Quanta Corporate Citizenship Commonsense advice for managers 08/06/2010
Some of the wisest advice an organisation can receive was summarised back in 1944 by William Donovan:
Interesting enough, it is exactly the (if not all of) advices above that still guide many companies and leaders till this day.
The advices above, obviously, look very inoffensive. No employee could ever be fired for following it. If anything, an employee could certainly be fired for not following it. As the small booklet reminds the reader, “simple sabotage requires no destructive tools whatsoever and produces physical damage, if any, by highly indirect means. It is based on universal opportunities to make faulty decisions, to adopt a noncooperative attitude, and to induce others to follow suit. Making a faulty decision may be simply a matter of placing tools in one spot instead of another. A non-cooperative attitude may involve nothing more than creating an unpleasant situation among one's fellow workers, engaging in bickerings, or displaying surliness and stupidity.”
The danger of these advices is that any manager can use them as tools to stop any process, and that was the whole idea behind the booklet. All it takes is to remove the goodwill and common sense of any intervention and a single employee can disrupt any new initiative, stop any work from progressing, any change from happening, and any objective from getting achieved. And, if anything, those pressing for change, for results and for new ideas end up being the ones who look uncooperative, dysfunctional and intractabl, and will be the ones most likely to be forced to leave, or who will leave out of frustration for not getting anything done.
How many times have you heard a company saying it could not initiate this or that project (CSR-related or otherwise) because it was unreasonable, because no one had done it before, because the decision hasn’t been signed off by all levels, because an obscure committee didn’t have time to analyse it, or there was still uncertainty about the outcome? These might all be genuine concerns, but if goodwill and commonsense are absent, they are perfect snipe-and-hide platforms for saboteurs.
Here is the booklet:
- "Insist on doing everything through the right channels.
- Talk as frequently as possible and at great length, illustrating your points by anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
- Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic" comments.
- Refer matters to committees, for further study and consideration.
- Attempt to make the committees as inclusive as possible, and never less than five.
- Demand use of precise wordings on communications, minutes, resolutions.
- In doubt, refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
- Be cautious.
- Be reasonable and urge your fellow-conferees to be reasonable and avoid haste, which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
- Be sure about the propriety of any decision. In doubt, raise the question 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."
Interesting enough, it is exactly the (if not all of) advices above that still guide many companies and leaders till this day.
The advices above, obviously, look very inoffensive. No employee could ever be fired for following it. If anything, an employee could certainly be fired for not following it. As the small booklet reminds the reader, “simple sabotage requires no destructive tools whatsoever and produces physical damage, if any, by highly indirect means. It is based on universal opportunities to make faulty decisions, to adopt a noncooperative attitude, and to induce others to follow suit. Making a faulty decision may be simply a matter of placing tools in one spot instead of another. A non-cooperative attitude may involve nothing more than creating an unpleasant situation among one's fellow workers, engaging in bickerings, or displaying surliness and stupidity.”
The danger of these advices is that any manager can use them as tools to stop any process, and that was the whole idea behind the booklet. All it takes is to remove the goodwill and common sense of any intervention and a single employee can disrupt any new initiative, stop any work from progressing, any change from happening, and any objective from getting achieved. And, if anything, those pressing for change, for results and for new ideas end up being the ones who look uncooperative, dysfunctional and intractabl, and will be the ones most likely to be forced to leave, or who will leave out of frustration for not getting anything done.
How many times have you heard a company saying it could not initiate this or that project (CSR-related or otherwise) because it was unreasonable, because no one had done it before, because the decision hasn’t been signed off by all levels, because an obscure committee didn’t have time to analyse it, or there was still uncertainty about the outcome? These might all be genuine concerns, but if goodwill and commonsense are absent, they are perfect snipe-and-hide platforms for saboteurs.
Here is the booklet:
| simple_sabotage_field_manual.pdf |
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