Tales from the Dark Side

The guest on National Public Radio was just background noise until I heardwords that make a Workforce editor all ears: “Innovative organization.” “Goodat moving people forward, moving them up.” “A deep bench.” Our editorialmantra is “Workforce management is everywhere,” so I was ready to payattention to this organization’s story.

    The guest continued, saying the organization has “rapidly filled thoseopenings that were created by arrests or killings.”

    What? Arrests? Killings? As the host recapped the interview, I realized thatthis marvel of organizational development wasn’t a great start-up or a Fortune500 powerhouse. It was Al Qaeda.

    It’s probably because I wrote a quartet of murder mysteries that I findmyself tuning in to stories from the dark side of life, even when it comes toworkforce issues. It happened recently aboard the Adonia, the ocean liner thatserved as a floating conference platform for Richmond Events’ HR Forum lastmonth. The keynote speaker was retired Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, whotalked about two secrets of modern leadership: When placed in command, takecharge. Then do what’s right.

    As Schwarzkopf talked, some other, less ideal leaders came to my mind:Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden. They most assuredly didn’tdo what was right, but they are recognized as leaders.

    And so during the post-speech Q-and-A, I asked Schwarzkopf about that. Wasn’tSaddam Hussein a leader? Isn’t bin Laden? People do follow them, after all.

    His eyes narrowed. I was glad there were a dozen rows of plush theater seatsbetween us.

    Saddam was not a leader, he said emphatically. “He got to power bymurdering his enemies. He stayed in power by killing his friends.” But then heallowed that Osama bin Laden is (or was) a charismatic figure. Next question.

    Schwarzkopf would never have entertained my questions about Al Qaeda’sworkforce-management style, but I hoped the expert I heard on NPR would. DanielBenjamin is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and InternationalStudies, was the National Security Council’s director for counter terrorism during the Clinton administration, and is co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror(Random House, 2002). As we talked, I started to apologize for what might seemlike off-the-wall questions, but he interrupted me.

    “Organizations are value-neutral,” Benjamin said. He went on to say thatwhat makes them good or bad is what they do, not how they’re structured. Withthat in mind, here are some comments from Benjamin about Al Qaedaworkforce-management strategies:

    Recruiting and orientation: “These are religiously motivated terrorists.Motivation is not a big problem. But there’s lots of indoctrination early onto really ensure that they have the same world-view.”

    Freedom to do the job: “Many of them are functioning in cells that aregiven a fair amount of autonomy, although they’re clear about their directionand functions. That also makes them good managers.”

    Commitment: “We may find it disturbing, but the fact is that overwhelmingcommitment to your cause is an enormous benefit to any organization. These arepeople for whom this is not just the most important thing they do, it’s theonly thing they do,” he said.

    I thanked Benjamin and hung up the phone. Our editorial mantra is true.Workforce management is everywhere–whether we like it or not.

Workforce, June 2003, p. 10 — Subscribe Now!