Many of us have heard throughout our careers that we need to ”rise above the petty politics” or “pay no attention to office politics and just focus on doing good work”. That mind-set can kill an ERP or CRM project. How can you predict that politics will have an impact on your project? A simple formula exists:
If #of people on the team > 1 Then Political Influence = ∞
I’m using that equation to humorously point out that anytime you have a project that involves other people you must be aware of political motives and agendas. Every one of us has different wants, needs and desires – some of them are transparent and shared, some of them are secretive and destructive.
Recently I was involved on a project where we were selected as a 3rd party project manager to assist our client through the ERP implementation process. The client, as many are, was stretched thin with resources, working on lean operating principles and had a tight budget to work with – sound familiar? That’s a pretty apt description of most companies these days. But where this client was different is that they had a turf-war going on between two areas of the executive leadership team – maybe that’s not too different from many companies either, in fact, we probably should have seen the problem and addressed it more quickly. Ultimately, one newly-promoted executive gained a foothold and decided that external project management wasn’t necessary and that his group could be solely responsible for managing the project. Of course, this is the same person who took every opportunity he could to publicly remind us that they “still have a business to run” whenever asked to attend meetings, provide input, approve process documents or contribute to the project in any way.
A project post-mortem revealed that there were definite signs we should have paid closer attention to early on in the project – these 5 points are listed below to help you better manage the mine field of project politics.
1. Resistance
This particular team member resisted our recommendations, methodology and approach at every turn. Despite the fact that this methodology and approach is what initially won us the engagement and demonstrated the value we would bring to the project.
2. Gridlock
In hindsight, he prevented effective decision making by stalling, barnstorming and creating general confusion and uncertainty around the most minor activities – selecting individuals from his team to attend training for example.
3. Circumnavigation
OK, I used a thesaurus for that one! It’s just a fancy way of saying that he used the old “end around” play as a standard form of communication. Instead of making suggestions or discussing differing views in an open group, he would go around individually to team members to let them know that he wasn’t aligned with the current approach and that they shouldn’t be either.
4. Passing the Buck
This is often seen as finger-pointing, or the “it’s not my fault” syndrome. This team leader wouldn’t complete assignments and then would feign that the instructions were not clear or the deadline wasn’t communicated. He saw this as a viable excuse despite the fact that all of his peers completed the task successfully and on time without confusion.
5. Grandstanding
Everyone is entitled to toot their own horn when they accomplish something valuable, but this person will use every public interaction to lift up himself and his team as examples of efficiency and commitment despite visible evidence to the contrary.
Now that I’ve pointed out ways to identify political wranglers you may realize that you have one or more of those on your current project. Check back for the next half of this article where I discuss ways to effectively deal with this situation.
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If you are planning an ERP or CRM implementation please surf over to Lionshare Software to see how we can help guide you through the Product Selection Maze, Vendor Negotiation Minefield and help manage your project effectively.
