Deborah wrote in part
> In the strategic work I do, I'm not
> dealing with marketing issues but program and budget issues. One
> question I ask, which most people like to pretend never factors in but
> is a huge issue, is the political one. In other words, who are we
> serving? Is there a political master who has subtlely ordered this to
> happen? Is there someone in the system who wields extraordinary power
> and for whom this program or project is deemed high priority? So, the
> unspoken political realities need to be factored in.
I believe that there are a couple additional points implied in her comment.
These are fairly fresh in my mind because they came up with the last few
sessions of a course I teach at a local university. There might be other
points, too, but for now they're lost in the fog ...
First -- when you look at any decision-making opportunity, you will
typically arrive at a better decision if you can view the situation from
multiple perspectives. Deal and Bolman (Reframing Organizations) suggest
four frames for looking at organizations (and by inference at
organizational decisions): political, structural, human resources, and
symbolic.
Second -- the same question, verbatim, coming at the same time but from
different people really acts like different questions. Picture the scene
of an auto accident. You're a passenger in a damaged vehicle. Someone
leans in through the broken window and says "How do you feel?" Well, the
answer you might offer depends on whether the question-asker is a police
officer (perhaps looking for your ability to answer even more questions and
offer evidence), an EMT (looking for immediate vital signs), an
ambulance-chasing attorney (looking for a case) ... That is, your
perspective of the asker's perspective has an impact, too.
Perhaps you have at some point asked what you thought was an innocent
question. And the other person blew up having interpreted it very
differently even though s/he heard the words correctly. To tie the two
points together, you may have posed an 'HR' question, but the listener may
have heard a 'political' question.
Michael A
Michael Ayers
mbayers@earthlink.net
www.TheCommonwealthPractice.com
-> Sometimes the right question is:
Are we asking the right question? <