Page 14 - Leadership Basics 4

Deniable Disclosure

Related to ‘cut outs’, deniable disclosure is when a leader does NOT use a person as a ‘cut out’, but
‘leaks’ information in ways that cannot be traced back to them.
In government party politics, the ‘leaked’ memo is a fact of life. Prime Ministers have been ‘known’ to
leak information to the press as a way of pursuing their
political goals.
By simply making information available in a deniable way, an operator might encourage an ambitious
subordinate to pursue a project. The disclosure might be something as simple as an apparently
careless exposure of a memo on a desk or screen. The subordinate receives the information, but
cannot reveal its source, without seeming to be a snoop. .

Cut Outs

Cutouts are people or procedures that enable smart operators to communicate in safety. Using cut‐
outs, leaders can influence and manipulate their environments while limiting their personal risk.

Typically, human cutouts deliver or leak information on behalf of their operators, but they're unwilling
or unable to credibly reveal sources or other related information. This protects the operator when the
information leads to undesirable consequences or to pressure to reveal more. If the ploy backfires,
then the operator can assert that either the human cutout made a mistake, or exceeded authority, or
any of a variety of other insulating claims.

This notion of ‘cut outs’ has become highly institutionalized, for example, if a call centre rings you to
talk to you about your phone account – rarely if ever will they disclose their surname. “Hello, I am
your Phonechat Customer Service Agent, my name is Jill can I help you?” Even if you demand Jill’s
surname she will be trained not to give it.

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