Reverse Management

Let's pretend that we are going to set up an organization and that our goal is to foster poor management. What might we do?

1. Put teams in rigid boxes to discourage cooperation between work units.


2. Give employees inaccurate job descriptions.


3. Encourage happy talk and squelch candor.


4. Exile mavericks.


5. Reward the office politicians and overlook the real producers.


6. Hire quickly and fire slowly.


7. Cave in to special interest groups.


8. Have everyone waste time with a worthless performance evaluation system.


9. Use hiring quotas.


10. Don't train people unless forced to do so.


11. Wink at violations of core values.


12. Ignore urgency.


13. Reorganize frequently.


14. Use one narrow leadership style for all circumstances.


15. Create factions.


16. Favor style over substance.


17. Have long and frequent meetings.


18. Isolate upper management.


19. Turn the lawyers loose on the managers.


20. Have lots of rules.


21. Treat the employees as if they are adversaries.