In one large company, there was an annual ritual that everyone feared.
At the end of every year, the leadership team would gather and go through a list of managers. The rule was simple and brutal:
Every department had to nominate at least one person for dismissal. It didn’t matter how well the team performed. It didn’t matter if there were clear underperformers or not. The quota had to be filled.
Leaders spent weeks preparing for this meeting. They knew that if they didn’t offer someone up, they themselves could become the target. The pressure was intense.
Over time, this ritual created a very specific culture:
People stopped collaborating openly.
Managers began collecting “evidence” against their own team members throughout the year.
High performers started protecting themselves instead of helping others.
Trust inside teams slowly eroded.
The official reason for this practice was “raising performance standards.” In reality, it achieved the opposite.
When people believe that someone has to be sacrificed every year, their main focus shifts from doing good work to staying safe. Instead of solving problems, they start managing perceptions. Instead of taking ownership, they start managing risk.
This is one of the clearest examples of how a poorly designed process can destroy culture faster than any toxic leader.
The ritual sent a very clear message to the entire organization:
Over several years, this company lost many strong managers — not because they were weak, but because they refused to participate in this game. Those who stayed learned to play it well.
The saddest part is that the leadership team genuinely believed this practice helped them “keep people on their toes.” They couldn’t see that the system they created was rewarding fear instead of excellence.
Fear can create short-term compliance. It almost never creates real ownership.
First published on zavodovskii.com by Dmitrii Zavodovskii.