Organisational self-sabotage: name it to tame it
In 1944 the CIA’s predecessor distributed a pamphlet how-to guide for foreign citizens seeking to weaken their country by reducing productivity in the workplace.
It was called the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.
80 years on, we know that these self-sabotaging behaviours are alive and well in the modern workplace.
But calling out these behaviours - naming them as a form of sabotage undermining the organisation’s ability to deliver - is the first step in addressing them.
I’ve pulled out some of my favourites sabotage tactics recommended:
“Misunderstand” requests. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about requests. Quibble over them when you can.
Do everything possible to delay delivery. Even though parts may be ready beforehand, don’t deliver until everything is finished and ready.
Multiply paper work in plausible ways. Start duplicate files.
Multiply the procedures and clearances involved. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.
Apply all regulations to the last letter.
Give lengthy and incomprehensible explanations when questioned.
Misunderstand all sorts of regulations concerning such matters as rationing, transportation, traffic regulations.
Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
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.
Insist on doing everything through proper “channels.” Never permit shortcuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
Hold meetings when there is more critical work to be done.
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.
I see forms of this sabotage all the time in the course of supporting organisations with their digital transformation efforts.
So often, in fact, that I like to run an exercise early on in a project, to start to call some of these things out in advance - a bit like the pre-mortem exercises I like to run at the start of engagements.
I walk teams through the forms of self-sabotage above and then set them the challenge of sabotaging their organisation’s digital transformation.
After they’ve spent a while identifying high impact sabotage tactics - I get them to flip it - and spend time identifying preventive measures. Counter-sabotage, really.
The exercise is a fun one - the group get the thrill of being a little subversive, get to talk about obstructive behaviours without diving into blame or getting hung up on organisational culture as a blocker.
But it’s an important exercise too - because it brings these oh-so-common behaviours to the front of people’s minds, just as they’re about to pull together a shared vision for, and collective commitment to, their transformation efforts.
And it gently nudges people to consider their own role in some of this - when they see their own default working practices, preferences and management styles reflected back at them.
Naming is powerful - and when it comes to self-sabotage, we have to name it to have any hope of taming it.