Basically going outside of the, often implicit, boundaries of your role.
For example if you are a developer and realise your project needs to engage another team NOW for a critical deliverable due in 3 months and you spend your time on this task then you run the serious risk of pissing off both your manager and the project manager.
Or for example putting together a prototype that shows how another teams work could be automated.
Or pointing out flaws/discrepancies of a high profile product. Or telling a senior manager how a project is really doing, etc.
The bottom line doesn't matter as much in terms of respect and career progress as it should. There is a misconception that you can get away from politics if you work for startups or smaller firms but that's just not the case.
For example if you are a developer and realise your project needs to engage another team NOW for a critical deliverable due in 3 months and you spend your time on this task then you run the serious risk of pissing off both your manager and the project manager.
Or for example putting together a prototype that shows how another teams work could be automated.
Or pointing out flaws/discrepancies of a high profile product. Or telling a senior manager how a project is really doing, etc.
The bottom line doesn't matter as much in terms of respect and career progress as it should. There is a misconception that you can get away from politics if you work for startups or smaller firms but that's just not the case.