On team politics...

I think from time to time, everyone has to deal with politics. Depending on your organization or team your milage may vary, but where there are people interacting, trying to get results, chances are you'll encounter some team politics.

I recently finished reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. It was a wonderful read, I highly recommend it. The book is setup as a fable, so the story is fake, but the ideas are very real and practical. One part I really enjoyed was when Kathryn (the CEO in the story) defines politics:

Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.

Think about that for a while. There's some great wisdom in this definition.