The counter-consultancy
By Martin Vogel
Robert Conquest’s claim that “every organisation behaves as if it is run by secret agents of its opponents” seems outlandish at first glance. But if you allow yourself to reject the fake news, bullshit (non)sense-making that most organisations try to impose on us, it’s hard not to keep stumbling into the truth of Conquest’s law.
Continue reading “The thoughtlessness behind organisational perversity”
By Martin Vogel
The more it is cited, the more frustrated I become about “Robert Conquest’s Third Law of Politics” which is said to state:
The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.
The aphorism strikes me as so profound and relevant that I have often tried to verify its attribution. Conquest was a renowned historian of the Soviet Union, so his opinions on the politics of organisations carry considerable credibility.
Continue reading “Tracking down Conquest’s law on organisations”