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I've seen more corporate mutiny attempts in a few years than most people do in their lives. If you want mutiny, you have to divide power against itself. Power w

I've seen more corporate mutiny attempts in a few years than most people do in their lives. If you want mutiny, you have to divide power against itself. Power wants to unite. It wants the competition to be between it and the outside because that's the unfair kind that it can always win. Creating competition within power forces them into fights they might actually lose. They don't like that. So it's hard. The problem with deposing bad leadership is that it usually likes being bad, because it's more fun for such people to be arbitrary, capricious and mean than to actually hold themselves responsible for making good decisions. You're going to have to find a "good guy" executive to lead the fight and, often, there aren't any. They've all been driven out, and bad guys or apathetic people remain (most corporate execs aren't "evil" in the sadistic sense, but merely apathetic and corruptible.) Effective corporate mutinies don't come from rabble-rousing. They come from executive turmoil. You have to create a Red Team and a Blue Team and set them against each other in an all-out war with no quarter and existential stakes. Warning: you'll probably lose your job even if your side wins. Usually, successful corporate mutinies lead to the winning executive contingent becoming powerful, but their supporters (including those who started the mutiny) being the thrown-aside "useful idiots". So that's another problem with it. I love the idea of corporate mutiny, but I've also seen enough to realize that it rarely works. It's better to just let brain-drain take care of it (and be part of the drain, too).

profpjm 14y ago
excellent comments. it does rarely work. those mutinies for reasons similar to why entrepreneurial ventures fail. success rate is about the same. secrecy, strategy, timing. an idea that is defensible. established elements are threatened by it. try to crush it. risk, etc.
ghshephard 14y ago
I've seen a number of mutiny attempts - some were famously successful, some worked out exactly as you would guess a "mutiny" would when their leader discovered. In one mutiny, during a pretty significant re-org/layoffs, part of our organization had been sold to another (perceived to be inferior) company - the majority of the organization (that hadn't been laid off) - was just happy to still have a job, but a select group of technical employees decided (under the direction of a strong ring leader) - that they would not go to the other company. The ringleader was able to get five or six key technical employees to mutiny with him, and that would have been sufficient to jeopardize ongoing operations. His demands were met, and they were able to stay with initial company. No retribution ever occurred, and they had several successful years as employees. Another attempt at clear-cut mutiny that I've seen, was a technical leader who was not fond of his manager, reach out to a competing organization (In a clear cut Red/Blue scenario) in the company, and volunteered to "take all his employees over" to that organization. The manager, for whatever reason, forwarded the email to the technical leader's manager, and that technical leader was then terminated the next morning for "insubordination." - Over the next two to three months every single member of that team resigned their jobs in protest, causing disruption for the next several quarters at the company. Mutiny both failed, and caused great disruption to the company. The OP article is pretty good - it captures pretty much all of the elements that make for mutiny, and the circumstances in which it can be successful, and how it takes place.
- speeder 14y ago
  I saw a preemptive counter-mutiny once that ended badly... One person was leader of a newly formed team, and a kind of star programmer (that actually delivered). That person started to bypass the most direct boss, and talk directly to the CEO, frequently. So we have a CEO that like the "victim", and a person between CEO and "victim" that want to get rid of the "victim" because he is a potential threat. Then "victim" has some health issues, and start to code much slower... the "boss" attempts to fire him, but CEO rescue him. Then "boss" awaits for CEO go some months later to a meeting, asks "victim" to show his finished project (the deadline was still next week, but "boss" claimed he could review now), declares it as failed, and fire him in a very public way, forcing him to exit the building with all of his stuff immediately and leave all his credentials and keys behind. Also "boss" stealthly sets up some e-mail filter, so "victim" cannot mail the CEO. Other employees realized what happened, and most of them quit (Even several ones that had nothing to do with the "victim") "boss" gambled, he was the favourite of CEO, and he knew that a public firing could not be undone by the CEO, because the CEO would not do anything that looked like a public punishment... Indeed, CEO did nothing, except watch his ship almost sink (it did not sunk, they could hire another team after about a year and a half...)
brc 14y ago
Early on in my career I was working for a consulting company at a parent company (the actual end-client) - we were based in the office as a small team of about 10-15 people. The boss of the team decided that there were good fees to be had, and so went to key players and tried to bid for the contract direct to the client under his own banner, in effect trying to form a company and go into competition with his current employer. The plan was to stitch up the contract for the second phase of the contract by underbidding, and pocket a portion of the massive fees being paid by the client to the consulting company. He came to me with an offer of more money if I threw my lot in with him. I agreed to do so, $$$ flashing in front of my eyes. Of course someone leaked the entire deal to the consulting company management and we all got sacked on the spot and I learnt my lesson which is to be very cagey about these types of things. It didn't worry me about losing the job, I wasn't into it much anyway, and I did actually get paid out a notice period, which was generous on their part (perhaps it was go-away money). But at a more crucial phase of a career it could have been very damaging.

profpjm 14y ago

excellent comments. it does rarely work. those mutinies for reasons similar to why entrepreneurial ventures fail. success rate is about the same. secrecy, strategy, timing. an idea that is defensible. established elements are threatened by it. try to crush it. risk, etc.

ghshephard 14y ago

I've seen a number of mutiny attempts - some were famously successful, some worked out exactly as you would guess a "mutiny" would when their leader discovered. In one mutiny, during a pretty significant re-org/layoffs, part of our organization had been sold to another (perceived to be inferior) company - the majority of the organization (that hadn't been laid off) - was just happy to still have a job, but a select group of technical employees decided (under the direction of a strong ring leader) - that they would not go to the other company. The ringleader was able to get five or six key technical employees to mutiny with him, and that would have been sufficient to jeopardize ongoing operations. His demands were met, and they were able to stay with initial company. No retribution ever occurred, and they had several successful years as employees. Another attempt at clear-cut mutiny that I've seen, was a technical leader who was not fond of his manager, reach out to a competing organization (In a clear cut Red/Blue scenario) in the company, and volunteered to "take all his employees over" to that organization. The manager, for whatever reason, forwarded the email to the technical leader's manager, and that technical leader was then terminated the next morning for "insubordination." - Over the next two to three months every single member of that team resigned their jobs in protest, causing disruption for the next several quarters at the company. Mutiny both failed, and caused great disruption to the company. The OP article is pretty good - it captures pretty much all of the elements that make for mutiny, and the circumstances in which it can be successful, and how it takes place.

speeder 14y ago
I saw a preemptive counter-mutiny once that ended badly... One person was leader of a newly formed team, and a kind of star programmer (that actually delivered). That person started to bypass the most direct boss, and talk directly to the CEO, frequently. So we have a CEO that like the "victim", and a person between CEO and "victim" that want to get rid of the "victim" because he is a potential threat. Then "victim" has some health issues, and start to code much slower... the "boss" attempts to fire him, but CEO rescue him. Then "boss" awaits for CEO go some months later to a meeting, asks "victim" to show his finished project (the deadline was still next week, but "boss" claimed he could review now), declares it as failed, and fire him in a very public way, forcing him to exit the building with all of his stuff immediately and leave all his credentials and keys behind. Also "boss" stealthly sets up some e-mail filter, so "victim" cannot mail the CEO. Other employees realized what happened, and most of them quit (Even several ones that had nothing to do with the "victim") "boss" gambled, he was the favourite of CEO, and he knew that a public firing could not be undone by the CEO, because the CEO would not do anything that looked like a public punishment... Indeed, CEO did nothing, except watch his ship almost sink (it did not sunk, they could hire another team after about a year and a half...)

brc 14y ago

Early on in my career I was working for a consulting company at a parent company (the actual end-client) - we were based in the office as a small team of about 10-15 people. The boss of the team decided that there were good fees to be had, and so went to key players and tried to bid for the contract direct to the client under his own banner, in effect trying to form a company and go into competition with his current employer. The plan was to stitch up the contract for the second phase of the contract by underbidding, and pocket a portion of the massive fees being paid by the client to the consulting company. He came to me with an offer of more money if I threw my lot in with him. I agreed to do so, $$$ flashing in front of my eyes. Of course someone leaked the entire deal to the consulting company management and we all got sacked on the spot and I learnt my lesson which is to be very cagey about these types of things. It didn't worry me about losing the job, I wasn't into it much anyway, and I did actually get paid out a notice period, which was generous on their part (perhaps it was go-away money). But at a more crucial phase of a career it could have been very damaging.