Modern Work Becomes Sabotage

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In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA) created the "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" to help citizens undermine enemy states during World War II. The manual's instructions for disrupting organizations are shockingly familiar:

• "Insist on doing everything through channels"
• "Make speeches at great length"
• "Refer all matters to committees"
• "Haggle over precise wordings"
• "Apply all regulations to the last letter"

These weren't meant as business practices but as acts of deliberate sabotage. Yet today, these behaviors are commonplace in organizations worldwide. "Somehow, in less than a lifetime," notes the Aaron Dignan, "modern work has become indistinguishable from sabotage." The revelation forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: many of our standard operating procedures originated as tactics specifically designed to cripple organizational effectiveness.