More on Workplace Communication … from the Mafia

Lots of interesting reader reaction to my sharing some wisdom of the Mafia last month. While I did buy this book because of the title, it is both an amusing and profound satire of the contemporary Corporate America culture. Here are five more of my favorites from a Capo of distinguished fame:

  • ‘Make plans as complex as necessary, but give simple orders.’
  • ‘The more you speak, the less others listen.’
  • ‘Silence makes no mistakes.’
  • ‘ … 99 out of every 100 memorandums that are written contain no information worth knowing. Half of the remainder will go on a least twice the length needed.’
  • ‘Many words, many lies.’

‘The Mafia Manager – a Guide to the Corporate Machiavelli’, by ‘V.’, 1996, St. Martin’s Press