As Business Analysts we rarely have formal authority over anyone we work with on our projects. To give our teams the best chance for success we have to work collaboratively with all of our stakeholders.
I just read an article on CIO.com that I think you will enjoy. In their article, "How Good Are You At Collaboration and Influence?," Reynold Lewke and Steve Kelner, discuss why collaboration and influence are key competencies for successful CIOs. The concepts covered apply directly to BAs as well. At the end of the article they ask questions that will help you assess your companies and your own readiness for collaboration.
Are you ready?!
October 1st, 2007 at 12:46 pm
When people talk about influencing other people I always remember one of the best books I have ever read called “The Anatomy of Power, by John Kenneth Galbraith”. On that book he defines the Typology of Power:
CONDIGN Power: “Wins submission by the ability to impose an alternative to the preferences of the individual or group that is sufficiently unpleasant or painful so that these preferences are abandoned. There is an overtone of punishment. The expected rebuke is usually too harsh, so the individual will endure, submit, or give into the power from fear or threat. The individual is aware of the submission via compulsion.”
COMPENSATORY Power: “Wins submission by the offer of affirmative reward – by the giving of something of value to the individual so submitting. Payments, share, praise, money for services. The individual is aware of the submission for a reward.”
CONDITIONED Power: “Wins submission by changing beliefs. Persuasion, education, habituation, social commitment to what seems natural, proper, right causes the individual to submit to the will of another or others. Submission reflects the preferred course; the fact of submission is not recognized. Conditioned power is central to the functioning of the modern economy and polity, and in capitalist and socialist countries alike.”
Of course we all prefer to use the third kind, the Conditioned Power, that means that we are side by side with the right cause, but it´s not always easy to make your partners believe that.
To know where you are standing, it´s good to check if you have access to the sources of power:
PERSONALITY: “leadership in the common reference, a quality of mind, physique, speech, moral certainty or personal trait that gives access to instruments of power. The ability to persuade or create a belief.”
PROPERTY: “wealthy, an aspect of authority, a certainty of purpose inviting conditioned submission. Property, income, wealth provides the wherewithal to purchase submission.”
ORGANIZATION: “the most important source of power in modern society, taken for granted, and required. Persuasion and submission to the purposes of the organization.”
I know it may sound evil to consider those aspects when our work is devoted to help people form our organizations to be more productive, to work better and to be happier, but since logic is essential for us, why not take a look on how things work among people?