Stop Avoiding Politics

Summary

Say the word “politics” to most engineers and watch their face scrunch up like they just bit into a lemon. We’ve all been conditioned to believe that workplace politics is this dirty game played by manipulative ladder-climbers while the “real” engineers focus on the code. I used to think the same way. For years as an engineer, I wore my hatred of politics like a badge of honor. I was above all that nonsense. I just wanted to ship. Politics was for those other people, the ones who didn’t have what it takes technically. Now I think the opposite: politics isn’t the problem; bad politics is. And pretending politics doesn’t exist? That’s how bad politics wins. Politics is just how humans coordinate in groups. It’s the invisible network of relationships, influence, and informal power that exists in every organization. You can refuse to participate, but that doesn’t make it go away. It just means decisions get made without you. Think about the last time a terrible technical decision got pushed through at your company. Maybe it was adopting some overcomplicated architecture, or choosing a vendor that everyone knew was wrong, or killing a project that was actually working. I bet if you dig into what happened, you’ll find it wasn’t because the decision-makers were stupid. It’s because the people with the right information weren’t in the room. They “didn’t do politics.” Meanwhile, someone who understood how influence works was in that room, making their case, building coalitions, showing they’d done their homework. And their idea won. Not because it was better, but because they showed up to play while everyone else was “too pure” for politics. Ideas don’t speak. People do. And the people who understand how to navigate organizational dynamics, build relationships, and yes, play politics? Their ideas get heard. When you build strong relationships across teams, understand what motivates different stakeholders, and know how to build consensus, you’re doing politics. When you take ...