Ai Weiwei, @ The Design Museum, UK, June 2023
Connecting Dots is the monthly newsletter for global professionals leading innovation.
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Innovation Politics
Politics? No thanks!
Years ago, when I first led innovation, I noticed a disdain or dismissal of political dynamics. Over time, I learned it is often a defence against threats to self-image or denial of organizational reality. The wish to avoid innovation politics is understandable but not practical or effective. Thus, how can you better understand and constructively engage with innovation politics?
Why acknowledge innovation politics?
All organizations are political because organizations are human systems. Every organization has goals, as does each employee. Including yourself. Rarely, if ever, do the goals emerge in harmony. Most of the time, the work of leadership is to create a good enough harmony of varying and even competing goals to enable progress.
To deliver organizational change, one must work with the political system. Especially when the change comes in the form of innovation because it almost always shifts who has power, resources and rewards—tangibly or perceptively.
Organizational politics are the self-serving behaviours that employees use to achieve positive results. In a healthy organization, there is harmony where the individual, the organization and society achieve positive outcomes in parallel.
Some people are naturally good political operators. Many learn through experience how to become effective political operators. Others stay political passengers, consumed by the agendas of others, often unknowingly or unwillingly.
How to constructively work with innovation politics?
A tactic I often used when leading or guiding innovation teams was to declare that 'we are above politics.' A statement you may instinctively interpret as über-political. You are not wrong.
The point was to empower the team to chart its own political course. So that we might engage intentionally and thoughtfully with the people and political dynamics present in all organizations at all times.
Many interpreted the statement of being above politics as a purity pledge to only live the mission of the desired end outcome. That was also not wrong as it provided an openly defensible way of explaining our work. However, embedded in that pledge is the prioritization of the organization’s highest political order.
Focusing on engaging with the highest order is a practical balance of long-term vision and pragmatic progress in the eyes of primary stakeholders week to week, month to month, quarter to quarter and year to year. Your top-tier stakeholders are customers, top executives or owners/investors and sometimes regulators.
The goal of focusing at this level was to protect my teams from being ground down by mid-level politics. This is the cut and thrust of day-to-day organizational life primarily concerned with near-term outcomes and personal gain.
That is not to ignore mid-level politics, as they can easily undermine your work. The point is to know whose top-level 'yes' enables progress and mitigate against mid-level 'no' that can derail you.
Three ways to practically work with innovation politics
Here are some practical ways to visualize and work with high and low political dynamics for the year ahead.
Support Map - Where to invest effort?
On cards or Post-Its name all your top stakeholders (whether you have direct contact or not)
Post them on a wall or whiteboard
Separate into three groups based on who has demonstrated support (green), neutrality (amber) and opposition (red)
If you don’t know, assume red until you see green or amber actions
If green isn’t your largest group decide if you focus on amber or red
If green is your largest group, focus efforts there to maintain momentum unless there are individuals in amber or red that can over-rule the green coalition
Authority Matrix - How to get to yes?
Rarely is there a singular decision-maker
Never do you want to go into a decisive meeting without high certainty of the outcome
If support or negotiating points are unclear do an authority matrix of stakeholders
List stakeholders and label them as:
Responsible for the outcome
Accountable for doing the work to get to the outcome
Support to provide an objective voice of reassurance or caution
Consulted to provide technical input or key enabling resources
Informed to anticipate or coordinate other activities post-decision
Whether formal or informal authority, what is the minimum requirement for each to say yes?
As a leader, your task is to do the work to find out what they need and to either provide it, reframe it, educate it or renegotiate it
Mitigation Plan - How to anticipate and overcome obstacles?
Organizations are optimized for current results so your innovation will destabilize the status quo
The key is to be sensitive to those who have the most to lose
If you have a powerful stakeholder identified in your authority matrix, you need to work with them so their destabilization doesn't become destructive
Engage early, so even if the outcome isn’t in their interest they may accept it for having been heard
Engage frequently, so you have multiple opportunities for each party to learn from the other
Engage collaboratively, respect their right to have an opposing view or needs and find ways to reconcile without compromising the integrity of either party
Engage compassionately, try to understand their position at a human level and empathetically what it’s like for them to build mutual trust and understanding
Engage magnanimously, if they come on side be humble as they can always withdraw support if they feel manipulated
As you think ahead to next year, make a note for yourself to surface and engage your innovation politics early on. It's the best path to success for all.
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Learn more about Brett’s leadership development practice for global executives with innovation responsibilities.
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