Insist on “Procedures” and Drag Everything Out

• Get every single instruction in writing. If verbally told to do something, as for it in writing with the decisionmaker’s name. Until you get it in writing, do not treat the instruction as valid.
  • We’re being given a lot of illegal orders. No one wants to put illegal orders in writing, because that proves the person giving the order is responsible.
  • USDS had great success during Trump 1 by demanding orders in writing. Frequently, no one was willing to put their name on it.
• Before acting on a decision, ask for another layer of approval. Once you get it, ask for someone else’s approval. Keep going.
  • Does this action potentially need your boss’s boss’s approval? IT? HR/OHC? Legal? OMB? OPM? DOGE? Get creative.
  • Familiarize yourself with all your agency’s written procedures. Chances are, a few of them are terrible and never really followed. Start following them – and quote them chapter and verse.
  • “I’m just trying to protect the agency” is a really good defense if you’re accused of slow-walking.
• If you’re a decisionmaker – make procedures as impossible as possible.
  • Refer easy decision to committees, instead of making them
  • Revisit and change decisions that have already been made
  • Add procedural steps that are guaranteed to take forever, such as seeking advice or authorization from a notoriously slow team
  • Put people who hate each other on a working group. Assign people to tasks they are completely unsuited to.
  • What’s the worst job you ever had? Make your reports do that.