Politics Business And What We Can Learn From Both

There can be little doubt that we're heading into the political season. The rhetoric is hot and political consultants who have memorized each state's districts are weirdly cool. It's difficult to escape the sound bites, speeches and photo ops. Some of us belonging to the more cynical persuasion might be tempted to turn to the definition of politics famously coined by Ambrose Bierce in his Devil's Dictionary as "A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."

This is a dangerous time for businesspeople. With all the loose language flying back and forth, to-and fro, and yes, even hither and yon, it's difficult not to believe it may just be a little bit true. Even worse, that it may even apply to business. Will the election of one party or the other really mean doom for our nation?

Spoiler alert: almost certainly not.

American business has endured World Wars (two of them), Civil War, depressions, political scandals, riots and assassinations. Through it all, American industries and businesses have carried on despite the hyperbole of campaigns. Not that it doesn't matter who is elected, because it matters very much. The stakes, as always, are very high. However, it would be extremely unwise to base business decisions on campaign rhetoric or ramblings of television commentators.

It is fascinating just how much we can learn from the modern political campaign. Each campaign, regardless of political philosophy, appears to be designed as a lesson of what not to do in business. For example, the language of politics is as far from the language of business as can reasonably be imagined. For one thing, politicians employ slogans. Businesspeople need actual strategies that produce results. Even agendas -- spoken of with such dread in the political sphere -- are very much preferred in business; and in business, agendas are your friend. Anyone who has ever sat through an interminable agenda-less meeting, eyeballs turning slowly to dust and thoughts to what suddenly seem delightful views of spreadsheets on computer monitors, knows this to be true beyond all doubt.

Then there are the logical fallacies. When it comes to business, it is always best to discount talk of slippery slopes, be vigilant against false equivalencies, and avoid the all-or-nothing clap trap of binary thinking, as well as the cheap cubic zirconia sparkle of false premises. It also pays to be watchful for confusion between correlation and causation. That is, post hoc ergo propter hoc, if you want to get Latin about it. Not surprisingly, these are all central political concepts.

All this is not to imply politics is unimportant. Neither is it an indictment of our political system. Students of history know that Americans have always possessed a somewhat raucous attitude when it comes to politics. Political passions tended to have run a bit fevered at certain points in our history. This has been true nearly from the start of our nation. In 1798, two Congressmen -- one from Vermont and the other from Connecticut -- went at it in the House of Representatives with a hickory stick and fire tongs. At issue was one Congressman spitting tobacco juice on the other the month prior. Another more brutal attack followed in 1856 when South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks nearly killed Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner with a cane.

By comparison, American businessmen and businesswomen can be viewed as levelheaded. I am not implying government should be run as a business, but businesses should certainly not be run as modern political campaigns.