Disturbing-but-riveting post from Issendai about how to create a sick system. This is applicable to personal relationships as well as professional, and what’s striking to me is how many of my friends are stuck in sick systems in the name of chasing a ‘career’; many corporations and management cultures are sick. The key aspects of a sick system, which are essentially a recipe for co-dependence:
Rule 1: Keep them too busy to think.
Rule 2: Keep them tired.
Rule 3: Keep them emotionally involved.
Rule 4: Reward intermittently.
Issendai then goes on to explain some techniques to achieve the above goals. Such as (and this is but one example):
Keep the crises rolling. Incompetence is a great way to do this: If the office system routinely works badly or the controlling partner routinely makes major mistakes, you’re guaranteed ongoing crises. Poor money management works well, too. So does being in an industry where the clients are guaranteed to be volatile and flaky, or preferring friends who are themselves in perpetual crisis. You can also institutionalize regular crises: Workers in the Sea Org, the elite wing of Scientology, must exceed the previous week’s production every single week or face serious penalties. Because this is impossible, it guarantees regular crises as the deadline approaches.
Quite an excellent read, although sadly you’ll recognize the larger pattern more often than you’d like.
Have you been in a sick system before?
