Combatting Saboteurs

Suresh is a qualified, chartered cost accountant and a PMP with more than 30 years of experience in organizations engaged in various industries, such as ceramic tiles, automobiles and engineering.

  Communications Management   Estimating   Talent Management   Teams  

As you embark on doing something, you may encounter a roadblock anywhere, at any time. However, you can prevent them from spoiling your plans—be aware of those saboteurs and avoid them to make your action successful. This information originates from a book I read, Simple Sabotage: A Modern Field Manual for Detecting and Rooting Out Everyday Behaviors That Undermine Your Workplace by Robert Galford, Bob Frisch and Cary Greene. The book is based on strategy that the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) outlined in 1944’s “Simple Sabotage Field Manual.” The OSS—precursor of the CIA—prepared the manual to help members of the European resistance undermine the Axis war effort.

Unknowing Saboteurs
Saboteurs are everywhere. They undermine every business by stirring confusion, slowing decision making and progress. These saboteurs aren’t enemy infiltrators—they’re ordinary, and may even be well-intentioned staffers who unwittingly convert everyday activities into acts of sabotage.

For instance, “Talk as frequently as possible and at great length.” A skilled saboteur could prolong meetings for hours with meandering orations. The enemy might feel bored and frustrated, but folks at a meeting would have a hard time identifying such behavior as sabotage. As shared by the …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.