Are You Managing Like A World War II Saboteur?

Compare the guidance and then make some changes if you are.

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Tip of The Week: Don’t Manage Like A Saboteur

During World War II the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the predecessor to the CIA produced guidance on various methods of sabotage that can be easily implemented by ordinary citizens in occupied territories.

It was known as the Simple Sabotage Field Manual and it documented subtle ways to disrupt enemy operations, through inefficiency, obstruction, and confusion. It covered both destructive techniques - burning down factories - and indirect means, making faulty decisions and upsetting fellow workers.

It’s that last bit we’re going to consider in today’s Developing Skills.

Look at the summary of the guidance to sabotaging an organisation that follows and ask yourself, are we sabotaging ourselves in our current workplaces?

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Organisations and Conferences

• Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.

• Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.

• When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committee as large as possible — never less than five.

• Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.

• Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.

• Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.

• Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.

• 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.

Managers

• Demand written orders.

• “Misunderstand” orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.

• In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers.

• Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least flaw. Approve other defective parts whose flaws are not visible to the naked eye.

• When training new workers, give incomplete or misleading instructions.

• 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.

• Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.

• Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.

• Apply all regulations to the last letter.

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When you compare this guidance on how to sabotage a workplace to many modern workplaces you might be forgiven for thinking some had misunderstood it for a field manual on modern management.

If that’s you, or your workplace, it’s time to change!

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