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Dear Readers
#1 #19 October 1, 2013
In this issue… How to learn politics from Children
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Nothing Serious: Be the champion office POLITICIAN
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Absolutely serious:: How not to be an office POLITICIAN
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Quotes: Conscience
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Why are we so ‘mouthful’ against the politicians and yet don’t like to miss any chance in terms of enjoying the gossips, conflicts and even much more that keeps erupting around us as part of the political turmoil in social and official setup? Is politics bad or is it the politicians we remain up against? Imagine a state where there is no politics! How would we survive? Diplomacy is the highest refined art of playing politics. It takes years of practice to learn ‘What to say, When to say, Who to say, How much to say, Where to say…etc.’ How good are you at it? Time to rise above the dirty stuff we all despise. Time to elevate ourselves. Time to ask Y not. Start MAG – My Actions Game to become a better politician…oops…person!
Cheers, Rajiv Khurana Editor PS – Please don’t forget to send your feedback at thepersonnellab@gmail.com. You may even call me at 9810211256.
Advt. Pages 11-12
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The Concept of Politics
#19 October 1, 2013
How to learn politics from Children
I have been writing an How to Learn Management – (including learning Management your Wife), but some of my friends complain that their career has been affected not by deficiencies in their management skill but due to lack of skill in dealing with the politics in the office. There are two problems they consider endemic in every organization: Chamchagiri (sycophancy) and leg-pulling. These are the most visible aspects of office politics. Very often people say,� Our organization is good but we have only two problems: Chamchagiri to bosses and legpulling by colleagues. They insist that the problem is essentially with others because they themselves never practice Chamchagiri and leg-pulling. Since it is considered a serious problem it is necessary to do a thorough analysis.
Sharu S. Rangnekar CMC, FIMC
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Thought Leader, Management Guru, Author, Columnist‌
The first aspect is what politics is. The politics they are complaining is not what is practised in state capitals or in Delhi but the politics which is practised within their own organization. First step is to understand is that this politics is inevitable. In Physics, flame is defined as a region where two or more gases meet to emit heat and / or light. Similarly an organization can be defined as a place where two or more persons meet to created positive or negative results. Where the results are negative, the person feels that Chamchagiri and leg-pulling are the reasons.
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#19 October 1, 2013 In fact, when people get together they start influencing others. There is an inevitable competition in this influencing process and that is the basis of politics. This exists not only in the real politics but also in the company politics or in family politics. In good old days (or bad old days) of joint families the family politics was very prevalent. The conflicts between Mothers-in-laws and Daughters-in-law and the jealousies between Sistersin-law (which are the fodder for most of the TV serials) demonstrate this. Even when the families have become nuclear – with husband wife and two children, the politics come in. When the children quarrel you can hear the words, “You are Daddy’s chamchi” or “You are Mummy’s chamcha”. Thus, as soon as two people get together politics comes up because they compete to influence others. The influencing process involves resources, affinity and linkage. Finance is an obvious resource, but every other attribute a person has can be used as a resource. Through intelligent use of these resources he can create relationships which develop into affinity groups. Even if the person does not have resources of his own, the linkage with a person having resources itself can becomes an important resource. The Concept of Resources
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The resources are not constant and their fluctuation gives more scope for politics. The resources need not be essentially positive. The biggest resource of a child is that it has no resource – that itself become a resource. In fact the total resourcelessness, creates a strong motivation for powerful linkage. In every house a child is the most powerful person since as soon as it starts crying everybody in the house gets worked up and insists that the child should get immediate attention. As the child grows up, this linkage through total helplessness gets reduced gradually and he has to develop his affinity group and create and maintain linkages. The success of each child should be analysed how the child uses this process to get power.
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#19 October 1, 2013 Even if there are no children in the house and the family has a dog, one can learn politics from the way the dog developes resources, relationship and linkage to get power. A dog is normally considered a family dog but the dog quickly creates linkage with a specific individual and is considered his special dog. If that individual is attacked even by the family members the dog is immediately excited against the other family members. The dog demonstrates his power in peculiar ways. It may accept food only from the special individual. In fact if individual is absent, he takes food from other members of family – but shows his protest to that special individual when he returns. The dog shows that it is upset by the absence of the special individual. When the special individual offers food to the dog it refuses to accept food readily and the special individual has to show regret to the dog. So when we say the man keeps the dog actually the dog uses the political process to keep the man i.e. to control him. To learn about the political process one has to study How the resources are identified and utilized to create the affinity group and linkage. How that is used to obtain power. Identifying & Utilising Resources to Create Affinity Groups Every attribute that a person has can be used as resource. Even the lack of resources under the label the “Poverty Group” becomes a resource and can form a “Mantra” which can create an affinity group. Mayawati is using “Anti-Manuwadi” as her mantra. The “Telagu Gauravam” was used by N.T.Rama Rao to create an affinity group that overthrew the Congress Rule. “Tamil Culture” and the “Marathi Pride” have been used by various DMKs and Senas to make affinity groups to challenge the formidable Congress Rule.
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#19 October 1, 2013 Leading the Affinity Groups Linkage is essential to focus the affinity groups to generate power. A child realizes this and focuses on mother as the first linkage point. Even before the child recognizes the mother by her face, it recognizes her by smell and keeps attached to the mother. The physical bonding between the child and mother is a very important process for their influencing each other. The child accepting the mother creates a relationship of loyalty and very soon the power of the mother becomes the power of child. The child uses this power very cleverly e.g, if you are working with a ball point pen kept on your desk, a two year old child will come and first touch the ball point pen. If you do not react it will grasp the pen. If you still do not react it takes the pen and moves away. If you protest at this stage “why it is taking away the pen?”. It replies, “This is my pen, I have found it”. That is the child’s idea of ownership. So you move to take the pen for the child. It rushes to the mother. Taking up its cause, the mother tells you, “Let the child have the pen for a little while. You will get it later”. Generally you agree this proposal and the child has acquired the pen by using the power of the mother. This political process is to be followed in organizations. The first step is to understand the power equation within the organisation. Many organizations issue “organisation charts” which are supposed to define the distribution of power - but these organization charts never represent the actual power hierarchy. Consequently understanding the power hierarchy cannot come from reading organisation charts but by observing the organizational processes which demonstrate the power each person wields in the organisation. Many times the situation is fluid and it changes from time to time. This is something that can be learnt through close observation at the interaction between people. This is what develops the political sense of each individual in an organisation.
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#19 October 1, 2013 In a large family you can see how a four year old child understands and uses the power equation between father, grandfathers, uncles as well as mother, grandmothers and aunties. The famous psychologist Dr.Eric Berne remarked “On my best day, I am barely half as good as a four year old child in manipulating people”. The child manipulate grand-parents against parents, father against mother, various assorted uncles and aunties to acquire power and whenever the power is changed it understand it almost as if by osmosis.
A small child intuitively understands the relationships and starts acquiring power. Its manipulation creates a role for the child and very often although it is weakest member physically, it becomes most influential member of a family. Similarly, a new person entering in an organisation has to acquire relationships with various people already there, those who have entered with him and the new people coming in. Those who are able to build a good relationship find that their influence in the organisation grows. In the popular film “Bawarchi” Rajesh Khanna plays the role of bawarchi (cook) by demonstrating how relationship are based on common memories and common interests and how he as a new comer in the household, is able to influence the relationship.
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#19 October 1, 2013 Establish the role of the mentor and create the loyalty role with him:
Generally the immediate boss is the candidate for the position of the mentor but in various situations other people may have to be selected to play this role. When the mentor is identified the new entrant should make his loyalty evident whenever he talks about the mentor. This is automatically conveyed through the grapevine to the mentor and induces him to be loyal to the new entrant. Many people consider this process as “Chamchagiri”. Chamchagiri has essentially two aspects one is accepting the ideas of the mentor and secondly to give him information about the political process carried out in the organisation. The new entrant is tempted to use this aspect to convey to the mentor some adverse information about his colleagues. This can create difficulties because he may get affinity of the mentor but hostility from the colleagues. If colleagues are hostile, the newcomer can be rarely successful since he cannot get the co-operation, collaboration and coordination with others in the organisation. It is a skill to be “loyal” to the mentor without being labeled as “chamcha”. This can be done if the person keeps the transparent system and does not make adverse comments about the colleagues in their absence. If he has any difficulties he takes them directly with the the colleagues and does not bring the boss in the situation. Once people are aware of this they accept the individual without considering him as a “informer”. This is an important image to develop.
Conclusion: Thus learning politics involve the following steps: Identifying resources and utilizing them to create affinity groups, Creating linkage to focus on the affinity groups, Using linkage to create power Children get onto this process and continue with increasing expertise and success till they enter school. Then the education interrupts this instinctive learning process. 7
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Nothing Serious‌
#19 October 1, 2013
P Prepare passionately to be self-centered
O Open yourself to crooked thinking and manipulations L Learn from seniors and colleagues, and beat them
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Ignite emotions quietly
T Treat every instance as an opportunity; select wisely I
Identify weaker seniors and play with their ego
C Celebrate your victories quietly; refrain from limelight I
Increase your impact gradually
A Avoid taking credit for the ruckus you create N Neutralize idealism; everyone loves politics, else TV serials won’t sell 8
*POLITICIAN acronym is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana
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Absolutely Serious‌
#19 October 1, 2013
P Plan to remain above board and non-aligned
O Observe and understand Colleagues and Seniors L Link with people well. Behave properly
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Initiate diplomacy. Know when to speak, where to speak, how to speak‌ Try not to change people, system etc., because you want it
Ignore talking bad behind people. Praise them instead
C Carry a smiling and pleasant face. Be genuine I
Invite and encourage direct feedback to you. Win trust
A Accept lower benchmark. Be tolerant N Neutralize personal negativity. Practice tact
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*POLITICIAN acronym is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana
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#19 October 1, 2013
Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close. - Ronald Reagon One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. - Plato In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake. - Napoleon Bonaparte
Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions. - Albert Einstein
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business. - Winston Churchill
A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. - Texas Guinan Politics is the art of postponing decisions until they are no longer relevant. - Henri Queuille
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