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Office politics revisited

Office politics revisited,
Rob Yeung

I maintain that too many people spend their time complaining that life -particularly working life - is "unfair". Perhaps a promotion went to a rivalwho was less talented or the pay rise went to someone less hardworking.

To many people, the mere mention of the term "office politics" instantly makes them angry and annoyed. It conjures up images of insincerity, backbiting, brown-nosing, manipulation and greed.

However, there's another way of looking at it. When I coach managers who feel that their projects or change initiatives have stalled, I try to get them to change their perspective. Don't think "politicking". Instead, think of the process of building relationships and influencing people as "lobbying".

After all, non-profit organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund and Amnesty International lobby governments in the hopes of influencing policy and attracting funds. Parents lobby local councils for better funding for their schools and nurseries. Trade unions lobby employers for better working conditions for their members. And we don't sneer at any of these groups or
say that they are doing anything underhand or unsavoury.

Lobbying merely recognises that decision-makers do not have access to all of the facts. Your boss can't know how much work each member of the team put in. Customers can't be expected to remember all of the facts when they have ten different suppliers begging to work with them.

Smart people appreciate that lobbying is an essential part of organisational success. In the absence of all of the facts, it's human nature to make decisions based on what we're told, whom we know, how much we trust them, and whom we remember at a given moment in time.

Yes you could make a formal business presentation to a customer or your boss and hope that they make the right decision. But if you're smart, you would offer to take them out for a coffee and chat about it informally. That way you're both relaxed and can ask and answer questions that may not come up during formal pitches.

Or say you're trying to influence a particular colleague - let's call this colleague John. Sometimes John may not listen to you. But if you can convince a handful of other colleagues that your idea has merit, then maybe peer pressure can persuade John when the rational argument could not.

I'm not suggesting that you should try to bribe your way into winning a contract or offer sexual favours in return for career advancement. Yes you could do that, but such gains are often short-lived. You win one contract, but you stir up such resentment amongst colleagues that you find them blocking your every move. Or your boss promotes you when the affair is going well, but then you find yourself without a job when your boss decides a few months later that the sexy new intern is the one that he or she wants. 

Smart people appreciate that lobbying is an essential part of organisational success. When they're fighting for project resources or defending their departments from job cuts, politically savvy people are happy to use both formal and informal channels to influence decision makers.

What does this mean for you? Essentially, you have a choice. You could moan about the unfairness of working life. Or get involved in lobbying. Accept that colleagues and customers struggle to make decisions based on the merits of a business case alone. They like to put a face to a name, find out about the people behind the facts, and hear arguments in language that makes sense to them.

So think about using politics and the power of lobbying to push the interests of your team, your division, and the best interests of the organisation. Because if you're lobbying and using your influence to pursue projects that add value, you can't help but succeed. Your career ascent will
be the happy by-product of the initiatives you're supporting.

Source: Rob Yeung
http://www.management-issues.com/2009/4/1/opinion/office-politics-revisited.asp

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A Bright Future for Software

It seems like everywhere you turn these days, there is more bad news about the global economy. Bankruptcies, layoffs, and bailouts continue to mount. We are hearing the words "recession" and "depression" more frequently than ever before in our lifetimes. The truth is, the world is in the midst of a severe economic crisis, and the end isn't yet in sight. But if you do software, web development, or media, you have good reason to be hopeful about the future. This is the time to hunker down and continue growing your skills and experience, because what you do will be more important than ever.

Unlike some of the other industries hard-hit by the crisis, we've already been through this before. The information technology sector alone lost 700,000 jobs when the Internet bubble burst in 2000. These were permanent job losses, never to be recovered, and even the most pessimistic estimates predict only a fraction of the losses this time around. Our industry is paranoid by nature, and we've watched a number of failed business models go by the wayside since 2000, while new models have emerged. There will still be some painful lessons to learn before the worst is over, but our industry as a whole is much stronger than we were 8 years ago.

The real reason for hope, however, is the nature of software itself. Software is one of the most scalable forms of human value creation ever achieved. When you write a piece of software, your skill and effort can benefit thousands, millions, or hundreds of millions of people with almost no incremental cost to you. Web developers understand this intuitively. Facebook expends almost zero incremental effort to propagate new features to 100 million users. The same holds true of traditional skrinkwrap companies. Adobe Software, who spend heavily on research and development, still enjoy 80% profit margins when expenses are accounted for. Microsoft, Google, and Apple enjoy similarly high margins, and it's not because we are geniuses -- it is because software is such a superbly scalable way to provide value.

This wasn't always a matter of common agreement. There was a serious debate in the 1990s about the value of software. Some companies felt that software was simply free "bait" that could be used to sell hardware. Those companies are now defunct. And most importantly, companies like Google and Apple (and of course, Microsoft) who focused on software, have done well. This isn't to say that hardware is defunct -- back in 2004, Steve Jobs famously explained that the iPod is simply "software in a box". The complete experience requires you to purchase the proprietary hardware and pairs you with the iTunes software service, but these are essentially mechanisms to prevent piracy. The real competitive advantage is in the software. The mobile handset companies who have done very well, all realize that their hardware is a mechanism used to sell their software experiences, and not vice-versa. Likewise, Google's crown jewel, the pagerank software, is kept secret from most Google employees and is hidden behind a service, yet can benefit millions of users by being made available over the web.

You already know that creating software is hard. Skilled user experience professionals, developers, and testers don't grow on trees. Traditional software (whether in a file, in a box, or in a cloud) will be more important than ever, and the massive changes taking place in the world economy will present some new opportunities for skilled people to contribute to the common good. Software will be needed to help fill the holes left by the decline of mainstream news organizations. Software will be needed as spending on energy independence increases drastically. Software to make healthcare more efficient, software to help citizens connect more effectively with government and social programs, software to educate, inform, and inspire. Yes, software will be more important than ever. There may be lean times ahead for all of us, but there is no better time to start getting better at what you do.

So, what are the trends in software that get you excited about the future? Where do you think the biggest challenges and opportunities lie?

Original Article by Joshua Allen
http://visitmix.com/Opinions/A-Bright-Future-for-Software