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CHAPTER 6BUILDING POLITICAL CAPITAL:Forget the Org Chart

If you think about it, companies are a lot like families. There are spoken and unspoken rules of what’s acceptable and what’s not–for instance, whether it’s OK to eat dinner in the living room, feet up on the coffee table, or if it’s strictly “fine dining” at your house. Then there’s the matter of conversation around the table, regarding topics that are strictly taboo. But if you’re new to the family and don’t know the culture, you could end up saying or doing the wrong thing–or worse yet, offending someone.

Organizations are no different, although the minefields to navigate go far beyond trying to chat up weird Uncle Bobby at Thanksgiving. Organizations are complex mazes of personalities, constituencies, issues, and rivalries. There are people with strong egos and those who are looking to amass their own power. Even when the boundaries are not that pronounced, people still like to build and defend their own “sandboxes”—no matter how small or large.

And forget that organizational chart. There are informal networks and unwritten rules about how things get done and by whom. You need to figure out who really has “the juice.” The easiest way is to see who can spend the money. Who can hire and fire? And then there are those who have the power behind the scenes; they may not be as obvious at first—and it shifts! Think about ...