By Dr Renate Volpe

Was it not a great day the day we won the rugby?
To my mind it was an event which was both enriching and uniting for all South African souls. Once again we were brought face to face with our own nations potency. The only country in the history of the world to win this cup twice.

It says something important about us South Africans:

• We are competent.
• We are amazing.
• We have so much to offer.
• We are skilled.
• We are disciplined.
• We are resilient and competent.
• We are world class players.

If only we could apply this disciplined outlook and competence to the dilemmas our country faces, we would go a long way and achieve more of what matters!

Sadly, in the world of work we spend much of our time playing political games that do not focus on stretching our competence, or showing our brighter, more attractive sides.

Recently I was invited to attend an important meeting about employment equity legislation. The agenda was to debate the removal of white women from the Affirmative Action agenda. As is the case with most board room meetings, political play was the game of the day. The lead player (politically astute and male in gender) strutted his stuff. The others players (relatively politically skilled, and female) were collaborative in nature.

I despaired, as I listened to the back and forth debate around the so called legislative and apparently required representative issues that were being put forward as the sole legitimate reason for the recommendation.

• The conversation was peppered with political, gender and race innuendoes.
• There was little awareness of the bigger picture and the impact on our countries morale.
• No consideration was given to our countries overwhelming requirement for the development and sharing of competence.
• The meeting was closed with the lead male player appearing to endorse follow up action by the women present, whilst in reality, he had held his ground in an immovable manner.

Tactics and strategies used by the male and more political astute player on the women were:

• Using the legislative context in order to establish the legitimacy of the presentation.
• Appealing to their protective instinct.
• Hooking them on issues of past, historical, race inequities, effectively differentiating between the emotions of the white and the black women present , thereby separating them from one another.
• Presenting flawed statistics in a convincing manner.
• Counting on people not having done their home work.
• Reminding those in attendance that they had future common career interests outside the forum of this discussion.
• Referring to female logic as warm and fuzzy thinking.

How could the stakes in the meeting have been encountered on a more equal basis by all players?

• The ladies present needed to ask themselves what the broader agenda of the meeting was.
• The required pre meeting reading needed to be done.
• Presenters who had opposing statistics from the ones to be presented should have been invited and been given an opportunity to educate the audience as to their view.
• Asking themselves why the lead player had agreed to speak in the first place?
• Determining the presenter’s personal needs?
• Hypothesizing about his personal political agenda?
• Testing his agenda by asking questions and observing his behavior during the meeting.
• Structuring time lines for taking up air time.
• Remaining factual and objective rather than engaging in socially compliant conversation.

The result?
One astute political player, dominated a room full of intelligent, mature, well meaning people.

Political competence is a skill that can be learned. Should you be interested in attending a workshop on Political Intelligence (PQ), click on the "Events / Diary" button on this web site.