10 Ways to Screw up an Organization

by Don Harkey

I spend a lot of time talking about ways to make an organization better. I talk about leadership, tapping into the talents of your people, and even talk about using social media for business networking. Today I want to try a new approach... I am going to talk about ways to really screw up an organization. Some of these may surprise you! Consider this a preview of my talk coming up at the June 5th Success Seminar in Springfield (REGISTER HERE).

10 WAYS TO SCREW UP AN ORGANIZATION

1) Measure Everything - Make sure you quantify everything you can. Post charts around the office showing staple usage per month for the entire year. Send out a report every day showing company profit to everyone in the company. If morale becomes a problem, measure it, post it, and train people until it improves.

2) Define your Success by Metrics - Since you are already measuring everything, now make sure that you define your success by the metrics. If your expenses are rising, make sure everyone knows they are doing a poor job. If you profits rise, celebrate for doing all the right things.

3) Quantify Employee Performance - Rank your employees from lowest to highest and get rid of the bottom 10% every year. Pay employees according to their ranking. Make sure to tell your bottom performers that a bottom position in your organization is like a top position in many organizations because of how great your organization is. That will help them to adjust to their new low ranking.

4) Encourage Internal Competition - Hold regular contests pitting employees and departments against each other. Make sure to let your people know that only the strong will prosper.

5) Discourage Individuality - People are essentially the same, so treat them as such. Give no preferential treatment or extra help to any single employee without giving the same aid to the other employees. Avoid talking about their personal lives and personal aspirations. After all, the organization is more important than any individual. On issues like emergency or medical leave, stick to the HR manual.

6) Specialize Employee Tasks - Break up your organization into specific tasks and train your employees to focus only on their given task. Does a brake pad need to know where the car is going?

7) Keep Management Elite - Keep all management sessions behind closed doors. Employees do not need to know the direction of the company. It only distracts them from their work. Besides, they may not be able to handle it.

8) Stick to the Plan - Establish a 5-year plan and stick to the plan no matter what happens in the market or the organization. Flexibility is for the weak.

9) Implement a Policy of "Shut up and Listen" - Let employees know that the organization has been around longer than any employee and that the organization knows best. Employee suggestions should center around vending machine contents and not on process improvement.

10) Maintain Fear - Make sure to use threats regularly so that every employee knows the consequences of a mistake. A fearful employee is an obedient employee (at least while you are there).

So there you have it! By following these simple guidelines, you can take any organization from best to worse in no time flat!