Knowing When It's Time to Leave Your Activism Group
Disruption is the operational phase of an infiltration. If you can't stop it, get out.
This week we’re talking about infiltration, and how to recognize it, prevent it, and even mitigate the damage. Too many groups either don’t know how to prevent it or don’t think it’ll happen to them. Others think they’re doing the work necessary to keep it from happening but don’t know that they’re failing until it’s too late.
But what do you do if you’re in a group that you think may be already compromised? When do you fight to fix it, and when do you cut your losses and walk away?
In order to answer that, we must first talk about disruption—the second phase of an infiltration.
What Kind of Disruption Are We Talking About?
An infiltrator who gets to the disruption phase has all the information he needs to get started. He’s already identified the strong and weak members, and knows where those weaknesses reside. He’s conversant in the group goals and what they are willing to do—or are capable of doing—to achieve them. He’s even aware of the motivation factors for key people and has ideas on how to steer their behavior.
Now it’s time to put all that research to use, and there are plenty of tools available.
Fomenting drama: pitting members against each other, eroding bonds, and causing distrust, doubt, and suspicion.
Offering horrible ideas that are dangerous and carry a high level of unnecessary risk.
Moving up the chain of command in order to get more access to information or a higher level of influence.
Making “mistakes” with data, purposely fouling up assigned tasks, or “forgetting” to do something critical.
Bringing in unsavory characters, fellow infiltrators or bad actors, leveraging the group’s desire for growth against them.
Disruption can come in any form; interpersonal, technical, logistical, financial, etc. In fact, there’s no one way that is more effective than the others out of the box. What makes it effective is the group it’s being used in and the individual members it’s being used against.
Jack is a martyr type so he’ll respond to horrible ideas that come with a chance of him getting to fulfill his goal of getting arrested for the cause. It’s all about staying relevant—and getting attention.
Carrie is the IT person and is woefully overwhelmed with trying to get people spooled up on data security so she’s grateful that the new guy is so willing to help and already has the knowledge to do so.
Bill is a narcissist so he loves it when people notice how much he does for the group. He’s pretty excited that the new guy asked him to be a mentor and explain how the org works. Bill plans to groom him to move up.
Joe is in a group that is a bit tame for his taste. He thinks they should be doing more aggressive actions, and he’s glad that the new guy feels the same way he does.
All of these situations happen all the time, and while you might be thinking they’re the most obvious scenarios ever, they’re actually pretty common. Remember—our own need for validation and the vehicle we use to seek it is our blind spot. Jack won’t see the infiltrator coming because his need to be seen as a hero of the cause will override his sense of caution. Carrie’s need for help and to be seen as competent will block out the fact that she knows better than to give a new member that much access. The list goes on.
That’s why it’s so critical to understand your own motivator. If you know where the blind spot is, you can check it when needed—before you get taken in by an infiltrator who is using you to achieve his own goals. That’s also why it’s important that your group be small and that its members know each other well enough to catch something in each others’ blind spot—and trust each other well enough to listen when it’s pointed out.
But What If It’s Too Late?
This might all sound great, but what if you’re already in a group that is compromised? Can it be fixed? Can you just kick out the infiltrator and call it good? Will things go back to normal?
The short answer is not usually, no.
Once an infiltrator has gotten to the disruption phase, there are often long-lasting effects. There may be hard feelings that someone missed the signs, or that damage occurred at all. Mistrust going forward is common; “after all,” so the thought process goes, “if you missed it this time, how can I trust you’ll catch the next one?” There might even be conflict over whether there was a threat to begin with. I’ve seen groups argue over whether it’s okay to let a threat in, since “we aren’t doing anything wrong.”
Groups tend to look for someone to blame internally, and often focus their anger on the person who raised the concern. These kinds of effects erode a group from the inside out, and more tangible effects such as capability loss don’t help. That decreases the group’s effectiveness at best, and can even destroy it outright.
…and all of that assumes that you even figured out that you’re being targeted.
If you’re unlucky enough to have an infiltrator that made it to a leadership position, now you’re really in trouble. They have power, and can disrupt on a much larger scale, taking the group in dangerous directions or using their authority to force out people who might figure out their game.
Don’t forget, infiltration isn’t always a legal thing. Sometimes it’s ideological, or even emotional. People join groups for all sorts of reasons, not all of them good.
The reason for the infiltration doesn’t matter if the results are the same.
Someone joining your group to steal from you can be just as destructive as an undercover agent. Someone who needs to feed their own narcissism is just as dangerous as someone joining in order to rot your group from the inside because they’re opposed to your goals.
Signs It’s Time to Go
In rare cases you can fix the problem; if the person is found out early and doesn’t have access to critical information or processes you might be able to get away with simply removing them and going on. In most cases, however, the damage happens before you catch them; if the leader is the problem, it’s usually too far gone before members can stop it.
If you see these things happening in your group, get out immediately because the disruption has reached critical levels.
Leadership has decided to push forward with an idea that carries high levels of unnecessary risk but doesn’t actually further the group’s goal.
Key people aren’t listening to reason, or are dismissing your concerns.
The banner, group, or even the leader has eclipsed the cause itself; if you find yourself staying because you want to hang on to the name or the concept of the group, you’re on thin ice.
Multiple people, especially in leadership, are leaving in a short amount of time.
Groupthink is in full swing.
Leadership says they’re on the same page but their actions directly and consistently contradict their words.
You’ve noticed a definite shift in group culture or focus, and the people who stood up against it have since been removed.
The group seems to have become a vehicle for one person’s agenda or belief system.
The group seems split into “sides” with opposing loyalties and conflicting goals.
Interpersonal relationships are eroding, and you find yourself feeling out of place or excluded.
Your gut says something is wrong. Never, ever ignore your gut.
These are signs that somehow, somewhere, your group is experiencing targeted disruption. You might be tempted to stay long enough to figure out who and what the problem is, and maybe it’s already obvious. You might feel obligated to stay and try to fix the issue. The truth is, you might already be out of time. It doesn’t matter what kind of infiltration it is, the results will be the same.
The disruption phase is the last station where you can still get off the train safely. Once you’re in the entrapment phase, it’s too late. We’ll talk about that in the next issue. Click the subscribe button to make sure you get it!