Or as Monty Python screamed, "Meeting, Bloody Meetings!"

The silly butt-covering (I don't even want to think about where that image comes from) practice of defensive management is on the rise. On one hand it makes sense that the practice would be more prevalent as managers are squeezed into budget, time and other resource constraints. Managers that make mistakes are often punished.

On the other, defensive management devours time and money. Too many unproductive meetings, micro-managing, tightening policies and procedures are all targeted as a major contributors to the higher costs of doing business.

But how widespread is it?

A recent informal, non-scientific query on a management discussion group asked the question:

"Does your company practice defensive management in which people are often checking and rechecking decisions, delaying decisions, having more meeting to make sure everyone is in agreement before proceeding with a project?"

Many managers responded with an emphatic, yes! "Defensive management is practiced everywhere, everyday. And the costs, not to mention the lack of any meaningful innovations are simply enormous," says one frustrated senior manager. "We're killing our entrepreneurial spirit one boring meeting at a time."

Many managers and supervisors -- even executives -- would agree that the threat of being fired significantly adds to the butt-covering going on. In highly integrated companies accountability to other managers is a significant factor in the practice of defensive management.

One manager offered, "I'd guess that 50% of my checking out with this person and that unit, is at least partly influenced by the need to demonstrate objective proof of something that we've analysed and concluded that it was something worth doing to move the business forward."

"It is not just the fear of being held accountable for a mistake," says one supervisor, "but often the fear of being seen as a lesser-quality leader."

"This cover-your-a- pattern becomes the standard," says a vice president of marketing, "and the geometric progression of unnecessary checking out whether everyone is in agreement becomes self-promulgating."

The pressure to over-analyze comes from B2B customers as well. A buyer wants to know that s/he is getting the best for less, that will work 100% of the time and that s/he is not going to look bad.

"Defensive management," says a production manager, "is so ingrained that most of us don't even realize we are doing it."

Does your company culture encourage and reward people doing defensive management?