How To Wreck Organizational Culture Like An Epic Villain

 

Having the reputation as ProjectManagement.com’s resident contrarian has its advantages. For example, as my colleagues address July’s theme of organizational culture by providing insights on how to improve it for greater efficiency and effectiveness, I am free to take the opposite angle: how to develop a strategy to diminish and eventually ruin that very culture.

GTIM nation knows I would do this just ‘cuz I can, but more recent readers might wonder why this is, in any sane PM universe, a valid topic. To these I ask, have you never read (or seen a production of) Shakespeare’s Othello, or Richard III? In these plays the villains Iago and Richard himself wreck devastation on the protagonists, and they do so for a reason: they seek to set up their own version of how things should be run, and the existing management/ruling structure, as virtuous as it is, is simply in the way. Oh, sure, they have multiple other nefarious motives, but those are not important for this analysis. The fact that they (and other, real-life actors like them) use specific tactics as a part of an overall strategy that very nearly worked to perfection is important for this analysis. So, practice twirling your Snidely Whiplash-style mustache and your Dr. Evil-style maniacal laughter, and let’s begin.

In 1965 Bruce Tuckman introduced the forming-storming-norming-performing model[i], asserting that newly-formed teams go through these stages as they grow to address the challenges before them. Additionally, Michael Maccoby’s book The Gamesman asserts that organizations tend to be populated by personnel who exhibit behaviors consistent with four different archetypes, the Company Man, the Craftsman, the Jungle Fighter, and the Gamesman (I discussed this at some length in my blog two weeks ago).  Considering these two models concurrently yields some very interesting insights on how to completely discombobulate an otherwise promising project team without having to actually tie anybody down onto railroad tracks.

Let’s start by taking Tuckman’s model at face value. Let’s also stipulate that, on any team with more than a dozen members, at least one Jungle Fighter is likely to be present. Luckily (for the Jungle Fighter, anyway) this person will not wear a sign, or offer any other obvious indicator that they intend to behave in a manner consistent with this archetype. After all, neither Richard III nor Iago had any grand reveal until after it was painfully obvious to the most casual observer that they were bad. What’s a Jungle Fighter to do in this situation? The obvious first step is to not reveal yourself to be a no-talent, conniving manipulator who gets ahead by having others oppose each other, all while taking credit for successes that you had little to do with and deflecting blame for your own mistakes.

Okay, check the “stealth mode” box on your list. What’s next? Based on Tuckman’s model, the next maturation step after the Project Team forms is to “storm.” At this point in the process the team will naturally encounter some level of churn as precise roles, responsibilities and authorities are defined, tried out, and redefined. This is the perfect environment for the Jungle Fighter to operate, but not just for their own advancement. No, the primary goal here is to elongate this phase as long as possible. The more distrust and confusion that can be introduced into the Project Team during this difficult phase the longer the effects of suspicion and a lack of clearly-defined roles and functions will last. The Gamesmen, with their characteristic willingness to take risks, will tend to become frustrated with the Craftsmen’s tendencies to strictly observe procedures in order to turn out a first-class product or service, while the Craftsmen will view the Gamesmen’s behavior as too avaunt-garde to realize the team’s optimal strategy. Take advantage of this natural rivalry by engaging in calumny in-between the two camps, stoking the fires of outrage by passing along the narrative that’s contrary to the archetypes you’re manipulating.

What about the Company Men? Their greatest fear is of being left behind, assigned a role that’s not only underappreciated, but considered to be out-and-out useless. The optimized Jungle Fighter can take advantage of this vulnerability in every instance where the project’s scope is poorly defined. The Company Men can be sent on all sorts of wild goose chases by implying the objective of any particular Work Package is some (believable) derivative of the actual, poorly-articulated scope. Their wasted time and frustration may not spill over into open conflict, but it certainly won’t help the Project Team move past the Storming phase.

Once the Project Team (finally!) moves past the Storming phase and into Norming, another opportunity will present itself. Even if open warfare has been subdued, you can count on a sense of lingering mistrust to remain in the background of the organizational culture. Each and every time a Craftsman addresses and accomplishes a part of the project’s scope, start a rumor (or even communicate directly) to that Craftsman that some part of the Gamesman coterie believes that it was delivered too slowly. It’ll drive them crazy. Conversely, whenever the Gamesmen begin to complete a Work Package, imply that it won’t pass quality control review. To avoid the embarrassment of being seen as a target of the Craftsmen, the Gamesmen will thoroughly review, if not completely re-do, the work that was about to be wrapped up. This will delay the beginning of the Performing cycle significantly.

What happens when the Project Team (finally!) achieves the Performing cycle? Is the Jungle Fighter now bereft of tactics? Absolutely not! Do what you can to influence the Team’s narrative, so that the actual achievers are not given credit for their accomplishments. Oh, sure, it’s a charge to have their successes attributed to the Jungle Fighters, but this is usually a difficult narrative change. It’s safer to have the successes attributed to nearby personnel, while transferring failures or errors to the real performers. Such mis-attribution, if done thoroughly enough, can actually push a Performing team all the way back to a Storming one!

After all of this Machiavellian skullduggery a bit of a caveat emptor is appropriate. Richard III is killed at the battle of Bosworth Field by the eventual Henry VII after being double-crossed by the Earl of Northumberland and Thomas, Lord Stanly, while Iago is led away to captivity and torture once his machinations, so cleverly hidden, come to light at the end of the play. Snidely Whiplash is accidentally shot and taken into custody in the 1999 film Dudley Do-Right, leaving Dr. Evil as the only master schemer/manipulator to escape a dreadful fate.

I’ll close with this little exchange from the 1999 film The Mummy[ii]:

Evelyn: You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance.

Beni: [laughing] Really? They do?

Evelyn: Oh, yes. Always.

[i] Wikipedia contributors. (2018, June 1). Tuckman's stages of group development. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:21, July 15, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tuckman%27s_stages_of_group_development&oldid=843918688

[ii] Retrieved 18:45, July 16, 2018 from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120616/quotes