School research lead and simple sabotage

As we approach the end of the calendar year it seems only sensible to have an end of year list.   So in the spirit of 'bah humbug' I thought I'd provide a checklist of those actions where you may have tried to sabotage yourself as school research lead or where others may have tried to undermine you.  This checklist is based on Simple Sabotage by Galford, Frisch and Greene - which in turn is based on guide to sabotage produced by the US Office of Strategic Services in 1944

A checklist of acts of sabotage

Action	You	Others
Insist on doing everything by ‘channels.’ Never permit short-cuts to be taken to expedite decisions
Make speeches. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length.  Illustrate your points by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experience. Never hesitate to make a few comments that .we are doing it for the pupils’
Where possible refer all items to ‘committees’ for further discussion and consideration.  Attempt to make the committees as large as possible – never less than five.
Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible
Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes and other documents
Refer back to matters already decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question or the advisability of the discussion
Advocate ‘caution’ Be reasonable and urge your colleagues to be ‘reasonable’ and avoid haste which might lead to embarrassment later on
Be worried about the propriety of any decision – raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the remit of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher eschelon
CC everyone into to all your emails and discussions

So what are you to do if there are ticks in either column.  Well if it's you sabotaging yourself, the answer is simple STOP doing it - and do something else instead which increases your chance of success, for example, have working groups of four or less.  If it is others trying to sabotage  - call the behaviour out - if a decision has been made and subsequently someone tries to re-open the discussion - just say - 'Thank you for your comments, a decision has already been made and we are moving on' - and then move on