How to create disfunction within an organization!

The CIA manual on disrupting an activist group has the following eight bullet points on how to run general interference with organizations. If you as a business owner or see an employee doing any of the following it might be time

1. Insist on doing everything through “channels”. Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.

2. Make “speeches”. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.

3. 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 people.

4. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.

5. Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.

6. Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the questions of the advisability of that decision.

7. Advocate “caution”. Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.

8. 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.

Trying to weed out bureaucracy in your business can be hard, but IMO its one of the best things you can do in order to create a better more productive environment, but even more so rooting out the above eight behaviors will ensure your teams will have a productive working environment.