A field guide for sabotaging meetings

Taken from the “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” which was written during WWII by what is now the CIA:

TLDR:

1. Use “channels” for all decisions and comms
2. Talk way too much, way too often
3. Refer everything to large committees
4. Bring up irrelevant stuff
5. Debate about precise wordings
6. Re-open debates that were closed
7. Play it safe to avoid embarrassment
8. Worry about stepping on the toes of other groups

Anyone who’s been around the block could probably name a specific person they’ve worked with who comes to mind for each of these things.

Maybe you’re guilty of some of them yourself. Numbers seven and eight in particular made me feel called out. Saboteur!

(Hat tip to this post which is where I first discovered this resource).