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.