Power moves

When I was stumped on what to write about this month my partner suggested I formally document my alternative to the Cube Rule food classification system (my theory is that all food is just a type of soup). Because while the Cube Rule was obviously groundbreaking, the claims of unification are clearly overstated.

And any rational being can recognise the simplicity and brilliance of the all food is a type of soup theory. The truth is obvious!

🥣 Soup? Obviously soup. A salad is just a raw soup (anyone who claims that it’s dry is just ignoring salad dressing like a fool). A smoothie is just a cold, sweet, soup. A sandwich is just a fairly dry, stacked soup. How we treat steak is dependent on if it is cooked. If the steak is cooked, then it’s a very meaty soup. If the steak is uncooked, then it’s an ingredient and falls out of the scope of the grand unifying soup theory of food along with other ingredients like flour, unpicked herbs, and rice.

ALL edible items are just types of Soup. And I will happily defend my theory. But I also know that I’ll never actually get everyone on board.

Why?

Because I have no power! I have no formal authority in the field of food classification, no real expertise (I’m assuming liking food isn’t enough 😅), and I certainly do not have enough influence to make it happen.

Great – even brilliant – ideas like the grand unifying soup theory are not in and of themselves enough; you need power to make things happen. Power affects everything.

Power is very real.

Power is something we should be aware of as it’s the most powerful (hah) influence on what gets done, and how what gets done gets done.

Rather a while ago, I got myself involved in a procurement process. I had drafted the initial high-level requirements and I had a good grasp of the systems in play so I was the obvious person to support the shortlisting of a vendor. Before we met with the responders, the team and the CTO all agreed on the assessment criteria, the weighting of each, and our selection process. And based on that, I made a spreadsheet to collect our assessments.

After all the pitches there was a clear winner from the scoring … who didn’t get the contract because the CTO liked the runner-up candidate more.

For my own amusement, I did have a good play with our assessment data to see if I could generate the desired outcome (desired according to the CTO) but the only way to get the assessment to produce the outcome the CTO wanted was to outright ignore one of the agreed criteria.

Now my point isn’t that the CTO in question was kinda terrible (they were), but rather that this is a fairly blatant example of how power influences process. Power, whether wielded with benevolence or malice, is how decisions are made. Which makes power dynamics pretty important for business analysts. But there’s more.

Decisions are how value is defined.

A business analyst’s job is to “add value”. Now, that’s one of those wonderful statements that is really easy to say, but very hard to do. Not least because business analysts don’t get to define what is valuable. Instead, the people in positions of power do that.

Power defines value.

It’s hard – if not impossible – to generate an objective assessment that will identify a winner all the time. Value is subjective 💎

But it’s much worse than that makes it sound … not only is value subjective, but it is also subject to influence from the complex systems we operate within: systems that are full of politics, games, and other nonsense. And also Power. It all comes back to power.

Exercise of power isn’t usually as blatant as a CTO’s selection of a vendor based on a bromance. It is far far more subtle. As Foucault argued: all relationships are power relationships.

I was chatting to a business analyst recently about work stuff and they asked me what I would do if I was asked to facilitate a workshop. Except the requested workshop didn’t have a clear objective, had a ton of people in it, and in general seemed like an utter waste of time.

My answer was: “how many brownie points do I have?”

And by brownie points, I meant: social credit. I meant: influence. I meant: what is the risk to me if I push back? I meant: how much power do I have?

Because my answer to the workshop question is entirely dependent on this; I’m not insane! If I have no power and you want me to run a workshop that’s pointless, then my response is: “do you think we need 3 hours or the whole day? Should we get catering? What sort of vibe are you looking for? Should we include Steph and Caleb?”

Not only would I not push back, but I’d go out of my way to make it great. Yes, even if it was a complete and utter waste of time.

But if I have a high level of influence, then my answer would be: “this sounds like an utter waste of time” and depending on my relationship with the requestor, I might even add a exclamation mark from the end of that sentence.

And there’s middle-of-the-road positions here too. Maybe I’m not under a ton of pressure time-wise, and the most important thing I’m trying to get done is going to take all my influence and I don’t want to waste my social credit on this issue … in which case, maybe I’d ‘raise some concerns’ about the approach but ultimately fall in line and do the dumb workshop because that was the ask, but actually use it to gain trust and credits (“you remember that I called out that this probably wasn’t the best use of time don’t you?” i.e., I’m a team player, I’m insightful, but I follow orders, blah blah blah).

Now this probably makes me sound like I have no backbone, or that I’m only interested in how something impacts me, but that’s sort of why I wanted to talk about it, because this is how the real world works.

Power is intrinsic to all relationships and that is especially true for work relationships. So being conscious of the power dynamic in play is just plain sensible.

My first job on any new gig is always to work out how stuff actually works in this place (you want to do this before all the weird processes become normalised). And the biggest ingredient to “how stuff works” is always Power. Who is making decisions? Who do they consult with? Where do they source information from? Who’s got their ear? Who frames the problems? Who sets the agenda? How does information flow?

A system isn’t always what it says on paper. Dysfunction, power, and inertia all impact how things actually happen.

How can you change a system is you don’t understand the system? I guess you can try, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

And the one constant with business analyst roles and responsibilities is that you’re a change agent of some kind. It would be insane to think we don’t work with power.

But we don’t necessarily do that effectively …

There are plenty of business analysts who are passive actors in the system. They usually adhere to the hierarchy as defined in the org chart and tend to reinforce the existing power structure and processes. Sure, they do good work, but the best business analysts are active participants in the system. They see the system and they work on the system itself to achieve their objective.

They’re the ones that can navigate the complexity of the workplace to make sure the right people are across the right details. That the right connections have been made. And that Dave in accounting isn’t going to throw a grenade at the all hands meeting. We usually call this “stakeholder management”, but in reality it is much more than that. This isn’t about keeping Dave informed, it’s forming strategic relationships to counter any potential negative reactions. It’s managing the game so that even if Dave throws a grenade, it doesn’t do any damage to the objective. It’s smoothing the change process. It’s building alliances.

It’s internal change management!

There are informal power structures in all workplaces. Anyone can gain (or lose) de facto power and influence through relationships, information, and reputation.

Influence is a word that gets bandied around a lot, no?

Yes, influence is absolutely a skill you should cultivate. But there are different types of influence and not all flavours are tasty.

When we use the word “influence” we usually mean persuasion. Persuasion is convincing someone of something. It’s pointing out the benefits and downsides to a decisions. It’s laying out the options but being compelling about the one that minimises risk, but maximises return. Persuasion is considered ethical when it is acting in the best interests of the subject.

Underpinning a lot of the things we associate with a “super effective business analyst” is persuasion. Persuasion is the master skill of a trusted advisor and is critical to being influential.

But not all influence is positive.

Manipulation is still considered influence, but is not considered ethical for good reason! Manipulation seeks to control or deceive someone for your own benefit, the benefit to the subject is a secondary concern (if even that). In the category of manipulation is all manner of behaviour from pretty darn evil (outright lying and verbal intimidation), moderately evil (stealing credit and spreading rumours), to minor league evil (flattery and withholding information).

That last example is a kicker. One of the key things we business analysts do is frame up information for discussion and decisions. The easiest way for us to manipulate things is to simply not present the facts accurately. And I know I called withholding information “minor leagues” in the arbitrary “evil scale” I created but compared to lying it is. But being minor doesn’t mean “acceptable”.

In short, both intent and methods matter!

If you’re acting for your own benefit (i.e. to gain power) and not your subject’s benefit then you’re in manipulation-land regardless of your methods. And if you’re acting unethically (i.e. you bullied Dave into not speaking up at a meeting so the “correct” decision could be made) it doesn’t matter that the outcome is in the best interests of the organisation.

One of the core purposes of business analysis role is to enable people to make good informed decisions about what to do, and how to do it. At the very heart of the business analysis skillset is the ability to uncover important information and present it in a compelling (i.e. persuasive) way.

I’d like to dig into how to maximise your influence (in an ethical way that only builds your rep), but that feels like a topic for another day. So I’ll simply warn you about falling into the trap of trying to get your own way. Because getting your way is never the point.

So what is the point?

If we accept the premise that there are a ton of politics in all workplaces, then you should be wondering what that means for you.

Well that depends on what is going on in your workplace.

But no matter what is going on, you need to be aware of the power structure you’re operating in. If you’re not aware, you could find yourself working in opposition to what the powers-that-be are trying to achieve. And while working in opposition to something might absolutely be the correct thing to do, if you’re going into war, you probably want to know in advance so that you can put on your kevlar vest before bullets start flying.

The first step to being influential is being aware.

Knowledge is power.

Arm yourself.

“Power” is a ginormous topic – not something you can unpack in ~2000 words. There’s obviously a lot more to dig into here and I intend to do that in later articles.