Leaders give capable potential resisters a heavy load of real priority work, so their time goes to execution and little is left for organizing opposition to a contested decision.
Borderline: whether this move is justified depends on the situation, and only the person in it can judge.
An example
The plant manager of a specialty chemicals producer's oldest resin site supported the company's plan to close it within two years, and he knew his best process engineer opposed it. He also had real work that needed her: a reactor safety upgrade and two customer qualification runs that would decide whether the plant's output could move to a sister site. He put her in charge of both, told her plainly that they were the priority through the closure decision, and gave her a second engineer. She still attended the cross-site closure meetings, where she made her case once, in writing. The executive committee approved the closure on schedule. The qualifications she ran moved forty percent of the plant's volume to the sister site without losing a customer.
Why it works
Compliance looks easier because the work is real and urgent, so time spent on it needs no justification, while time for organizing against the decision has to be found somewhere. Opposition costs more, since every hour taken from critical work shows, and a heavy load drains the energy a political fight needs. Nothing is done to the decision's merits or to the alternative's appeal; only the bandwidth changes. It needs work that is legitimately a priority, a target whose identity rests on high performance, control over assignments, and a contested decision that moves within the period of heavy load.
The thinking behind it
Herbert A. Simon Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World (1971) argues that attention is the scarce resource when demands are plentiful. Real priority work spends a capable dissenter's attention on execution, so little remains for drafting objections and building support. It is also why the clean form keeps the person's access to the forum where the decision is made: the load limits their time, and the forum keeps their voice.
Mancur Olson The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (1965) shows that the costs of organizing fall on individuals while the benefits are shared, so groups often fail to act. Opposition to a decision needs someone to bear those costs, usually its most capable member. A heavy load raises that person's cost of organizing, and the rest of the group, waiting for someone to lead, tends not to act.
When it fits
Managers with authority over assignments, genuine priority work, and capable people who oppose a decision already within someone's authority can use it. It fits when the work needs your strongest people anyway and the contested decision is on a fixed timetable.
How to use it well
Choose work that matters on its own. If you would not assign it in a quiet year, do not assign it now.
- Tell the person plainly that this is the priority and why, and give them the resources the load needs.
- Keep their access to the forum where the decision is discussed, and let them make their case there.
- Watch the load against their peers' and against what one person can carry.
- Give them public credit for the work when it lands.
The effect you want is focus. Exhaustion produces mistakes, departures, and a story about how you treated your best people.
What it costs and where it backfires
Capable dissenters notice when their load rises during a contested decision, and once they name it with the counts, the cover is gone. Overload causes burnout and errors in exactly the work you needed done well. Meaningless or undeliverable work, a load meant to break the person, or exclusion from a forum they are entitled to attend would turn this into setting someone up to fail.
When it is used on you
Keep a current count of your assignments and hours against your peers'. Decline new work once the pattern is clear, or accept it only when something named comes off, and name the pattern in public with the counts. Brief allies early so they can carry the argument while you are loaded.