mikelally.net

Quote from the latest Tom Peters blog:

Implementation—at the level of “chief” of a 4-person project team in IS—is and always has been and always will be primarily about politics.

In fact it is axiomatic: Effective implementers are effective politicians, regardless of any synonym you may choose to substitute for politics.

Wow.

This hit home like a ton of bricks to the face.

TP is dead on. In my current role, I am an Implementation Manager. I could argue that I’ve almost ALWAYS been an Implementation Manager but that is for another day.

I think this is the part that our intern is not getting from B-school. She is trying to capture process flows. Specifically my process flow. So I am having her shadow me. She goes where I go.

And 90% of what I do is politic-ing.

I started college as a political science major. I made it through two classes. At the start of the third class, the professor started it the same way – “Politics is who gets what and why” – as the other two. I stood up and left.

It is true. I spend my time lobbying for my projects, my customers, my performance. Sometimes, I am all smiles and sugar. Sometimes, I have to be the bad guy.

But it is ALWAYS about getting MY needs fulfilled.

Not sure how you capture that in a process flow.