Navigating

I am trying to make a theme out of my titles in which I only use one word to title every article. This one's full title is "the politics of navigating a room" but I only wanted to use one word from it. It's a follow up from my facebook article in which I said I would have to write about this topic eventually.

As is common for every argument, I want to make a definition claim that what I am referring to is the politics (or dealing with people) of working your way around a room (or social climate) to accomplish a specific purpose. --You ALWAYS have to have a purpose.
Specifically, I'm going to touch on the politics of navigating a family setting.

Let us imagine a social setting in which your family is going to go boating right after lunch. You want to convince your grandfather that you are capable of driving his high priced boat and that you deserve to have a turn piloting the vessel.
Your ROOM is the lunch area, whether this is indoors or outdoors or a mixture of both.
Your PURPOSE is to convince your grandfather, and everyone else, that you should pilot the boat.
Secretly, you had a querrel with one of your siblings and want to get revenge by giving them an extra rough experience on the wakeboard. Plus you think it would be fun to drive the boat around, as you have never had that opportunity.

The POLITICS in which you enter this situation are as follows: Your parents, though they have no reason not to, don't want you to pilot the boat because you have never done it before. Your siblings too, don't want you to pilot the boat because they believe you are michieveous(sp?). Your grandfather, it turns out, isn't feeling well, and is about to call off the boating trip.

As you can see, people already have a grasp on the political situation, and you are an outlier--Should your grandfather decline the boating outing, your father has already proven himself a worthy seaman and could request to be the navigator, should he choose. He already has a position or standing among the powerful (your grandfather). You therefore need to compete with him (your dad) in order to take power (control of the boat). Plus, you need to fight off any other contenders (your siblings).

Wow. Lots of politics aren't there? --They say politics are Rhetoric at it's best.

You have a lot of options here.

If you weren't "politically navigating a room" you might sit back and accept anything that is given you. You might watch the situation unravel...your siblings take control and suddenly your younger brother is piloting the boat with grandpa's help, or your dad continues to reign supreme and you miss out on the opportunity you have been waiting for all summer, or your grandfather decides not to go forward with boating as his stomach aches now after lunch and he wants to take a nap.
But you aren't going to let that happen. You want something, you want changes, you want an outcome, you want power. [But let me break this up to talk about morals for a second: If everyone is happy at the end of the boating trip, and your family bond is tighter, and a lot of good comes from this, then it is morally fine. BUT if you are merely using the boating to get revenge, someone gets hurt, or you carelessly damage the boat, then the morals get put in question of whether or not you should have taken power. Or even if someone gets hurt or bad things happen while you are navigating the room, then you are going to be in trouble morally]

I hope this is all making sense up to this point. You might have to use a little bit of your own reasoning and assumptions to fill in the blank spots that I simply can't cover--or ask me a question in the comment box.

Ire, You need to solve several problems before you can reach your goal outcome. You need to gather information first, learn what the political climate is--their mood and temperment, what their objectives are at this gathering, etc. This is a continual process, so even though you start out gathering information, you will still need to gather information as you proceed. There is always a time limit to your situation, so you need to work quickly and make advances.

Sometimes the situation is easy. Depending on your political style as well as certain political factors, you might make a fallback plan should your initial advances fail. Some people do the easy things first: talk to your grandfather and ask for his permission to pilot the boat. If you work quick enough, your competition won't do it before you. If the situation is easy, he'll give you the key and you'll have succeeded in your objective and have to wait out the resolution. But if not, he might be a little uneasy about letting you use his boat, or someone else will overhear your conversation and throw in their own political advances to prevent you from getting what you want. Such as one of your rivals, or your dad (who is also a rival, but a more powerful one).
If you had a backup plan, it might be to talk to your dad first, set up an alliance with him, or in other words ask him if he will let you drive the boat (of course it isn't his boat, and he has no say over the matter, but by persuading him first, he will help you get what you want). --So he steps into the situation and informs your grandfather that he will watch over you so that his precious boat doesn't get banged up--or he informs your younger brother that you asked first and therefore should be entitled to the privilege.
If your backup works, but fails, then your father will tell your grandfather that both you and your younger brother will have a turn. You may have to settle on that...or find a way to oust the competition...
What are little brothers notorious for? Getting in trouble. [I am the youngest and have had several occasions where it felt like this was happening to me] So you set up a situation where your little brother gets in trouble, and viola, he loses his privileges. --[this might be unethical]. Or, you simply sit back and wait for his own ruin --[this is not unethical as long as you are not involved].
The nice thing to do, of course, is to not let your brother get ruined...Ally with him. Convince him that he doesn't want to pilot the boat, or get him to give you full ability to pilot the boat/let him bow out. (now that's a good pun!)

I could continue, but I think you understand what I mean by politics.

Now let's briefly touch on navigating.

The navigating aspect of this is simple, yet complex. It is simple in that "to navigate" means to merely move about the political sphere.--you're trying to shift power from other people, move it around--or move you around, and let it land on you. The complexity is that it takes a lot of moving. You have to talk to your grandfather, your dad, your younger brother, you might even have to talk to other people and convince them that you have their best interests in order when you intend to pilot the boat. you might have to quell your fight with the sibling that you intend to make payback with--or put another way, you need to make a truce with them.

Navigating can include where you sit (so you have access to people who you can persuade) [it does you no good to sit so far away from the people you need to talk to that you can't speak with them and you run out of time]. It also includes kairos (timing) of when to speak with people.

Navigating a room is politically dominating it to obtain what you want. The Greeks did it. The Romans did it. The French did it. Diplomats do it. Everyone does it. If you don't do it, you have to accept whatever life gives you. Even if you don't have such a lofty objective as to pilot the boat, you might want to have a say on if your little brother does, because he might make it less enjoyable for you (and you might need to be reassured that you will have an enjoyable trip if your little brother does pilot the boat).

The Romans were notorious for being a people that could accomplish things. The reason for this was that they were skilled at the politics of navigating a room, and they designed their culture around gathering into rooms to discuss important things. Those who could navigate the room became praetors and emperors--Great leaders. Everyone else got stuck with what they got. Those who couldn't navigate the room, didn't always get what they want, they got trampled over and left behind, and people took advantage of them without them knowing.

Apply these same "politics" to a massive scale and you get what happened in feudal Japan. The Daimyo (Lords) overtook the emperor (Shogun) and the Tokugawa clan rulled for a few generations.