The art of good politics

IN A TYPICAL month, several books come across my desk. But like most busy CTOs, I can only find time to read the most compelling ones.

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Recently, a book titled Revolutionizing IT: The Art of Using Information Technology Effectively came in the mail and caught my eye. Its authors, David H. Andrews and Kenneth R. Johnson, make many useful observations for developing software and systems, based on their combined experience of more than 60 years in the business. I immediately agreed with their assertion in the title that using IT effectively is an art, not a science.

Although the authors mostly provide useful food for thought in project management practices (such as allowing time, not requirements, to determine the scope of a project), I zeroed in on their thoughts about managing technology people. Andrews and Johnson note that technology professionals possess unique characteristics that make them different from other workers. Technology professionals, the authors say, are logical, idealistic, optimistic, loyal, apolitical, curious, and sometimes communication-challenged in that they may be reluctant to voice their work dissatisfactions until they reach a boiling point.

Based on my experience, the authors' description of the technology worker is even-handed and fair. They mostly point to the strengths of technology professionals. However, one trait that might seem positive on the surface -- being apolitical -- actually turns out to be negative, in my opinion. Charles de Gaulle once said, "I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians." For CTOs and other technology leaders, the same reasoning applies. Assuming an apolitical stance in today's business world is naive and impractical from a day-to-day execution standpoint.

I don't fundamentally view politics as a lot of nasty back-stabbing and infighting. Politics is about working and negotiating with others in your organization to get things done. The Webster's dictionary has several definitions for the word "politics," but the definition I would use in this context is, "the total complex of relations between people living in society." Technology leaders should not turn up their noses at office politics, they should embrace the particular dynamics of their workplace and strive to understand how they need to operate within their organization to move things forward. Playing the game is not always pretty, but understanding and leveraging the complex relationships of people can often be more immediately useful than deep technical knowledge.

Developing this understanding of organizational dynamics and how you and your team operate within them can help avoid the nastiness and strife typically associated with the word "politics." You might have the most talented technology team in the industry, but if you don't understand the support of the sales department for a key project, your team -- and you as CTO -- will be viewed as ineffective, operating in a technology silo that is disconnected from the real needs of the business.

It's the CTO's job to marshal resources and communicate the value of IT to key constituencies within a company so that the technology team can focus on what it does best, which is leveraging IT to deliver business value. If a CTO successfully communicates this value, the level of political noise will be minimized and there will be fewer resource constraints and less interdepartmental contention. Leveraging politics to create a work environment for people that runs as harmoniously as your back-end network is a positive thing.