Why Do We Let Our Days Be Sabotaged?
This will shock you - at least it shocked me.
It will sound like a history lesson at first, but there’s a point worth knowing, so stick with me.
I recently learned the following and was shocked at first. Then I found it humorous.
The OSS was the predecessor to the CIA and in 1944 they published a guide titled “Simple Sabotage Field Manual”, on how to disrupt the Axis Powers from within. It was intended to help spies. The guide talks about eight tactics that would trip up agencies or organizations from within.
What do these eight tactics remind you of??
(The following summaries were written by Matthew Dicks and pulled from “Someday is Today”.)
“Insist on doing everything through channels. Never permit short-cuts to be taken 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 committees as large as possible - never less than five.
Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
Haggle over precis wordings of communications, minutes, and resolutions.
Refer back to a matter 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 [it] lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.”
If any of this sounds familiar to you too, it is probably because we all have the pleasure of experiencing these exact techniques from people that we work with every day…
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