“The worst of our behaviors will always sabotage the best of our dreams.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Hi Everyone,
A few years ago, I gave a presentation on the five fundamental questions that a Marketer and an Intelligence Analyst needed to answer to do their jobs. Curiously enough, in both roles you need to understand who people are and the likelihood that they do something bad or make a purchase as an example. I am happy to give this presentation at an all-hands meeting sometime. I’ve always been interested in how the intelligence community does its job and how they view organizations, Nation States, etc.
I was recently reading an article on how the CIA would train residents to commit sabotage in advance of a conflict. I eventually found the declassified source document and it was fascinating. The methods of sabotage described were wide-ranging from infrastructure like the electrical grid, water systems, gasoline distribution, and more interesting to me, how to ruin organizations and companies.
The paper outlined 8 ways to interfere with a company as an individual. Here are the abbreviated instructions.
- Insist on doing everything through “proper channels”. Never permit shortcuts to expedite decisions.
- In meetings, “make speeches” talk frequently and at great length. Illustrate your “points” with long anecdotes and personal experiences.
- When possible, defer decision-making and refer matters to a committee for further study and consideration. Attempt to make the committee as large as possible.
- In meetings, bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
- Haggle over the precise wordings of things, issues, and topics.
- Refer back to matters that have been previously decided and attempt to re-open the issue and the advisability of that decision.
- Advocate “caution” whenever possible. Be “reasonable” and urge your colleagues to avoid hasty decision-making.
- Always bring up the propriety of an issue. Raise the questions about if this group is eligible to make this decision or contemplate how it might conflict with other teams or members of a higher echelon.
The whole goal of these instructions is to delay and confuse the orderly conduct of business. A company thrives on velocity and agility. We are always working against timelines for our clients. As I read through this instruction manual it occurred to me that sometimes these things happen in meetings. I’m not saying that anyone has bad intentions, but I am suggesting that some of us may have speech patterns and habits that could lead to inadvertently slowing down your team or the company. I appreciate everyone taking the time to read through this list and examine patterns that may be inhibiting communication and collaboration within your team.
Let’s go be great!