This article was written by Ken Leaver who comes from a product & commercial background. He has founded multiple companies and held senior product positions at SEA tech companies like Lazada and Pomelo Fashion.
Ken runs his own agency that helps early stage companies execute faster and cheaper. Check out his linkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenleaver/
Guest Author: Ken Leaver
I’ve been developing and using my ‘everything is a task’ system for about four years now. And one of the most satisfying aspects has been how little politics there is in the teams I work with.
It is a fact that politics can be extremely demotivating.
They stifle the notion that you can determine your upward trajectory purely by how well you work and what outputs you deliver.
Your outputs often matter less than your relationships.
And in that game everyone than fights for the relationships. Demonstrating loyalty regardless of whether it is the right thing to do.
And that shit now makes me sick.
I want to contribute to systems that absolutely destroy this. And from my vantage point I not only think it ‘can’ happen… I think it will happen. In time.
And today I’m going to try to explain why.
I’ve seen some offices with a lot of politics
Back when I worked in more traditional corporate environments, politics were everywhere. You’d see people spending half their day in meetings trying to build alliances and convince others to support their initiatives.
You’d have folks scheduling coffee chats with influential people just to build relationships that might help them later. And others spending hours preparing presentations to make themselves look good in front of senior management.
I remember working years ago in an office I felt that politics were very intense. And it stemmed from the fact that many of the managers had worked there for well over a decade together.
There were deep friendships. Many of them liked the status quo.
And so when a new head of office was brought in they didn’t like it. But they were smart enough to not show it outwardly.
Rather they smiled at him and dug his grave when he wasn’t looking. And eventually a few of them helped nudge him in.
I actually liked the guy but for the most part stood by as a bystander. I kind of knew that it was a lost cause to try to protect him. He wasn’t going to be able to hold off the forces that were coming for him.
But he was still a smart guy with a lot of great ideas. And in a more supportive, less political environment I think he would have done great.
I forced myself to learn the game of politics
Seeing this play out taught me a very powerful lesson in the corporate world.
Be wary of the folks around you. Even if they are nice to you.
I read the book ‘48 Laws of Power’ and created a summary that i reviewed daily, which I operated by in order to survive.
I helped nudge one person that was a constant pain in my ass into the ditch that others were already digging.
I played the game. Fuck it… i even enjoyed it a little bit.
I adopted the mindset of… “if you screw me.. i will do my utmost to eventually screw you back.”
Why? Because that was one of the rules in 48 Rules of Power.. hahaha
But now I consider that whole shit such a waste.
It’s so stupid and inefficient.
Politics = Loads of Inefficiencies
The problem with all of this political maneuvering is that it creates massive inefficiencies:
- People work on things that make them look good rather than what actually needs to get done.
- They spend time building relationships instead of executing.
- They create fancy presentations to show their work instead of just doing more work.
- They have meetings to “align” but really it’s about making sure they don’t step on anyone’s toes politically.
And the worst part?
The people that typically get ahead in these environments are often not the ones that are best at actually getting shit done. Rather they’re the ones best at playing the political game.
It’s hard to do politics without relationships
But here’s the thing I’ve discovered with my system – it’s really hard to play politics when everything is just a task in ClickUp.
Think about it. How do you build political power when:
- All work is documented as tasks with clear ownership
- All communications happen in task comments that everyone can see
- There are almost no meetings where you can show off your charisma and leverage your relationships
- Everything is measured by what tasks actually got done
It’s like trying to be a politician without being able to give speeches or shake hands. Pretty hard to do.
Relationships are hard to build in this method
My system almost completely eliminates the relationship-building aspect of work. And that’s actually by design.
When someone new joins my team, I tell them straight up – “Don’t try to build a relationship with me or anyone else. Just focus on executing your tasks well and keeping your Clickup inbox clean.”
There are no coffee chats. No water cooler conversations. No happy hours or team building events.
Some might think this sounds cold or impersonal. But you know what? Most people actually love it once they get used to it.
Because they can just focus on doing good work without all the exhausting social dynamics that usually come with an office job.
Working with almost no politics is great
The end result is that we get so much more done than teams that are bogged down by politics.
When someone needs support from another team member, they just tag them in a task. No need to first build a relationship or worry about how to approach them.
When someone disagrees with a decision, they just comment on the task with their reasoning. No need to build coalitions or lobby behind the scenes.
Everything is transparent and merit-based. You either get your shit done or you don’t.
And you know what the crazy part is? People actually form better working relationships this way. Because they’re collaborating based on actual work rather than artificial social connections.
Parting thoughts
I had one person tell me some months back: “I really like this way of working. Everyone in the team is so great.”
That made me smile. And also kind of laugh.
Because she barely knew anybody in the team. hahaha
We’d had no regular meetings. Most of them had never even seen each other’s face.
But the fact that she didn’t have any true relationship with any of the others did not prevent her from thinking that they were terrific colleagues.
Because everytime she needed support she got it.
Without having to worry about whether she’d sufficiently invested in that ‘relationship’.
And that is just a much better way of working 😉
