Sabotage Pattern #9: Never Let Any Decision to Be Made
And if it has been made, try to open the topic again at the next meeting. Again, point to associated risks (however theoretical they might be). Better still, insist on written minutes from each meeting and when their draft is distributed, reject them because of bad wording.
This is especially well done in todays world of technology. When minutes arrive to your inbox, find (you may even at random) a statement you believe is not written exactly as has been presented at the meeting and raise an objection. And of course, send your objection to all of the attendees and carbon copy to your superiors, their superiors and other people you feel may be interested.
By doing this, you have disrupted the work of many more people who have no information and who will probably misunderstand and join the discussion with completely irrelevant solutions. And, after the flame war has begun, be the one who is the only sane one: suggest the best place to clear all the miscommunication would be another meeting.
E-mail wars over minutes
Quite some time ago now, I have attended a meeting regarding setting up some processes in JIRA software. The meeting itself went (from the sabotage-driven mind perspective) horribly well. Only the people who actually knew something about the topics have been invited, the discussion was nicely moderated and after some 30 minutes, an agreement has been reached — introduction of new state “analysis” in the JIRA workflow. But, when the minutes came later that day, one of the participants quickly responded that he wanted the status to be named “business analysis” (something completely irrelevant to the issue being solved by the new state).
In no time, an e-mail war began and slowly, more and more people were in the communication, each of them trying to help, but in reality creating more confusion over a trivial matter. At the end, another (huge) meeting has been scheduled and the original decision has been revoked and discussed over and over again, in the context of the entire company (and the entire universe as well). This had an appalling effect on satisfaction of everybody in the original group and resulted in these people never proposing any good changes again.
Recognition
- Look at the usual decision-making process at your organization. Are decisions made quickly, or are many people involved to verify any proposed decision?
- When a decision is made or an agreement is reached, is it usually then disputed by someone?
- Are minutes from meetings frequently commented upon and changed many times before they are finalized?
- Are people generally allowed to make decisions, or are the processes so complicated they actually prevent anyone from making any decision?
Removal
- Try to simplify decision-making processes as much as possible. Give power to the people who have the information necessary to make a good decision and trust them.
- Limit the number of people within the decision-making process. Eliminate the ones that are in the process just because of their authority: push authority and responsibility to people who do the work and hence have the information to make a good decision.
- Look for long e-mail discussions over precise wording of minutes and for people engaging in these discussions — it is probable they are (unknowingly) sabotaging your company.
