How to sabotage an organisation Designing for distinction Abstract: Designing services and experiences requires cooperation and understanding between a range of people; it requires an adaptive, nimble organisation. Our talk will tell you how to sabotage and undermine all that. Inspired by a CIA manual on sabotage, we select and present some of the most effective tips as anti-patterns for modern, collaborative service design. We expand on these points, setting them in the context of our day-to-day work, as designers and innovators, highlighting the damage that can be done. We’ll also outline a practical game that you can use to solve problems creatively using anti-patterns. Innovation: Our innovation is that, by using selected anti-patterns, we invite the audience to play “devil’s advocate” for a change, and to consider how to design terrible services! Wikipedia defines an anti-pattern as “a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive”. Considering anti-patterns for solving problems can be a powerful way to help designers (and others!) to approach a problem with a new perspective, unencumbered by the need to “get it right”. Many of the “tips” we present are simple, logical, and avoidable… and yet we see them so often, preventing us from realising great service and experience design, and from collaborating effectively. In this talk, we approach that challenge a little differently.

1. vSabotage:
Anti-patterns for collaborative work and
getting design done
Francis Rowland | Sigma Consulting
Michele Ide-Smith | European Bioinformatics Institute

2. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
SABOTAGE
Anti-patterns for collaborative work
and getting design done
#sdgc16
By Nationalmuseet - National Museum of Denmark from Denmark - Dansk Industri Syndikat i København i brandUploaded by Palnatoke, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21705601

3. Who we are
Michele Ide-Smith
@micheleidesmith
Product Saboteur at Europe PMC
European Bioinformatics Institute
Francis Rowland
@francisrowland
Senior Sabotage Architect
Sigma Consulting Solutions

4. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
By Unknown or not provided - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public
Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16825469
What is sabotage?
sab·o·tage (săbʹƧ-täzhʹ)
1. The deliberate destruction of
property or obstruction of normal
operations, as by civilians or
enemy agents in a time of war.
2. The deliberate attempt to
damage, destroy, or hinder a
cause or activity.

5. General interference with
organisations and production
SOE - public domain

6. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Insist on doing everything through
"proper channels".
Never permit short-cuts to be taken
in order to expedite decisions.”

7. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“When possible, refer all matters to
committees, for "further study and
consideration."”
“Attempt to make the committees as
large as possible - never less than five.”

8. Managers and supervisors
By Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Libraryhttp://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/
dlib/lat/display.cfm?ms=uclalat_1429_b47_N36&searchType=subject&subjectID=213944, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6967922

9. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Do everything possible to delay
the delivery of a project. Even
though parts of the project may be
ready beforehand, don't deliver it
until it is completely ready.”

10. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Hold meetings when there is
more critical work to be done.”

11. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Multiply the procedures and
clearances.”
“See that three people have to approve
everything where one would do.”

12. Office workers and employees
By Unknown - published in Japanese newspaper Rekishi Syashin, Public
Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5520475

13. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Contrive as many interruptions
to your work as possible”

14. Lowering morale and
spreading confusion
By Palestine Railways, Khoury House, Haifa, Palestine - Report of The General Manager on the
Administration of the Palestine Railways and Operated Lines:1946/1947. Warhaftig's Press.
Haifa, Palestine, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15362402

15. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Fill out forms illegibly so that
they will have to be done over;
make mistakes or omit requested
information in forms.”

16. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Perhaps you recognise some of
these methods for sabotage from
where you work?

17. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Well, these tips were taken
directly from a 1940 manual
produced by the OSS (what
later became the CIA)
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-
featured-story-archive/CleanedUOSSSimpleSabotage_sm.pdf

18. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith

19. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Anti-patterns for
service design

20. 1. Mislead customers about
the purpose of the service
By Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. from the Illustrated London News, 10 June 1893. Public domain, https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Second_Carbolic_Company_advertisement.png

21. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Provide misleading
information about the
service”

22. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Make false claims about the
benefits that the service
offers”

23. 2. Prevent people from
using the service
By Toni Pecoraro, 2007. Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Labyrinth_28.jpg

24. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Disorientate people with
confusing and contradictory
signage, maps, layout and
navigation”

25. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Don’t provide an overview of
the steps involved and
remove all guidance”

26. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Design physical spaces to be
crowded, cluttered, noisy and
badly lit”

27. 3. Reduce transaction
completion rates
Public domain: https://pixabay.com/en/files-paper-office-paperwork-stack-1614223/

28. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Force people to re-enter the
same personal information in
multiple places"

29. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Don’t notify people about
what they need to do next”

30. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Make people wait several
weeks in between different
stages of their customer
journey”

31. 4. Increase the cost per
transaction
By rajomo1. CC-BY: https://www.flickr.com/photos/65821013@N05/6081891190

32. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Only offer paper processes -
remove access to digital
channels”

33. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Require people to contact
the call centre repeatedly to
check progress”

34. 5. Make customers
angry and frustrated
By Luis Marina, “Grrr!”. CC-BY: https://www.flickr.com/photos/luismarina/
15547142333

35. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Train staff to be surly and rude.
Encourage staff to speak a
different language or use jargon”

36. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Ask customers to contact
several different departments.
Ensure departments do not talk
to each other”

37. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Never get back to a customer
enquiries, and hide contact
details”

38. 6. Sabotage
organisational change
By unknown, Striking Serbin workers, 1955. CC-BY: https://www.flickr.com/photos/
kheelcenter/5279086865

39. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Don’t involve staff at any
stage of the re-design”

40. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“Make processes more
complex than necessary, and
add manual steps”

41. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
With these tips, you too can
sabotage products, services
and even organisations!

42. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith

43. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Anti-patterns
Using sabotage constructively

44. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“An anti-pattern is a common
response to a recurring problem
that is usually ineffective and risks
being highly counterproductive”
Wikipedia

45. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Anti-problem game
(aka “reverse it”)

46. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“If you give someone an
open-ended creative
problem there is great
difficulty in getting started.
There is difficulty in
moving at all.”
– Edward de Bono

47. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
As service designers,
we often co-design
with people who are
unfamiliar with the
design process

48. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
When you’re stuck solving a
problem, think about it in reverse.

49. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Instead of:
“How do we improve access to
healthcare for patients in rural
areas?”

50. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
The anti-problem:
“How can we prevent patients in
rural areas from accessing
healthcare services?”

51. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Ask teams to
think of design
solutions to solve
the anti-problem

52. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Then ask the teams to think of the
opposite solution

53. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
When people are
stuck, this approach
can free creative
thinking and create
energy

54. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
It provides a new perspective
on a problem, which was
perhaps invisible before

55. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“By disrupting the original way of
looking at the situation one frees
information that can come together
in a new way.”
– Edward de Bono

56. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
It can help teams
understand what the
“opposite of good”
looks like

57. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Sabotage manual
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-
story-archive/CleanedUOSSSimpleSabotage_sm.pdf
The anti-problem
http://gamestorming.com/games-for-fresh-thinking-and-ideas/the-anti-problem/
Reverse it
http://www.designgames.com.au/reverse_it/
Pre-mortem
http://gamestorming.com/games-for-opening/pre-mortem/
Anti-Patterns that Stifle Lean UX Teams - Bill Scott
http://www.slideshare.net/billwscott/antipatterns-that-stifle-lean-ux-teams

58. Thank you!
Michele Ide-Smith
@micheleidesmith
Product Manager
European Bioinformatics Institute
Francis Rowland
@francisrowland
Senior UX Architect
Sigma Consulting