Episode Details

Bob Frisch and Cary Greene: Simple Sabotage

For over 30 years, Bob Frisch has worked with Senior Executive Teams and Boards on their most vital strategic and organizational challenges, both as a consultant and a corporate executive. Cary Greene has over 20 years’ experience working with senior executives and boards on challenging and complex strategic issues. They are co-authors with Robert Galford of the book Simple Sabotage: A Modern Field Guide for Detecting and Rooting Out Everyday Behaviors That Undermine Your Workplace*.

Key Points

When creating a book on how to sabotage an occupying enemy’s industry, the OSS (precursor to the CIA) recommended a list of organizational sabotage techniques. Ironically, these techniques look very similar to common actions we see in our organizations today.

Committees

• Make sure a committee is appropriate for the task.
• What is the purpose of a committee?
• Who actually needs to be on a committee?
• Make sure committees are structured and have an agenda.
• Make it clear what authority the leader of the committee has.
• Is the committee being asked to make a recommendation or asked to make a decision?

Emails

• Overusing the CC function in emails creates an overwhelming and unnecessary amount of communication.
• Remember that sometimes it’s best to just pick up the phone or walk down the hall to communicate with someone.
• Use the email subject line effectively.

Resources Mentioned

• Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944)
• Simple Sabotage: A Modern Field Guide for Detecting and Rooting Out Everyday Behaviors That Undermine Your Workplace* by Robert Galford, Bob Frisch, and Cary Greene

Related Library Episodes

• Communication in a Family Business, with JoAnne Norton (episode 74)
• How We Do Things Around Here for Results, with Kent Rhodes (episode 144)
• How to Tame Workplace Incivility, with Sharone Bar-David (episode 210)

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