How to play office politics at work the right way

How to play geschftszimmer politics at work the right wayHow to play office politics at work the right wayIn his bookAdults in the Room, the economist and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis reflects on an obstacle lots of people face in their jobs Getting other people to go along with their ideas. Working with fellow economists, Varoufakis developed a plan to get the Greek economy out of its cycle of debt with the Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund. But he ultimately failed to gather enough support for these policies to be enacted.One lesson from that experience? Having good ideas and convincing others that your ideas are good as you think they arent isnt enough. What really matters is your ability to navigate your organizations political apparatus. And make no mistake Every organization has one. Playing politics at work isnt a matter of sleazy double dealing, though. Its just about gaining the support of people with the ability to put your ideas into practice. After all, getting a group of people to work together and sweat the details in order to pull off a project successfully takes skill.If you want to improve your organization and make an impact, youll need to master that. Heres the right way to go about it.RelatedFive Strategies Facebook Uses To Minimize Office PoliticsLook for how decisions get made (not just who makes them)Sometimes its obvious who calls the shots. Other times, it isnt. Maybe its not the people with the flashiest titles who are setting the agenda instead, its the key people who influence their choices who have the real power. Theyre the ones who determine the process by which new ideas get filtered up tokey decision makers.Understanding how decisions get made requires a certain degree of access, but a little can go a long way toward providing crucial intel. That means that you want to get yourself invited to meetings where important issues are going to be discussed. If that sounds unlikely, try asking permission to sit in on those talks strictly as an observer,for career-development reasons. After all, you reallyarethere just to learn.Your aim in these meetings is to listen and watch Who talks? Whose words are repeated by others? When someone makes a comment and other key players adopt their way of talking about the issue, you know youre dealing with someone who has quiet influence. You cant even begin to get anyone to pay attention to your own ideas until you know whom to talk to.RelatedHow To Create Your Own Opportunities At WorkBuild up goodwillIdeas are like books. You have to get people to zupflmmel them before they can have any impact. How do people decide what books to buy? They often gravitate toward authors theyve already heard of for some reason. Authors present their work in multiple placesby writing op-eds, getting excerpts published in magazines, going on speaking toursin order to familiarize potential readers with their work and drum up interest in it.Similarly, you cant start cu ltivating people with the power to implement your great idea at the same instant you have that idea if your first interaction with someone is a request for a favor, you cant reasonably expect them to grant it. You have to begin much earlier. From the moment you start any job, you need to develop relationships with people who can help you achieve your goalswhich includes but is definitely not limited to your boss.Get to know the people you work with. Offer to help with projects. Show that youre willing to support the teams or the companys goals. And make sure you actually do a good job with everything you offer to take on (offering to help is one thing actually helping is another). Building up this goodwill gives you social capital to spend when you need it.Find common groundEven if you have good relationships with people who can help you implement an idea, they might not be willing to help. Everyone in an organization has goals theyre trying to achieve. Some might be personal (getti ng a promotion), and some might be organizational (getting a project funded). So while a colleague may offer to help you because they like you or think your idea is brilliant, theyll only do that in the context of the other goalstheyretrying to achieve. And that means you need to find common ground.Learn what key people are working on. Look for ways to make it easy for them to support you, and explain how what youre trying to do also advances whatever theyre hoping to accomplish. You may need to be creative in helping them to see the overlap, but that doesnt mean stretching the truth (suspected bullshittersarenotgenerally successful at working their organizations politics). But you will probably have to show people that theres a way for themto achieve one of their goals in a different way than theyd expected. If you can find common ground in those end goals, you may be able to find flexibility in the getting-there.No matter what, just dont expect anyone to be so blown away by the br illiance of your idea that theyll abandon their own agendas in order to adopt yours.RelatedSix Words And Phrases That Make Everyone Hate Working With YouKnow when to foldPersistence matters, but so does the ability to be realistic about your odds. One of the biggest mistakes people make while trying to negotiate their organizations politics is sticking in the game too long. Sometimes there just isnt a way to get key people to work with you to get your idea across the finish line. Pushing too far past the point of no return can actually hurt your credibility, your career, and your chances the next time youve got an idea you want to win support for.Instead, you have a few options.One is to live to fight another day. If you had one good idea, theres a high probability that youll soon have another. And just because you werent able to get one idea taken up by people with power doesnt mean youll always fail. Continue to develop relationships so that when you have your next stroke of geniu s, you can return and try again.Another option is to move on to someplace where your idea will stand a better chance of gaining traction. You can learn a lot about the values of people and organizations by watching how they make decisions. In the process, you might discover that your values differ enough from those of the people around you that this organization isnt the one where you should be devoting your efforts. Maybe its time tofind someplace where you can engage with people who share your view of the world.In the end, people often grumble about office politics when they dont get what they want. The key is to remember that its really about people. Wherever you go, whatever you do, there will be people you need to convince to come along for the ride.This story was originally published on Fast Company.About the authorArt Markman, PhD is a professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin and Founding Director of the Program in the Human Dimensions of Org anizations. Art is the author ofSmart ThinkingandHabits of Leadership,Smart Change, and most recently,Brain Briefs, co-authored with hisTwo Guys on Your Headco-host Bob Duke, which focuses on how you can use the science of motivation to change your behavior at work and at home.MoreStories You Might Also Like From Fast CompanyHow To Protect Your Work Culture When Political Correctness Is Under FireHow Political Metaphors Are Subtly Impacting Your Decision MakingHow Anger Wrecks Organizations