This is also known as the Cats paw stratagem. Basically it
means that someone else is used to do the dirty work.
Once upon a time, there was a rat that saw chestnuts
roasting on an open fire; he loved the taste of roasted chestnuts, but how to
get them without burning himself? He noticed that a cat lay beside the fire and
an idea came to him. He would persuade the cat to use its long claws to extract
the chestnuts from the fire. To cut the story short he succeeded. He ended up
with the nuts, the cat ended up with some nuts and a singed paw. Hence the
expression that someone is a cat’s paw in a particular dispute.
In the project world this means that your rival will not
attack you directly. Instead they will stir up discontent among your user
groups, or your stakeholders, in order to discredit your project and get it
cancelled.
To counter this you have, to paraphrase a famous quote, ‘to
keep your friends close, but your stakeholders even closer’. You should not
just rely on your communications plan for your stakeholder management: It’s
necessary, but it not sufficient. A smart project dashboard is no substitute
for a daily/weekly/monthly cup of java with your stakeholders. Stakeholders,
all of them, are both a strength, and a weakness. Start to lose their support
and you’re in real trouble: Keep ‘em close!
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