Overcoming 'politics' in an organization.

In order to run  any government or an organization - big or small- certain policies, guidelines relating to people's relationships, authority and power to be exercised are essential so that the organization runs smoothly to achieve its mission. This is the original meaning of the word "politics"

However, over a period of time the word 'politics' has acquired a negative meaning..... and I pause to think why so??

The most important thing about an organization is its mission statement - what does the organization striving to achieve. For that very cause people have come together and have formalized guidelines for relationships, authority and power. 

Therefore, guidelines in a organization about authority and power are only means to achieve the mission of the organization. Simultaneously, it is also important that the people who come together in an organization to achieve the mission should grow, thus achieving  the mission of the organization, while there is  growth of people and their relationships in the organization.

When people in the organization forget these fundamentals of an organization,  it will lead to stunted growth of the organization and diminishes the growth, the value of people and their relationships in the organizations.

When people occupying positions in an organization use the position to wield power or when the people occupying positions in the organization use other people to satisfy their needs... the whole thing goes topsy turvy.... the mission becomes secondary and suffers as a consequence and people in the organization will no more derive satisfaction and stop growing.

I was contemplating about this and was wondering what can be the solution to overcome this kind of a situation in an organization, the recent quote by Guruji provided the answer!

"Objects should have value because of you. The sofa should phave value because you sat on it and not you having value because you have a nice sofa. That is successful living."  -  [This wisdom of Guruji is well echoed  by Gray Zukov in his book 'Soul stories' under the chapter - 'positional power vs. authentication power'.]

Then it dawned on me that, the guidelines regarding policies, positions and authority are merely recipes to achieve the mission. We don't eat recipes - but can prepare a meal out of the recipes.

The position occupied by a person should get value because of that persons ability and not the other way round. When power is derived by a person because he/she occupies a certain position is the positional  power and as soon as that position  is lost, the person loses his power. The position should get importance because of who the person is, then the power is authentic  and such a power cannot be taken away even if the position is taken away ....it won't matter.

If what Guruji said about sofa and value in the above quote is understood and implemented with knowledge by the people assigned position and authority in an organization, there can be no doubt that the mission of the organization is easily achieved by people who come together in an organization and in the process the people grow and their relationships would be satisfying. It's a win- win formula!