I think that by now my point is clear. It is a big mistake to assume that a group of people under a single title – call it Enterprise, Department, Geography, Business Line, Hierarchical Level, Project, etc. act as a monolithic, single-minded unit. There are always internal frictions, concealed purposes, and different perspectives. I strongly believe that senior PMs should raise the awareness of newer ranks about these facts as per the subtleties of each organization, and perhaps even more importantly, training courses and materials should have a chapter devoted to plant these concepts in the mind of new PMs, Admins, and similar roles. I have concluded this is an omission in most syllabuses. Time devoted to the topic would be eye-opener to the world of work in general & to the PM practice in particular to aspiring professionals. Betting it all on the future and gradual construction of experience is naïve and puts the entire burden on the apprentice, making the learning curve longer, steeper and painful; not to mention that increases the chance of project failure along the path. Newcomers deserve at least a word of caution about corporate politics and the subtle Game of Thrones occurring in many places, don’t they?

I rest my case now. Do you concur with me? Let me hear your thoughts.

Fernando

Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash