When we manage risk, we usually focus on those risks most closely associated with the tasks at hand — content risks. But there are other risks, to which we pay less attention. Many of these are outside our awareness. Here's Part II of an exploration of these non-content risks, emphasizing those that relate to organizational politics.
In Part I of this exploration of risks not directly related to task content, we focused on those risks that are associated with perceptions. Here are three additional risk classes that relate more closely to organizational politics.
- Errors internal, organizational, and contextual
- Internal errors are those that happen within the task, including, for example, premature disclosure of information, misstatements, and faulty estimates. External errors are those that happen within the hosting organization, such as server crashes, or terminations of key personnel. Contextual errors involve elements outside the hosting organization, such as vehicle collisions, fires, floods, or war.
- Relying on organizational processes for protection from all errors is risky. Understand the limits of the protections the organization provides. To the extent possible, provide your own coverage for remaining gaps.
- Resource protection
- Although we usually associate securing resources with task initiation, maintaining access to resources is always important. And we're often surprised when we lose access to resources, even though most tasks experience resource interruptions at some point in their lives.
- Diligence and a strong personal network are vital in maintaining situational awareness with respect to resource predation. Create plans not only for adapting when resources are withdrawn, but also for defending the resources and commitments you already have.
- Bureaucratic inertia
- Organizations tend to continue doing whatever they've been doing, which in many cases, isn't much. One-of-a-kind or first-of-a-kind tasks are therefore likely to encounter difficulties, because of the inherent contrast between them and other work.
- These difficulties are more Diligence and a strong personal
network are vital in maintaining
situational awareness with respect
to resource predationpronounced when the initiative originates somewhere other than the top of the organization. Advocates of such efforts can be effective when they have warm personal relationships with those who serve in gating functions that can impede progress. - Political sabotage
- Political sabotage includes any effort to disrupt, delay, or terminate the task in order to free its resources for other efforts, or to besmirch the careers of the task's advocates. Tactics of political saboteurs can include spreading disinformation, reassigning key personnel, and manipulating resource streams.
- When political sabotage occurs, it's rarely a surprise. Plan for it. Include in statements of the task vision refutations of arguments saboteurs are likely to make someday. These arguments are far more effective when offered in advance of the sabotage attempts than they are when offered as defense after the fact.
Most important, recognize that the political efforts required to maintain the health and vitality of tasks or projects do take time and resources. Include in budgets and schedules enough time and coverage for those who must execute the political maneuvers that keep the task on track. Political success isn't free. First issue in this series 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
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Related articles
More articles on Project Management:
- The Retrospective Funding Problem
- If your organization regularly conducts project retrospectives, you're among the very fortunate. Many
organizations don't. But even among those that do, retrospectives are often underfunded, conducted by
amateurs, or too short. Often, key people "couldn't make it." We can do better than this.
What's stopping us?
- False Summits: I
- Mountaineers often experience "false summits," when just as they thought they were nearing
the summit, it turns out that there is much more climbing to do. So it is in project work.
- Ten Approaches to Managing Project Risks: III
- Project risk management strategies are numerous, but these ten strategies are among the most common.
Here are the last three of the ten strategies in this little catalog.
- Internal Audits Without Pain
- If adhering to established procedures is part of your job, you probably experience occasional audits.
You can manage the pain of the experience by regarding audit preparation as part of the job. Because
it is. Here are some tips for navigating audits.
- The Reactive Rescheduling Cycle
- When the current schedule is no longer viable, we reschedule. But rescheduling is unlike devising a
schedule before work has begun. People know that we're "behind" and taking time to reschedule
only makes things worse. Political pressure doesn't help.
See also Project Management and Project Management for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
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- Tuckman's model of small group development, best known as "Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing," applies better to development of some groups than to others. We can use a metaphor to explore how the model applies to Storming in task-oriented work groups. Available here and by RSS on December 11.
- And on December 18: Subgrouping and Conway's Law
- When task-oriented work groups address complex tasks, they might form subgroups to address subtasks. The structure of the subgroups and the order in which they form depend on the structure of the group's task and the sequencing of the subtasks. Available here and by RSS on December 18.
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