Internal politics make it virtually impossible to deliver a website which isn’t metaphorically riddled with personal agendas - right?

Not in my view. In fact, more and more I find myself agitated by the fact that an agency seemingly haven’t worked hard to find a common ground.

Having worked within a large Government department for several years myself, at one time I was the cause of a degree of “internal politics”. The reason was simple - I was biased towards my own area of work - which I was directly assessed against.

Large organisations almost always create a silo mentality by assessing staff on the quality of their performance within a specific remit. Needs must.

For an outsider, this can seem alien and frustrating as it appears that you’re up against a raft of contradictory perspectives. However, if you appreciate the reason why stakeholders have different viewpoints, they can actually be quite useful.

For example, speak to an equalities team and you’ll get a set of requirements which are focused on their own objectives. Another perspective if you speak to a section responsible for FOI requests. Another if you speak to comms etc… But rather than sigh and feel that noone is listening, try to involve the various stakeholders in specific and relevant elements of the project, whilst speaking to your lead contact about how you plan to engage with all of them.

Follow this up with rationale and fact-based recommendations throughout the build and you may be surprised at the amount of buy-in you achieve.

Every time I’ve deliberately dived in to the midst of internal politics rather than turning away, the issues associated with “design by committee” have never arisen.

Appreciate why people have different perspectives and involve them in a way whereby their bias can be beneficial.