What are the lessons we can gain by watching politicians these last few days—or years?

Many of you might say—LESSONS?—”are you crazy Pat—they are all nuts!”

But there are, I believe, lessons for the workplace in watching “goings on” in the capital regardless of whether you are an Independent, Republican or Democrat–or perhaps the new and what I think may be largest category—-the frustrated.

As an individual contributor, or a leader, you always need to begin with the “end in mind”—-not acting until you are clear about what you are trying to achieve.  The reason for this is simple—if you act based on your emotions or feelings without considering your end in mind, you might well achieve the exact opposite of what you had hoped.  Simple example—you are furious at a colleague that has dropped the ball on an important project.  You lash out and send her an ugly email copied of course to her boss.  Good luck turning this around anytime soon.  That is of course unless your end in mind was helping her opt out of your organization or to be more incompetent.  If the person is an external vendor, you may get some needed action—certainly the boss of the person working with you will put the pressure on or jump to help not lose your business.  But this is probably not a good idea if you plan to keep the vendor and want to not just solve the immediate problem but stay longer term partners—if you don’t want the partnership anymore, well go for it—you likely will get immediate action and since you don’t want to be in relationship with them it is technically OK to alienate them—but remember—be sure this is your end in mind before you go there.

What you observe with hearings into the Treasury actions during the time of the near crash, or in reactions to the State of the Union, are comments and questions ranging from insulting—–”you didn’t do your job did you Mr. Geinthner?” to the bizarre—-”all I hear him (the President)say was he wanted more of my money” .  The reason many of us are so frustrated and want to scream is we know that to solve problems, or to gain  lessons learned, these questions and comments achieve the opposite.  The first alienates the listener completely—-was he supposed to say “thanks congressperson—I didn’t realize working 24/7 and doing what I thought was right was not doing my job”.  How about that second commenet— just a personal emotional reaction to a near 70 minute presentation that covered dozens of issues offers nothing complimentary nor a better approach—is this supposed to help the President be more productive in some way or change his mind about a given policy?  

So, here is what we learn by watching the theatrics of politics:

First, people’s ends in mind which is the foundation of effective leadership or productive communication is either so foolish in these political settings  (their end in mind is to posture for one or another group of left or right wing nuts) or simply unproductive.  There questions and comments are simply random ones that neither provide any insight or helps to uncover what might be learned from one or another actions.  What does that mean for you?  Have not just an end in mind—have one that is clear, shared and appropriate to your workplace challenges that will help people around you in your organization be more productive.  Here’s one: My end in mind is to get more cohesion in my team but also as as many diverse opinions on the table in any work  challenge so we consider all options and can sensibly compromise and move ahead. 

Second, just disagreeing, being insulting or demeaning never creates more productivity.  You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out these approaches will achieve nothing—candor is a good thing—just being a pain or difficult isn’t—-which is why so many of us are frustrated—-maybe you feel a good vibe for a second when your team scores a nasty on the other side—but productive?  No way.  Don’t encourage or welcome any and all comments—any and all comments and push back should be framed in a way that is useful—you can disagree strongly but do so by providing productive and targeted feedback.  Provide sensible feedback guidelines—and stick to them.  These guidelines should be simple and direct—something like this—start by saying something specific and positive about what you have heard or seen, mention what concerns you, and suggest an alternative perspective or idea to move forward.  Ask for reactions to feedback before proceeding.   When people have a track to run on and know they are going to get push back and feedback but in a useful way, productivity can soar.

Third, communications in organizations hoping to grow, develop and handling inevitable challenges  have to be more substantial, credible, more collaborative and  real.  People in organizations should be encouraged to work productivity and intensely—and to do so by listening sincerely and deeply, questioning and offering constructive comments, using feedback to understand each other and work together better—just having tons of comments all the time, none helpful, some just insulting or plain stupid  is almost worse than the old top down approach—just because everyone is shouting and “contributing” doesn’t mean anything useful is happening—in fact, it may be just the opposite.

In all the information about Haiti, about efforts to help, extend support and gain focus on survival the least helpful are those about motivation.

Obama is helping for politics, Bush is trying to rebuild his legacy post Katrina.  So and so is looking for attention.  It won’t matter if we do such and such because some or many will steal most of what’s given.  What’s 10 bucks—it’s stupid.

As at our own work, we diminish performance and slow down efforts to  move forward by questioning the motivations of those attempting progress—even those we inherently don’t trust or respect.

What’s good is good.  Energy conservation is always a good thing—use yours for productive thoughts as well as efforts and good work, not for analyzing other’s motivations.  

Your own motivations matter of course–keep them well intentioned and focused on efforts to serve others—your colleagues, clients, customers and community.  Can’t lose and you’ll be less stressed.  Evaluating others, especially those you don’t respect, is exhausting.  Bottom line who care why?

No matter what you do today take some action on Haiti—write a check, take a moment to reflect and wish all well there, say a pray of any faith tradition.  Use the news to gain perspective on your work and life.  But don’t dwell too much on the sadness and worry which is not productive—create positive energy by action/giving, and praying.  Get back to your own work quickly realizing how important it is that what you do well and what you do matters to people—do it with pride and dignity—what happened in Haiti is not just a natural disaster, it is human disaster created by those who could have done their jobs better and didn’t—from construction to politics.

Here are some simple but I think  meaningful things you can do to be more productive in meeting your own goals and those of  organizations you work with  in 2010.

If you are working and either overwhelmed or unsure about technology/social media just jump into the mix of some new technology tools and don’t worry if you are briefly overwhelmed and don’t do well.  Just experiment and find one, two or three ways to become more savvy about technology.  Find some new technology that helps you do what you want to do better—not just because it is new, fun,or distracting but because it helps you do something you want to do faster, easier, in a way that is working now versus an older less viable approach or cheaper.  We need more focus, less stress and using technology as a way to help you in that way it will make sense to you.  New technology tools are not rocket science and you can easily adjust —I have a kindle for goodness sake.  The key is being selective and using things as a tool to meet your needs and goals—not others.

But, under no circumstances give up your belief that personal real and genuine relationships of all kinds are the most important thing in the world of work.  Use technology to bring you closer to people.   But hold fast to your focus on people and relationships.  Having hundreds of freiends on facebook or 800 contacts on Linkedin doesn’t mean you have terrific working relationships that support you personally or profesisonally.  

If you are a worker young or just very tech savvy and involved with it 24/7, promise yourself to do something not technology focused for a co-worker, a person that works for you or someone you work for.  A young 30ish woman I coached last year (often through technology) sent me a handmade scarf for Christmas—that knocked me out—refreshing and suprising and going to have a lasting impact on our relationship and my willingness to help support or recommend her going forward.  Call someone and meet with them.  Take time to listen to people rather than focusing on instantly responding all the time. Make believe tweets and emails and IMs cost $5.00 each—-or $10.00—-do you need to send this particular note or could a call or personal reach out be more helpful to solve the business problem or handle the issue?   While there used to be too many inperson meeting and gathering, there are often not enough–think before you respond through technology.

Essentially I am suggesting two things—more attention—and balance—-try more uses of technology if you avoid it and try less if you are enamored of it.     

Thinking critically is my other suggestion.  We are becoming more viseral and less thoughtful—change is awesome, technology rocks, but if you can’t think about the assumptions behind what you are doing or others are doing, if you can’t take time to digest and mull things over, you are going to be less creative and innovative—the very things most necessary in these challenging times.  Careful analysis never guarantees success, and one’s gut is often a great guide for some types of action especially if you are very experienced and can thin slice information.  But that said, the biggest challenges most business and organizations face need fresh thinking and more broad thinking—more critical views and more openness to see things in a fresh way.

Attention and thinking.  Improve them both to make positive things happen in 2010.