Approval or denial of proposals or requests can have impact beyond the disposition of the issue at hand. It also has political impact. It can make or break a career, render other projects moot, or doom or create whole lines of business. Since so much can be at stake, approval seekers have an incentive to use all manner of techniques to enhance approval rates. Sometimes these techniques become habitual — they use them whether the stakes are high or low.
A field of Cereal Rye (Secale cereale). Unlike other domesticated crops, such as wheat and barley, cereal rye was not bred from wild stock by intention. When wheat began to be cultivated in Neolithic times, wild rye was a weed. As a weed, it was enough like wheat to grow in wheat fields. Human farmers would pull the weed when they found it, using visual cues to identify the rye. Inevitably, they would miss a few individual plants, especially those that looked most like wheat. Unintentionally, humans were thus providing selective pressure on the rye population, forcing it over tens and hundreds of generations to evolve to look (among several other favored attributes) more and more like wheat. In time, wild rye "learned" to mimic wheat. This form of species mimicry is called Vavilovian mimicry. Crops bred in this manner by humans are called secondary crops. For a comprehensive explanation of mimicry, see Georges Pasteur: A Classification Review of Mimicry Systems in the Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 13, (1982), pp. 169-199.
In effect, the wild rye was using an approval ploy to obtain the same favored treatment that humans were then bestowing on wheat. By including itself among the wheat plants, it was using a technique identified here as "hiding among sheep." In organizations, the authors of investment opportunities try to configure their opportunities to match as closely as possible their understanding of the pattern the approvers are searching for. The task of the approvers, then, is to separate the wheat from the rye — a task that isn't always easy. Over time, in any given organization and for any set of players, the task becomes increasingly difficult. The task is easiest in new or newly reconfigured organizations, because the approvers' patterns are less well understood by approval seekers. Beyond organizations, we find analogous mimicry dynamics in securities markets, retail sales and marketing, mortgage origination, the game of poker, and venture investing, among many other domains. Photo courtesy U.S Department of Agriculture.
Approvers and recommenders would do well to recognize these techniques. When they do, they can be more alert to them, and better maintain objectivity. In a politically healthy culture, recommendations of the sophisticated approver are more likely to be based on the merits; in an unhealthy culture, sophisticated approvers are less likely to commit political blunders.
Here are some of the tactics of approval seekers.
- Misrepresenting an approval deadline or the narrowness of a "window of opportunity"
- When done to create a sense of urgency, this tactic helps them jump the priority queue. But it's also a way to claim resources before other projects are considered, or to reduce the time available for judicious consideration.
- Hiding among sheep
- Grouping the request with noncontroversial requests might make it look more innocent or less risky than it actually is.
- Using misleading competitive intelligence
- Exaggerating the validity or content of competitive intelligence is especially effective when the approver is fearful about the competitive position of the organization.
- Appeals to personal interest
- Appealing to the approver's personal interest often helps, despite the obvious implications about the approver's corruptibility. These appeals include implying that the proposal was the approver's idea, or that it was motivated by the approver's vision, or suggesting that it will help accomplish a political goal of the approver.
- Overvaluing contributions to or synergy with other pet projects
- This is another form of appeal to personal interest, but it enables the seeker to appeal (unreasonably) to the personal interest of political allies of the approver. Analogous attributes of alternative investments might also be misrepresented negatively.
- Competitive champion character assassination
- Underestimation and
misrepresentation are
probably the leading
causes of budget
and schedule overruns - When the integrity or performance of the champion of a competitive investment opportunity is suddenly called into question, it's indeed possible that misdeeds are afoot. However, the misdeeds might not be those alleged by the approval seeker; rather, in an ironic twist, they might be the allegations of the approval seeker.
- Misrepresenting costs or time required
- Underestimation and misrepresentation are probably the leading causes of budget and schedule overruns. Comments about costs and time required for alternative investments might also be misrepresentations. Subject all claims and estimates to close scrutiny.
- Misrepresenting risks
- Risks of the proposed effort, when misrepresented, are usually underestimated or omitted. But when the proposal includes analysis of alternative investments, risks of those alternatives can be exaggerated.
Sometimes I fear that articles like this serve as handbooks for people with dark motives. But I hope that shining light in dark corners makes the world a brighter place. My hopes conquer my fears. 
Top 
Next Issue
Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, filled with tips and techniques for succeeding in workplace politics. More info
Your comments are welcome
Would you like to see your comments posted here? rbrenDJpmhgyaDTwBQXkhner@ChacmGoYuzfZpOvDQdRkoCanyon.comSend me your comments by email, or by Web form.About Point Lookout
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and
found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.
This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.
Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.
Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.
Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.
Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
The High Cost of Low Trust: II- Truly paying attention to Trust at work is rare, in part, because we don't fully appreciate what distrust
really costs. Here's Part II of a little catalog of how we cope with distrust, and how we pay for it.
Group Problem-Solving Tangles- When teams solve problems together, discussions of proposed solutions usually focus on combinations
of what the solution will do, how much it will cost, how long it will take, and much more. Disentangling
these threads can make discussions much more effective.
Deep Trouble and Getting Deeper- Here's a catalog of actions people take when the projects they're leading are in deep trouble, and they're
pretty sure there's no way out.
Suspense Is Not Your Friend- Most of us have to talk to other people at work. Whether to peers, subordinates, or superiors, sometimes
we must convey information that can be complicated when delivered in full detail. To convey complicated
ideas effectively, avoid suspense.
Clouted Thinking- When we say that people have "clout" we mean that they have more organizational power or social
influence than most others do. But when people with clout try to use it in realms beyond those in which
they've earned it, trouble looms.
See also Workplace Politics and Workplace Politics for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming May 14: Working with the Overconfident- A cognitive bias known as the Overconfidence Effect causes us to overestimate the reliability of our judgments. Decisions we make based on those judgments are therefore suspect. But there are steps we can take to make our confidence levels more realistic, and thus make our decisions more reliable. Available here and by RSS on May 14.
And on May 21: Mismanaging Project Managers- Most organizations hold project managers accountable for project performance. But they don't grant those project managers control of needed resources. Nor do they hold project sponsors or other senior managers accountable for the consequences of their actions when they interfere with project work. Here's a catalog of behaviors worth looking at. Available here and by RSS on May 21.
Coaching services
I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenDJpmhgyaDTwBQXkhner@ChacmGoYuzfZpOvDQdRkoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.
Get the ebook!
Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:
- Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
- Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
- Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
- Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
- Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
- Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )
Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info
Follow Rick
Recommend this issue to a friend
Send an email message to a friend
rbrenDJpmhgyaDTwBQXkhner@ChacmGoYuzfZpOvDQdRkoCanyon.comSend a message to Rick
A Tip A Day feed
Point Lookout weekly feed
The message of Point Lookout is unique. Help get the message out. Please donate to help keep Point Lookout available for free to everyone.
My blog, Technical Debt for Policymakers, offers
resources, insights, and conversations of interest to policymakers who are concerned with managing
technical debt within their organizations. Get the millstone of technical debt off the neck of your
organization!Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group
Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even
think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory
for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics!Learn how to make your virtual global team sing.A Tip a Day arrives by email, or by RSS Feed, each business day. It's 20 to 30 words at most, and gives
you a new perspective on the hassles and rewards of work life. Most tips also contain links to
related articles. Free!Learn how to make meetings more productive — and more rare.