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:: Sunday, July 25, 2004 ::

From big rat to big cheese The Age, Australia
'A good rat is hard to spot,' writes Schrijvers, 'having all the characteristics of a normal ethical person'.

One of the key aspects of what Schrijvers admires as 'verminicity' is attentiveness. So plot. Gather intelligence. Read your colleagues. Describe lines of power and patronage - plot them on a whiteboard or a graph, he suggests, though he even knows some people with 'a program for it on their laptop' - and consider how to tap or sabotage them as appropriate. Insinuate your way into courts. Gather your own courtiers, and reward useful spies by including them - as far as you see fit - in your own plans.

Discover who responds well to flattery, and who can be manipulated by flirtation, or intimidated by aggression. Make a plan. Keep it to yourself.

Schrijvers has some useful, practical tips, too. Interrogation techniques, for example.

When talking to a colleague about work, he recommends, stop listening: 'Eighty per cent of what people say is nothing more than an excuse for exercising their vocal chords. All you need to do is catch the adjectives a person uses.'

posted 9:42 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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