The United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was organized for special operations and intelligence gathering during World War II. Its mission was implementation and training foreign forces in propaganda, espionage, subversion, and sabotage.
On January 17, 1944, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, issued the “Simple Sabotage Field Manual.” It was used by OSS agents to train “citizen saboteurs” in simple sabotage directed at industry and other functions of Axis occupied areas.
After the war, OSS functions were transferred to the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the field manual was locked away as a classified document until 2008.
The field manual doesn’t cover the highly technical work that we see in movies. No requirement for detailed planning, in-depth intelligence, and highly trained operatives.
It’s all much easier.
In The Sound of Music, we see how simple sabotage could help the war effort or just save a friend in need. Those tricky nuns remove the distributor caps from Nazi cars in pursuit of the von Trapp family and show what citizen saboteurs can do.
Inglorious Bastards shows a fire being set in a theater full of Nazi’s. Nitrate film, a spark, and a lot of guts were all that was required.
And even these tactics are more than required to grind things to a halt.
Most of the time, simple sabotage looks a lot like just being difficult.
It doesn’t require specially prepared tools or equipment, it is executed by ordinary folks using everyday materials such as salt, nails, and pebbles. It also includes psychological strategies that can be used to slow, delay, stall, and otherwise reduce the efficiency of any person or organization.
I love that this document exists.
It illustrates the power of mischief and annoyance as tools of war. It highlights the difficulty any power will have in controlling a population.
Here’s a list from cia.gov of five particularly timeless tips from the Simple Sabotage Field Manual:
- Telephone: At the office, hotel, or local telephone switchboards, delay putting calls through, give out wrong numbers, cut people off “accidentally,” or forget to disconnect them so that the line cannot be used again.
- Movie Theater Patrons: To ruin everyone’s time at the movies (without a cell phone, that is) bring in a paper bag filled with two or three dozen large moths. Open the bag and set it in an empty section of the theater. “The moths will fly out and climb into the projector beam, so that the film will be obscured by fluttering shadows.”
- Managers and Supervisors: To lower morale and production, think of the worst boss you’ve had and act like that. Be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work. When possible, refer all matters to committees for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large and bureaucratic as possible.
- Employees: Be forgetful. Clumsy. Work slowly. Think of ways to increase the number of movements needed to do your job: use a light hammer instead of a heavy one; try to make a small wrench do instead of a big one.
- Transportation: Make train or air travel as inconvenient as possible. One particularly effective trick: issue two tickets for the same seat on a train in order to set up an “interesting” argument.
Reading the manual left me with no doubt that I would have been a terrific OSS citizen saboteur. As a matter of fact, the existence of this manual along with my group of high school friends, is the only reasonable explanation that foreign powers didn’t take Burien, Washington by force.
Still though, the more I flipped through the pages, the more I came to understand that I was in the midst of saboteurs on a daily basis.
Their goal? To annoy, interrupt, delay, and bewilder those working with or for the enemy.
Here are a few examples that jumped out.
Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
This is almost every VP I’ve ever encountered.
Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
And this is every client.
In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first.
This one I do to myself. Important jobs are hard sometimes.
Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products.
Perfectionism as a form of sabotage? Yes please. Sounds like my contracts team.
Hold conferences [meetings] when there is more critical work to be done.
Middle managers, raise your hand if you asked the team to “jump on a call” when an email would have done the trick.
Cry and sob hysterically at every occasion, especially when confronted by government clerks.
This is just funny because it’s all these new graduates complaining about having a job.
Contrive as many interruptions to your work as you can.
This is Teams and Slack and all the synchronized “productivity” tech that has been created over the last decade.
Simple sabotage can be self-inflicted or organizationally implemented. It can come from friends, neighbors, coworkers, or conspirators.
That’s a lot to handle.
You’ve got to keep your head on a swivel.
Saboteurs are all around us.
So, what do we do about all these people gumming up the works?
Warren Buffett recommends surrounding yourself with “People who are able, honest, and diligent. Having first-rate people on the team is more important than designing hierarchies and clarifying who reports to whom about what and at what times.”
Peter Drucker suggests that you work to understand “Your strengths, how you perform, your values, and your proposed contribution.” And then he suggests you find out the same information for your team.
Maya Angelou warned, “When someone tells you who they are, believe them.” And I’d add, actions speak louder than words.
If you were to select high character people, understand their strengths and values, and believe them, I think you’d snuff out a lot of the simple sabotage in your life.
What is simple is not always easy, and in this case, that’s a good thing.
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