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Simple Sabotage: A Modern Field Manual for Detecting and Rooting Out Everyday Behaviors That Undermine Your Workplace
Inspired by the Simple Sabotage Field Manual released by the Office of Strategic Services in 1944 to train European resistors, this is the essential handbook to help stamp out unintentional sabotage in any working group, from major corporations to volunteer PTA committees.
In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the predecessor of today’s CIA—issued the Simple Sabotage Field Manual that detailed sabotage techniques designed to demoralize the enemy. One section focused on eight incredibly subtle—and devastatingly destructive—tactics for sabotaging the decision-making processes of organizations. While the manual was written decades ago, these sabotage tactics thrive undetected in organizations today:
Insist on doing everything through channels. Make speeches. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Refer all matters to committees. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. Haggle over precise wordings of communications. Refer back to matters already decided upon and attempt to question the advisability of that decision. Advocate caution and urge fellow-conferees to avoid haste that might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on. Be worried about the propriety of any decision.
Everyone has been faced with someone who has used these tactics, even when they have meant well. Filled with proven strategies and techniques, this brief, clever book outlines the counter-sabotage measures to detect and reduce the impact of these eight classic sabotage tactics to improve productivity, spur creativity, and engender better collegial relationships.
In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the predecessor of today’s CIA—issued the Simple Sabotage Field Manual that detailed sabotage techniques designed to demoralize the enemy. One section focused on eight incredibly subtle—and devastatingly destructive—tactics for sabotaging the decision-making processes of organizations. While the manual was written decades ago, these sabotage tactics thrive undetected in organizations today:
Insist on doing everything through channels. Make speeches. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Refer all matters to committees. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. Haggle over precise wordings of communications. Refer back to matters already decided upon and attempt to question the advisability of that decision. Advocate caution and urge fellow-conferees to avoid haste that might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on. Be worried about the propriety of any decision.
Everyone has been faced with someone who has used these tactics, even when they have meant well. Filled with proven strategies and techniques, this brief, clever book outlines the counter-sabotage measures to detect and reduce the impact of these eight classic sabotage tactics to improve productivity, spur creativity, and engender better collegial relationships.
212 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2015
83 people are currently reading
567 people want to read
About the author
Robert M. Galford
12 books5 followersRobert Galford, Managing Partner of the Center for Leading Organizations, divides his time across teaching on Executive Education programs and working on leadership issues with senior executives at the world's leading public, private and governmental entities. Rob is a Leadership Fellow in Executive Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and on the teaching faculty of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Forrester Research, where he chairs the Compensation and Nominating Committee. Rob is the co-author of The Trusted Advisor, The Trusted Leader, Your Leadership Legacy, and Simple Sabotage, along with numerous articles and blogs on leadership and governance for Harvard Business Review and other major publications. His educational background includes Haverford College, Harvard Business School and Georgetown Law Center.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 10, 2018
Simple sabotage is a great premise. The OSS issued a book to resistance fighters in Europe during WWII. They had one chapter on sabotaging organizations and processes. This document was turned into a business book. The concept is great, the execution is a pithy retread of the most common business communication concepts. Anyone who has served on a non-profit board will recognize these traits from the most well intended participants (and maybe in themselves).
1) Insist on doing everything through ‘channels’
2) Make speeches – talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your points by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experience.
3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for further study. Make committees as large as possible.
4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible
5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications
6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-opening decisions
7) Advocate caution and avoid haste
8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision – raise the question of jurisdiction and potential conflicts with previous policies or higher echelons.
1) Insist on doing everything through ‘channels’
2) Make speeches – talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your points by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experience.
3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for further study. Make committees as large as possible.
4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible
5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications
6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-opening decisions
7) Advocate caution and avoid haste
8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision – raise the question of jurisdiction and potential conflicts with previous policies or higher echelons.
April 2, 2016
I enjoyed that this books premise is based on a manual created at the height of WWII to help Allied supporters disrupt enemy organizations. I had seen the list before on Facebook (although credited there to the FBI to disrupt grassroots counterculture activist organizations of the 60s & 70s) and had found it accurate and funny that some people in my own organization were unconsciously disrupting in these time-honored practices. But this book gets a little long and boring, and if you are a manager it might be counter-productive. A paranoid manager who feels everyone is sabotaging him/her, is the worst kind of manager. That being said, the part about asking your employees what doesn't work about their job via a survey is a good one. The questions suggested include:
--What is the stupidest role or process we have around here?
--What are the three biggest obstacles you face in doing your job?
--If you could rewrite or change one process or procedure, what would it be and why?
I wish the book had offered more of this kind of advice--proactive and digging to info a manager can use to make things work better!
--What is the stupidest role or process we have around here?
--What are the three biggest obstacles you face in doing your job?
--If you could rewrite or change one process or procedure, what would it be and why?
I wish the book had offered more of this kind of advice--proactive and digging to info a manager can use to make things work better!
Read
July 23, 2017Does contain some useful tips, otherwise follows common sense.
October 31, 2024
The rules of war on how to sabotage a govt or company.
The number of especially large companies I had worked in where these habits were standard practice is incredible and horrifying to me.
eg the company was working in line with the smartest intelligence strategies to ruin a business or govt.
This has to be mandatory reading for MBAs and part of induction on what to actively fight.
• Insist on doing everything through channels.
• Make speeches. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length.
• Refer all matters to committees.
• Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. Haggle over precise wordings of communications.
• Refer back to matters already decided upon and attempt to question the advisability of that decision.
• Advocate caution and urge fellow- conferees to avoid haste that might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
• Be worried about the propriety of any decision.
Read via Libby in ebook form.
The number of especially large companies I had worked in where these habits were standard practice is incredible and horrifying to me.
eg the company was working in line with the smartest intelligence strategies to ruin a business or govt.
This has to be mandatory reading for MBAs and part of induction on what to actively fight.
• Insist on doing everything through channels.
• Make speeches. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length.
• Refer all matters to committees.
• Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. Haggle over precise wordings of communications.
• Refer back to matters already decided upon and attempt to question the advisability of that decision.
• Advocate caution and urge fellow- conferees to avoid haste that might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
• Be worried about the propriety of any decision.
Read via Libby in ebook form.
October 24, 2022
Simple Sabotage is a delightful book! Informative, helpful, educational and relevant! Every leader should have this one on their leadership go-to bookshelf. Since there is very little committee leadership training out there, the chapter on “sabotage by committee” was alone worth the price of the book. Far from merely pointing out the negative behaviors of team members, the authors offer an abundance of helpful hints, tips, and strategies for preventing and overcoming those behaviors that undermine the workplace. They describe the modern workplace sabotage as good things gone wrong or too far which can grind any organization to a halt. Riffing off of an actual WWII manual on how to surreptitiously sabotage the enemy lends much credibility and gravatas to this handy little book.
July 9, 2020
A Must Read for Any Organization
Too often our meetings become targets for the "simple saboteurs ": whether it's in the workplace, a non-profit, or even at church!
This book was recommended at a virtual meeting I attended recently. I too recommend this book if you want to take back your meetings and your organization. I liked the authors approach by taking pages from the OSS's manual (which I never knew existed until I heard of this book). It's an easy read, yet chock full of valuable information.
A must read!
Too often our meetings become targets for the "simple saboteurs ": whether it's in the workplace, a non-profit, or even at church!
This book was recommended at a virtual meeting I attended recently. I too recommend this book if you want to take back your meetings and your organization. I liked the authors approach by taking pages from the OSS's manual (which I never knew existed until I heard of this book). It's an easy read, yet chock full of valuable information.
A must read!
December 26, 2020
Fun read. And section 11 is an interesting anti-reference.
Available at Project Gutenberg and a quick read. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2...
Section 11 “General Interference with Organizations and Production” is a great list of things not to do as a modern office worker / manager. The rest of the pamphlet is an interesting perspective on what life was like in the 40’s (and clever ways to break things). And the intro is a pretty fascinating context.
Available at Project Gutenberg and a quick read. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2...
Section 11 “General Interference with Organizations and Production” is a great list of things not to do as a modern office worker / manager. The rest of the pamphlet is an interesting perspective on what life was like in the 40’s (and clever ways to break things). And the intro is a pretty fascinating context.
December 9, 2023
2.5 rounded down
Meh. The pandemic has changed the nature of the workplace, so this book could use an update. A lot of the content is pretty common sense stuff. Still, I learned about a couple ways people can undermine progress at work that I hadn't considered.
Meh. The pandemic has changed the nature of the workplace, so this book could use an update. A lot of the content is pretty common sense stuff. Still, I learned about a couple ways people can undermine progress at work that I hadn't considered.
October 11, 2024
This is why I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. Communication fails too much.
“The OSS rules are timeless, but new technologies and organizational forms allow the development of new forms of sabotage all the time.”
“The OSS rules are timeless, but new technologies and organizational forms allow the development of new forms of sabotage all the time.”
February 7, 2018
A short book with some guideline on how to handle bad workplace behavior. Pretty good
September 2, 2018
Make bureaucracy back off
Any large organization will have these issues. In addition to showing how easy they can happen--this resource highlights ways to make them stop.
Any large organization will have these issues. In addition to showing how easy they can happen--this resource highlights ways to make them stop.
January 17, 2020
This book pointed out some simple sabotages we see everyday at work. There are also some tips how to solve the problems and improve efficiency of the whole team
Want to read
March 6, 2021Not sure whether I'll ever read this but these sabotage practices are standard business practice in most German companies.
December 10, 2021
Really good book that perfectly addressed all of the things I hate about decision making by committee. Really interesting and informative.
October 23, 2022
Intriguing.
November 4, 2022
Aka “How to be a Commander in the US Air Force”, especially pages 42- end
July 29, 2023
The value of this book is systematically recognizing and fixing these patterns. I see most of these behaviors in my job working at a big company, and appreciate the actionable steps.
February 9, 2022
I finished this book in several sittings, and I have to say that it's a compact guide that unfolds layers of issues in a workplace (and in other contexts too). For example, sometimes we have no idea if we're being difficult or just drawing certain boundaries to the other parties. Sometimes, many cases given are relatable, from a subtle hindrance to a more complex one.
November 8, 2015
Interesting but pretty simplistic. A very quick read. Took some notes which I will try to use at work.
April 14, 2017
Easy to read, actionable advice. For both sides of the fence, depending on how you want to play it ;)
___
1. Sabotage by Obedience
Obedience becomes sabotage when it prevents personal judgment from overriding processes that for whatever reason are not working at that moment.
Know when your KPIs have crossed the threshold where process overrides outcome (e.g. picking up after three rings produces no difference in customer satisfaction, so reducing the average pick up time from 1.6 to 1.4 rings does nothing but waste effort. Go and continuously improve something else.
Ask yourself: “What part of doing things through channels do we HAVE to do for the safety of employees and customers, and what part can we skip?” Add value, not clutter.
2. Sabotage by Speech
Don’t ask for comments at the end of a meeting for the sake of formality, know why. If you’re doling out assignments asking for comments isn’t going to do very much.
3. Sabotage by Committee
Committees represent the opportunity for accountability to be lost. Once the committee is formed, control of the task or activity goes off the radar of the group’s leader, and if the committee does not have someone accountable for the work getting done, it rarely gets done.
RACI Model: Members of a group can have one of four roles:
Responsible – Those involved. Should be kept as small as possible
Accountable- The buck stops here. Final decision maker.
Consulted- asked before the decision
Informed- notified after the decision
4. Sabotage by Irrelevant Issue
Often starts when someone is trying to make a comparison between the issues at hand and something that occurred in the past. But too often what happens is that the other people present assume relevancy without stopping to figure if it is apples being compared to oranges.
One possible way to deal with irrelevant issues is to create a ‘parking lot’, where irrelevant issues can be placed for consideration at another time. This allows the meeting to not get sidetracked while not ignoring the concerns raised. Just make sure to follow up after.
5. Sabotage by Haggling
Don’t ask for feedback by asking: “So do you have any feedback?” This invites anyone to offer and debate suggestions that are general and unfocused, or specific but irrelevant.
Ask targeted questions. Circulate material to be reviewed in advance so that people can give higher quality feedback in a timely manner. Remember to instruct people to read beforehand for a constructive meeting spent discussing inputs rather than presenting material.
6. Sabotage by Reopening Decisions
How does one differentiate between a legitimate “rethinking” and just plain stalling? Figure out if the person asking for the “do-over” has a justifiable reason for reopening the decision and, if so, weigh that reason against the risk of moving forward with the decision. Understanding the motivation behind someone’s request to reconsider a prior decision will help immensely.
Is it just a personal grievance (not consulted previously, overruled etc)? Do they lack confidence in their own or their team’s competence?
Ask yourself “If we had more time to decide, what would we do that we haven’t already done?” Check if any new circumstances have arisen that warrant a reconsideration.
If decisions are not viewed as permanent and final, then people will think twice before implementing them. Especially those that thought it was the ‘wrong decision’ in the first place.
7. Sabotage by Excessive Caution a.k.a. BUT WAIT, WHAT ABOUT ....?
Excessive caution slows everything down, preventing nimble reaction and killing creativity.
Differentiate between a threat and a risk. Threats are always present, but are they an actual significant risk? Ask for facts.
“I would advocate starting any assessment of risk by defining what success should look like. You need to know what success is so that you can capture risk and evaluate it in the right context. You want to minimize risk, sure, but you have to remember that minimizing risk isn’t your only criterion for succeeding. It also helps to bucket your risk in types. Are you talking about competitive risks? Resource risks? Risks we understand well, or not at all? Where on the path to success does this risk fit? Doing that can also help you keep things in perspective.”
Don’t completely discount peoples’ perceived risks. Hear them out, try to mitigate whatever actual risks are present, and everyone will be better off.
8. Sabotage by Is-it-really-our-call?
Be sure of whether you’ve been given decision-making authority or just tasked to formulate a recommendation which your boss or someone else will pull the trigger on. This will save people from questioning whether they have the jurisdiction to make the final call.
9. Sabotage by CC: All
The cc isn’t a reliable way of ensuring people have been informed. Yet it absolves the sender of the responsibility of ensuring that communication has occurred.
Ask to be informed personally if someone wants you to know something.
Add action lines in your email subject headers.
___
1. Sabotage by Obedience
Obedience becomes sabotage when it prevents personal judgment from overriding processes that for whatever reason are not working at that moment.
Know when your KPIs have crossed the threshold where process overrides outcome (e.g. picking up after three rings produces no difference in customer satisfaction, so reducing the average pick up time from 1.6 to 1.4 rings does nothing but waste effort. Go and continuously improve something else.
Ask yourself: “What part of doing things through channels do we HAVE to do for the safety of employees and customers, and what part can we skip?” Add value, not clutter.
2. Sabotage by Speech
Don’t ask for comments at the end of a meeting for the sake of formality, know why. If you’re doling out assignments asking for comments isn’t going to do very much.
3. Sabotage by Committee
Committees represent the opportunity for accountability to be lost. Once the committee is formed, control of the task or activity goes off the radar of the group’s leader, and if the committee does not have someone accountable for the work getting done, it rarely gets done.
RACI Model: Members of a group can have one of four roles:
Responsible – Those involved. Should be kept as small as possible
Accountable- The buck stops here. Final decision maker.
Consulted- asked before the decision
Informed- notified after the decision
4. Sabotage by Irrelevant Issue
Often starts when someone is trying to make a comparison between the issues at hand and something that occurred in the past. But too often what happens is that the other people present assume relevancy without stopping to figure if it is apples being compared to oranges.
One possible way to deal with irrelevant issues is to create a ‘parking lot’, where irrelevant issues can be placed for consideration at another time. This allows the meeting to not get sidetracked while not ignoring the concerns raised. Just make sure to follow up after.
5. Sabotage by Haggling
Don’t ask for feedback by asking: “So do you have any feedback?” This invites anyone to offer and debate suggestions that are general and unfocused, or specific but irrelevant.
Ask targeted questions. Circulate material to be reviewed in advance so that people can give higher quality feedback in a timely manner. Remember to instruct people to read beforehand for a constructive meeting spent discussing inputs rather than presenting material.
6. Sabotage by Reopening Decisions
How does one differentiate between a legitimate “rethinking” and just plain stalling? Figure out if the person asking for the “do-over” has a justifiable reason for reopening the decision and, if so, weigh that reason against the risk of moving forward with the decision. Understanding the motivation behind someone’s request to reconsider a prior decision will help immensely.
Is it just a personal grievance (not consulted previously, overruled etc)? Do they lack confidence in their own or their team’s competence?
Ask yourself “If we had more time to decide, what would we do that we haven’t already done?” Check if any new circumstances have arisen that warrant a reconsideration.
If decisions are not viewed as permanent and final, then people will think twice before implementing them. Especially those that thought it was the ‘wrong decision’ in the first place.
7. Sabotage by Excessive Caution a.k.a. BUT WAIT, WHAT ABOUT ....?
Excessive caution slows everything down, preventing nimble reaction and killing creativity.
Differentiate between a threat and a risk. Threats are always present, but are they an actual significant risk? Ask for facts.
“I would advocate starting any assessment of risk by defining what success should look like. You need to know what success is so that you can capture risk and evaluate it in the right context. You want to minimize risk, sure, but you have to remember that minimizing risk isn’t your only criterion for succeeding. It also helps to bucket your risk in types. Are you talking about competitive risks? Resource risks? Risks we understand well, or not at all? Where on the path to success does this risk fit? Doing that can also help you keep things in perspective.”
Don’t completely discount peoples’ perceived risks. Hear them out, try to mitigate whatever actual risks are present, and everyone will be better off.
8. Sabotage by Is-it-really-our-call?
Be sure of whether you’ve been given decision-making authority or just tasked to formulate a recommendation which your boss or someone else will pull the trigger on. This will save people from questioning whether they have the jurisdiction to make the final call.
9. Sabotage by CC: All
The cc isn’t a reliable way of ensuring people have been informed. Yet it absolves the sender of the responsibility of ensuring that communication has occurred.
Ask to be informed personally if someone wants you to know something.
Add action lines in your email subject headers.
April 22, 2017
Fascinating to find out that the dysfunctions I see in client (and my) company (very often) were used to sabotage the enemies during World War II. The stories and remedies will be a good guide for people new to corporate culture (but pretty obvious to people whose been around since all of us practice some of this dark art time to time :))
May 2, 2017
Interesting approach and examples, but the advice for addressing issues was a bit weak.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews