1) Never, ever examine yourself or your company.
2) Whatever it is you do, do it over and over and over and over again.
3) Never look at what your business, market, or competition is doing.
4) Never tolerate any suggestion that implies that you or your management system may contribute to a problem.
5) Never change your plans.
6) Keep company goals vague.
7) Do not be accessible to your employees. Always keep your door closed. Use body language to show that you’re not to be disturbed.
8) Never wander around the company to see how people are doing.
9) Never hire smart people. Turn down all applicants who are curious or who are looking for challenges. Instead look for applicants who are good-looking, make good impressions, and are looking for a steady paycheck.
10) Discourage all questions.
11) Have lots of structured meetings. Kill ideas immediately as they are offered with comments like: “It’ll never work,” “It cost too much,” “It’s been tried before,” “If it was any good, someone else would have done it, “Get a committee to look into it,” I’ll get back to you,” “Yes, but…,” or try giving dirty looks or silence. If a meeting should produce an idea that you can’t kill, demand instant documentation and cost estimates. Require prior assurance that the idea will succeed and let everyone know that their career is “on the line.”
12) Never offer meaningful incentives or rewards for new ideas.
13) Never allow people to loosen up. Something happens when people arouse their playful sides, they start coming up with ideas. Keep things solemn.
14) Discourage all initiative. Tell people exactly how to do their jobs. If you hire the right people, you won’t have this problem. The right applicant is one who is most comfortable working within the “box.”
15) Put up a “suggestion” box, and then do not provide any feedback whatsoever.
16) Cultivate blandness. Discourage anything that might excite employees about their work.
17) Promote your most obedient company men and women as high and as fast as you can. Make them highly visible by awarding them company cars, titles, parking spaces, special bonuses, and other perks.
18) If someone offers an idea, tell them it’s irrelevant.
If they prove it’s relevant, tell them it can’t work.
If they prove it can work, tell them it’s dangerous.
If they prove it’s safe, tell them it’s unsellable.
If they prove it’s sellable, tell them you’ll create a committee to study it. Make sure no one with real power is on the committee. This way no one with real clout will push it.
19) If someone wants to try something new, remind them of all their past failures and mistakes.
20) If you notice someone becoming preoccupied with a problem, tell them to think about it on their own time, but not yours.
21) Laugh at anyone who says they have a gut feeling, intuitive sense, or hunch about something.
22) Send lots of memos and copies to everyone about the importance of playing it safe. When you play not to lose, you don’t have to worry about taking risks, innovating or confronting challenges.
23) Attend outside seminars that are designed to change the way you think. Then hold a meeting with your employees, and make noises about the need for innovation, creative-thinking, and risk-taking. Praise these as abstract “notions,” and, then don’t change a thing about the way you manage or reward people.
24) Do not buy or read my book Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques).
http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking-Techniques-Edition/dp/1580087736/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0T6TTX3RDA7VQ9NEJR5C If an employee mentions it, walk away, without comment, as fast as possible.
25) When your company is no longer competitive, make sure your employees realize that the collapse of the company was beyond your control. Blame it on the recession, the global economy, the government, unfair practices of suppliers, unethical customers or global warming.
…………………
Michael Michalko
Creative Thinking Expert
http://www.creativethinking.net
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