Politics versus Politicking
I like to believe everyone always acts to the best of their ability. However, upon reflection of past board of directors, local and state governments, I realized this may not be the case. Individuals may compromise their best in order to garner a favor for later. This ‘values stock market’ hinders healthy discussion; to truly represent members and the best of an association, board members need to each share their individual views and concerns, not those views fed to them.
Not to say organizations can, or should, exist without politics. Any organization has politics and its employees and volunteers should work to persuade others. It keeps the organization viable. Oppositely, politicking, or the practice of collecting favors for future use, understanding of the membership and of issues.
How does your organization work to discourage politicking?
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Comments
The greatest obstacle for volunteer Boards in today's increasingly complex world is the single-minded pursuit of consensus decision-making based on motions which pre-define the problem. The result is the heightened political use of the "values stock market". I may not like your idea, but if I can hold my nose long enough and vote in favor of your proposal, I will likely be able to "stake a claim" for your support at a future date. From my perspective discouraging politicking is a worthy goal that would benefit members. In the meantime though, the real task for association leaders is to do an extraordinary job of anticipating the politicking, vetting pros and cons and using the resulting facts shape a meaningful debate before the Board ever considers a decision which unfairly adds political value to the utility of the values stock market.
Posted by: Kerry Stackpole | November 10, 2008 2:50 PM
I've been witness to some deplorable politicking in my career. Everyone has an agenda, and it is possible to defuse them, but it is a long term process. Kerry's right, until you can do away with the politicking, you have to learn to predict the politics, and that's hard work. This is, unfortunately, a distraction from what association leaders should be doing - creating value for their organizations.
Posted by: Ben Martin, CAE | November 11, 2008 9:20 AM
I was at a meeting recently where a very smart association executive noted that some of the best board members he had seen were the ones who *didn't* want to be on the board--the ones who had to be recruited, instead of the ones who actively worked their way toward a board position.
I wonder if some of that relates to what you're putting your finger on here, Katie? I bet board members who are asked to join for the good of the association are also less inclined toward the more destructive acts of politicking ...
Posted by: Lisa Junker | November 17, 2008 8:03 AM