How to Sabotage a Meeting

In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor to today’s CIA) published a field manual on “Simple Sabotage.” Meant for dissidents and ordinary citizens living and working in an antagonist organization (think: Nazi occupied France,) simple sabotage “…does not require specially prepared tools or equipment; it is executed by an ordinary citizen who may or may not act individually and without the necessity for active connection with an organized group; and it is carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection, and reprisal.”

In other words, it was a way for ordinary people operating in their normal capacity to frack stuff up, all under the pretense of “I was just doing my job” and plausible deniability. 

The very second sentence of the manual states the techniques “…should be carefully controlled and should not be allowed to come into unauthorized hands.”

The manual was declassified in 2008. Sections 11 and 12 read like the plot of every Dilbert comic ever made. They appear unedited below. Read them. Then play “spot the spook:” see how many of these techniques you can spot taking place during your meetings. 

Bonus: you can download and print our free “How to Sabotage a Meeting” workplace poster here: https://www.lizardbrain.com/downloadables/p/simple-sabotage