Policing Office Politics

Employees of all ranks within organizations hold a vast range of beliefs. Everyone arrives at a new job with a litany of preconceived notions, based on: past work and life experiences; the organization’s reputation and image; and the word “on the street”. Once these beliefs are set, they are validated each day by the tough boss, immovable management, old policies and procedures and office politics. So what can a leader to do? Bust out of old beliefs!

That’s right, you can eradicate those myths right now and eliminate the mental blocks inside your mind and the organization as a whole. Why bother? Limiting beliefs make us immovable, reducing productivity, profitability, motivation and enjoyment on the job. For the next few blogs, I’ll give you a myth and bust on through it.

Here’s the myth buster for today…

Myth: Nothing changes around here

Aha! It’s common to think nothing moves inside corporations and organizations, everything remaining “the same old same old.” Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” But how does one create and incite change? Start by being proactive and knowing with every fiber in your body that things can shift. When I worked at Disney in publicity, the marketing department was designing incredible projects for programming, affiliate sales and other departments, but no one knew about the plans. Everyone felt out of the loop and expressed frustration with those seemingly pesky marketing folks. So the publicity department lobbied marketing, requesting a monthly meeting to showcase their incredible work. In order to establish the value of this new activity, we had to spend time convincing those around us. We developed the following messages for two key audiences:

1. Outside of marketing – if new and innovative tools were being developed for one department they could surely be used for another. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a holistic way to view all of marketing’s offerings;
2. Inside marketing - since marketing was typically not acknowledged (just like publicity) for its work, this meeting could become a key tool to generate interest and exposure for the department.

Voila! One month later, the first marketing meeting was held and it became a regular activity within the organization, leaving no one outside the loop. You might think this was excessive, and it worked and led to collaboration and increased communication. How are you being a proactive change agent? How do you need to position key points differently? How can you gain support privately first and then publicly? Re-examine your efforts with a proactive and positive approach, eventually, you will engender the masses.