There was a king who had a 64 trusted advisers. However, he trusted none of them.
“My general wants my job!” he would mutter.
“My engineer only cares about the stones of the city walls!” he would bellow.
“My magician is not a people person!” he would snarl.
“Who then can I trust?” he thought to himself.
Just then, his guards dragged a man into the kings chambers.
“This man is from our hated neighbor province!” they said. “He was knocking on our front gate and asking to speak to you. Surely he is an assassin or a spy! Should we put him to death?”
Before the king could answer, the man interjected.
“This is not so!” exclaimed the shackled man. “I am not a spy! I am a man of great skill and intellect who was kicked out of my home province by the incompetent leader, which is your hated enemy.”
“If you will pay me 10 pieces of gold per day, you may use my skills to your liking. In fact, I will live outside your city gates so that you will have no concerns of having a spy within your city.”
The king’s trusted advisers were appalled that someone would insult the leader in such a way. Just last week, the king’s favorite cook had asked for an additional piece of gold per week, and had his hands chopped off for such a question. Did this stranger not understand the nature of this kingdom?
They looked forward to what terrible things the king would do to this hated enemy of the kingdom.
However, the king was pensive. Here was a man of great benefit to the king! He would have nothing to fear from him because the stranger would not live within the city gates. The man could give him an objective opinion of the obviously tainted views of his advisors. And if he did not help, he could have him killed at any time.
So the king hired the man, who eventually became so rich that he was able to build a kingdom of his own.
Meanwhile, the king’s general (who was not a stupid man) had an idea. He sold all of his belongings, and made the long trip to the castle of the king of the hated neighbor province. He knocked on the door and said “I wish to speak to the king!”
Within an organization, there is always competition amongst the members. Sometimes it is friendly, other times not so friendly. Sometimes people will join together in to factions to compete against other groups. Other times it’s more of an individual approach.
This is not inherently unhealthy or dysfunctional. Competition is good. However, it leads to some important situations.
When you are a technical person in an organization, your position will make you a potential threat to the plans of someone in that organization.
When you are a technical person external to an organization, your knowledge is a potential asset to the plans of someone in that organization.
Thus, the natural tendency is to define a technical expert as “someone from out of town”. It is often too politically dangerous to let technologists (and other subject matter experts) play this role.
Do not be offended by this. Instead, use it to expand your knowledge and meet new people. Again, knowledge and friendships are the most important parts of a career in Infotech.
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