“Fascism simply burst like a soap bubble” – what not to say when your boss is Hitler… or “Doing a Jodl”

One of the many MANY skills I have never mastered (1) is saying the right thing to people who can make life easier or harder. I think making “unhelpful” (career or life-limiting) observations about sensitive topics should be called “doing a Jodl.”

That above is from Albert Speer’s “Inside the Third Reich.”

According to Groser (1973)

“Hitler scowled furiously and some affected a horrified silence. Jodl kept his head (thought only just, it can safely be assumed) and hurried from the room. In private later, many of the generals expressed agreement with Jodl. They all realised that a turning point had been reached – for some the point of no return, for others a starting point.”

Footnotes

(1) Or even become minimally competent at…

Note on methodology – I found this anecdote looking in The Spectator archives, as you do… Groser, J. 1973. Fascism at O-level. The Spectator, July 14, p. 52. I have tried to track down the exact date (for, well, reasons) and could only find Albert Speer’s “Inside the Turd Reich.” If anyone does have an exact date, lemme know.

Somewhere on my hard drive or one of several websites there’s an anecdote about executives being given the opportunity to give anonymous feedback on the CEO’s new strategy and the emphatic “this won’t work” being swept under the carpet. It’s from Kate Jennings’ essay collection Trouble.

… Ah, found it online, via GoogleBooks (search inside is a godsend!) and then New York Times, a 2002 article.

Every now and again, employees revolt against being treated as children. I remember a meeting where someone got the bright — and career-undermining — idea of polling the assembled managing directors on whether they thought the firm’s strategy, as just outlined by the chief executive, would succeed; they were to punch in their responses on handheld devices, to be instantly flashed up on a screen in a way that would be hard to ignore.

Against all rules of corporate decorum, a majority voted no, the firm’s strategy wouldn’t succeed. Loud gasp. As stunning as this moment was, it was just as stunningly passed over; the meeting continued as if the vote had never happened. In any sane, responsive world, the C.E.O. would’ve stopped the proceedings and started a debate as to why the managing directors felt that way. The frustration in the hall was palpable.

And there’s the one about Saddam Hussein asking his generals for free and frank feedback about his performance during the Iran-Iraq war and then having the naive general who gave it executed…