Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Corporate Galaxy – Part 1

Whether we are managers by profession or not very often we have to get things done by or with the help and cooperation of others. Sometimes it is by the people on whom we have some control and authority (like our children or subordinate officers) but most it is from people on whom we enjoy no such influence. It could be colleagues in other departments, people of other organisations or members of your club, the religious community you belong to or government officers with whom you have working relationships.

Getting cooperation in such situations is a tougher challenge. Although your control and authority increase with your ascent in the career ladder, this challenge also increases as the people who are critical to your success are often not the people on whom you have direct control. Likewise, this challenge intensifies with increase in the stakes of the project you are involved in and the diversity of the stake holders.

Management of this challenge is an art form which may not be taught in a Business School, and often your success is a function of how well you have mastered this art form; especially if the project under consideration has significant social relevance and requires cooperation from a broad cross section of people. In fact for success in politics and business, this skill is an absolute necessity.

To be successful it is important to develop a knack to identify the factors contributing this challenge. In this article I have tried to list few major factors to trigger our thoughts and to compile a survival kit.

1. Turf

Your project may be perceived to be an intrusion into the other person’s turf. Human beings, like their favourite pet, the dog, are very possessive of their turf to the extent of being identified with it.

2. Not Invented Here

Even if your project / idea could make a positive difference in somebody else’s turf, there could be often resistance because it is not ‘his idea/ baby’. Very often people find it difficult to be proud of somebody else’s baby.

3. Competition

Sometime success of your project could place you or perceive to place you in a position of comparative advantage or faster trajectory.

Then instead of trying to outperform you, many people will try to downplay/ disparage you. This is supposed to be a serious issue in Indian culture and is often referred as “Indian Crab Syndrome”

4. Ego

Many people may have very strong egos; especially people in position of power. With the feudalistic culture we come from and the “Raja Culture” often observed among people in power (irrespective of private or public sector), if your project requires cooperation from the self proclaimed kings you have a serious challenge.

5. Corruption

This could be for money, power or credit. But if the people whom you are dealing with are interested in having his pound of flesh, he will find ways to extract the same and if you are not willing to give into this demand, most often you will be stymied.

6. Survival threat

Sometimes success of your project could be a direct threat to the other person’s areas of interest or in worst case survival. Then you can expect a serious resistance, which is justified, at least from his point of view. The more disruptive / transformational your idea, the stronger and wider will be the spectrum of resistance.

7. Sheer Folly

Sometime you may be unlucky to have a moron or somebody for whom rigor mortis of brain has already set-in, and this can happen at all levels. He could be a young and immature kid or a senior person who, as Parkinson would point out, has risen up to his level of incompetence. This happens more often in organisations where there is little compulsion for performance and growth is dependent on connections than on merit.

8. Hidden Agenda

Hidden agendas at industry/ firm/ individual/ regulator level could also be at work against your project. These are more difficult to track as it is hidden behind a veil of apparent co-operation or hidden in the garb of protection of the weak.

9. Closed Mind

If you are working on a disruptive idea that changes the rules of the game and you are pitted against a closed mind, you are in serious problem. The closed mind is often seen among successful people and people in power. Some of them may develop a mindset wherein they think they are the ultimate authority in everything under the sun. Their ‘openness’ to ideas gets limited to throwing some new fad at you without thinking through.

We will discuss the survival strategies in my next posting.