In 1944 the “CIA” wrote a handbook on how to Sabotage Organisations from the inside.
(I’ll quickly agree that the CIA wasn’t formed (officially) until 1947, but it was previously known either as “The Agency” or, even earlier, “The Company” and inherited the document, which was declassified in 2008)
These are some methods they said would cripple a company from the inside. “The Simple Sabotage Field Manual”
- Insist on doing everything through channels with no shortcuts.
- Make long speeches.
- Refer all matters to committees.
- Bring up irrelevant issues as often as possible.
- Haggle over minutes, precise working and details as much and for as long as possible.
- Refer back to matters already closed off at previous meetings. Then, open them up again for discussion, or put them back into a committee.
- Demand that your instructions are written.
- Misunderstand those instructions as much as you can and do everything possible to delay the delivery of those instructions.
- Don’t deliver anything until every single piece is entirely and fully completed.
- When prioritising work assignments, give out the least important ones first.
- In relatively unimportant work, insist on perfection. Then, send stuff back, even if the flaw is minor.
- When training workers, giving them incomplete or incorrect instructions to lower morale and with that production.
- Give undeserved promotions to underperforming staff and award those that slack off.
- Create internal decent.
- Hold meetings and conferences when there is more critical work to be done.
- Multiply paperwork.
- Multiply procedures.
- Start Duplicate files.
- Apply all regulations to the letter.
- Blame lack of performance of methods, circumstances and other people
So look carefully at these, and try to ensure that you are not the person causing any of these unnecessarily, especially if you are a decision-maker.
Sometimes the proper channels are precisely that!
Occasionally a rousing speech is good, but it doesn’t have to be long!
Luckily nine is undone by Agile being done correctly, as this can be a nightmare if followed, and if you have procrastinators on your teams, this is something to look out for, as it can happen with no malice intended.
Procedures are helpful for complex methods but don’t overdo them and try and keep them simple whilst avoiding ambiguity (more complicated than it sounds).
