Management Best Practices from the Simple Sabotage Field Manual
Here are some management best practices that organizations have adapted:
1. Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
2. Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
3. When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
4. Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
5. Be worried about the propriety of any decision—raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
6. To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.
Do any of those sound familiar?
I know I've experienced most of these in some form in a few organizations I've worked with.
The irony is that these so called best practices are actually from “The Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” an old CIA manual from 1944 (Declassified in 2008) designed to sabotage an organization's productivity.
So why do organizations follow practices that were specifically designed to disrupt productivity?
Lack of trust and fear of failure.
