How To Destroy The Culture Of An Innovative IT Shop

It was a typical Wednesday morning when Kevin Turnipseed, a slippery smooth-talking salesman type, walked into the office of American Pipeline Inc., a well-established pipeline maintenance and monitoring company based out of Williston, North Dakota. American Pipeline was a company that has been in business for around 85 years and was known to be the best employer in the oil patch as they had integrity, trust, and respect as part of their core competencies as it applies to attracting and retaining top talent. Kevin had always been good at schmoozing his way into new positions and had heard about an opening for an entry-level tech lead at American Pipeline. 

Kevin arrived early and made small talk with the receptionist, impressing her with his charm and charisma. When he was called in for his interview, he knew exactly what to say to win over the hiring manager. He talked about his passion for technology and his eagerness to learn and grow with the company.

Despite having no real experience in software development, Kevin was hired after he claimed to have experience with the new ERP application that American Pipeline was implementing. He quickly ingratiated himself with the team and worked his way into multiple promotions, eventually becoming the Director of Information Management.

Once Kevin's initial con job promotion plan was completed he implemented his nefarious, narcissistic, and sycophantic plans which ultimately led to a premeditated and methodical 4 step plan that read like 'How To Become A Tyrant In 30 Days' self-help book.  Kevin's actions ultimately resulted in the dismantling of the unique culture of the entire IT department, what once was a work environment that operated like a democracy was now a dictatorship.

Kevin's plan went to action and consisted of the following steps:

Step 1 - Suppress Dissent: Self-serving leaders use a variety of tactics to suppress dissent and prevent opposition to their rule, such as censorship, propaganda, intimidation, and bureaucracy.

It wasn't long before Kevin started to put his power grab plans to work. Prior to Kevin's arrival American Pipeline had a long-standing desire to have its IT personnel get as much exposure to field operations as possible, and thus encouraged technical personnel to get out in the field to observe field operations with the intent of potentially creating new innovative thoughts on how best the organization could leverage new technology in the field. With that the organization provided an annual budget per employee to account for the required personal protective equipment (PPE), so it was common to have employees procure and expense these items as needed.

As with typical power-hungry leaders, Kevin saw this benefit as a threat to his glory. If there was an opportunity for improvement that didn't have Kevin's name associated with such then it had to be silenced and revamped to have been originated from his doing. In order to contain this threat Kevin immediately removed the budget for employee PPE and instead only allowed exposure to field operations under strict guidelines according to his discretion.

In another move to control the propaganda Kevin procured independent contractors that focused on a very small software niche. These contractors were hired with the sole purpose to not allow any existing employees the opportunity to gain new skills on the new solutions because these existing employees would then be in a position to compare the new tools to the previous and offer contrarian thoughts that were not to Kevin's benefit.

Step 2 - Consolidate Control: Self-serving leaders often seek to control the media in order to shape public opinion and prevent the dissemination of opposing viewpoints.

As time passed, Kevin began signing contracts with vendors that included kickbacks and personal incentives. He justified these actions by saying that he was working to save the company money, but in reality, he was only looking out for his own interests. Prior to the arrival of Kevin, American Pipeline was renowned for their exhaustive efforts in due diligence and strict stewardship of their balance sheet. It was considered standard operating procedure for multiple department heads to collaborate and review vendor proposals also including detailed meetings with the most valuable and respected software developers to debate and estimate any buy vs. build scenarios.

Kevin was allowed to impose his uninformed and inexperienced will to put the once proud employer on a footing to fall in line with the corporate greed plague that is now taking root in corporate America. The workforce was reduced mostly voluntary as the company bought into the fraudulent and misleading visions that Kevin had planted, and morale was at an all-time low as software developers were not challenged and relegated to some sort of disposable commodity.

Step 3 - Install Sycophant System: Self-serving leaders go "in-character" when conversing with people who have significant influence over IT operations, reducing others to merely commoners.

It became commonplace during company events for Kevin to create the illusion of empathetic small talk with his subordinates in order to try and appear more approachable and supportive. Unfortunately, it was soon corroborated by multiple developers that as soon as one of Kevin's supervisors or persons of importance entered the room, Kevin would immediately ditch the conversation in order to enter sycophant mode with the person of assumed importance. 

Much to Kevin's chagrin software developers are smarter than what Kevin likes to believe and found his behavior to be perceived as insincere and manipulative, and ultimately further eroding trust and morale within the team.

Step 4 - Eliminate Rivals: Self-serving leaders resort to the elimination of potential rivals or opponents through means such as termination or dismissal on false pretexts.

As a result of Kevin's nefarious contract dealings with vendors who overpromised and underdelivered, a well-respected developer named Will Skaistis was tasked with building several applications to make up for the many shortcomings of the technical solutions that Kevin had implemented on his own using vendor supplied professional services contractors. 

Will had been with American Pipeline approximately 14 years and was the picture-perfect techno-functional resource, Will had established himself as master software developer but in comparison to his peers, Will had significant non-technical tribal knowledge about the business that had him looked upon as a leader regardless of the title. Will was an ambitious employee and always looked out for what was best for American Pipeline as the organization had treated him and his family very well over the years. 

It was because of Will's dedication to American Pipeline that he and he alone was the source of several internally developed software applications that led to significant time and cost savings for American Pipeline, the savings were significant enough that Will received not only recognition for his efforts from Kevin's boss, but also found that his solutions were mentioned in the organization's earnings calls as the solution(s) were that impactful.

Will's innovative spirit and gratitude for American Pipeline led to Kevin viewing WIll as an immediate threat to his glory. Despite Will's experience and irreplaceable techno-functional knowledge, Kevin resorted to dismissing Will's position under the guise that his skills were no longer needed as they could be procured by an offshore developer.

In the end, Kevin's smooth-talking ways and lack of experience had led to the continued downfall of a once thriving company that did things the right way defined as:

"Good profit results from products and services that customers vote for freely with their dollars, products that improve people's lives.  It results from a culture where employees are empowered to act entrepreneurially to discover customers' preferences and the best ways to satisfy them.  Good profit is what follows when long-term value is created for customers, employees, shareholders, and society."

- Charles Koch

Final Conclusion - Don't Be A Kevin!

In addition to the aforementioned tactics there were several other practices that led to the erosion at American Pipeline and ultimately destroyed the innovative and fun culture of a software development shop, such as the following:

Outsourcing or offshoring development resources: This led to a lack of communication and collaboration among team members, as well as a lack of understanding of the company's culture and values.

Hiring non-value-add professional services in organizational effectiveness, leading to a focus on unnecessary processes and bureaucracy, rather than on the work itself.

Cronyism in hiring unqualified friends to fill top managerial positions, resulting in a toxic work environment, as well as undermine the trust and confidence of team members in the leadership of the company.

Lack of transparency and open communication, micromanagement, and a lack of support for employee growth and development.

Equally at fault is the hiring manager who hired the smooth-talking Kevin, who has now coerced his incompetent self to a VP-level position in which he still has little to no real-world experience.

It is important for companies to carefully consider the qualifications and experience of candidates when hiring for leadership positions, and to ensure that the hiring process is transparent, fair, and based on merit, ultimately the costs of these practices is detrimental to what is typically viewed as the most valuable asset of any company, its people.