Increasing Efficiency In Business - Walter Dill Scott (ebook reader browser .txt) 📗

for attention_.

 

To keep light from going off in useless directions

we use reflectors; to keep human energy

from being expended in useless directions we

must remove distractions. To focus the light

at any point we use lenses; to focus our minds

at any point we use concentration.

 

Concentration is a state secured by the mental

activity called attention. To understand

concentration we must first consider the more

fundamental facts of attention.

<p 109>

 

In the evolution of the human race certain

things have been so important for the individual

and the race that responses towards

them have become instinctive. They appeal

to every individual and attract his attention

without fail. Thus moving objects, loud

sounds, sudden contrasts, and the like, were

ordinarily portents of evil to primitive man,

and his attention was drawn to them irresistibly.

Even for us to pay attention to such

objects requires no intention and no effort.

Hence it is spoken of as *passive or _*involuntary

attention_.

 

The attention of animals and of children

is practically confined to this passive form,

while adults are by no means free from it.

For instance, ideas and things to which I

have no intention of turning my mind attract

me. Ripe fruit, gesticulating men, beautiful

women, approaching holidays, and scores of

other things simply pop up in my mind and

enthrall my attention. My mind may be so

concentrated upon these things that I become

oblivious to pressing responsibilities. In some

<p 110>

instances the concentration may be but momentary;

in others there may result a day

dream, a building of air castles, which lasts

for a long time and recurs with distressing

frequency.

 

_Such attention is action in the line of least

resistance. Though it may suffice for the acts

of animals and children it is sadly deficient for

our complex business life_.

 

Even here, however, it is easy to relapse

to the lower plane of activity and to respond

to the appeal of the crier in the street, the

inconvenience of the heat, the news of the ball

game, or a pleasing reverie, or even to fall

into a state of mental apathy. The warfare

against these distractions is never wholly

won. Banishing these allurements results in

the concentration so essential for successfully

handling business problems. The strain is

not so much in solving the problems as in retaining

the concentration of the mind.

 

When an effort of will enables us to overcome

these distractions and apply our minds to the

subject in hand, the strain soon repeats itself.

<p 111>

It frequently happens that this struggle is

continuous—particularly when the distractions

are unusual or our physical condition is

below the normal. No effort of the will is

able to hold our minds down to work for any

length of time unless the task develops interest

in itself.

 

This attention with effort is known as _*voluntary

attention_. It is the most exhausting act

which any individual can perform. Strength

of will consists in the power to resist distractions

and to hold the mind down to even

the most uninteresting occupations.

 

_Fortunately for human achievement, acts

which in the beginning require voluntary effort

may later result without effort_.

 

The schoolboy must struggle to keep his

mind on such uninteresting things as the alphabet.

Later he may become a literary

man and find that nothing attracts his attention

so quickly as printed symbols. In commercial

arithmetic the boy labors to fix his

attention on dollar signs and problems involving

profit and loss. Launched in business,

<p 112>

however, these things may attract him more

than a football game.

 

It is the outcome of previous application

that we now attend without effort to many

things in our civilization which differ from

those of more primitive life. Such attention

without effort is known as _*secondary passive

attention_. Examples are furnished by the

geologist’s attention to the strata of the

earth, the historian’s to original manuscripts,

the manufacturer’s to by-products, the merchant’s

to distant customers, and the attention

which we all give to printed symbols and scores

of other things unnoticed by our distant ancestors.

Here our attention is similar to passive

attention, though the latter was the result

of inheritance, while our secondary passive

attention results from our individual efforts

and is the product of our training.

 

Through passive attention my concentration

upon a “castle in Spain” may be perfect

until destroyed by a fly on my nose. Voluntary

attention may make my concentration

upon the duty at hand entirely satisfactory

<p 113>

till dissipated by some one entering my office.

Secondary passive attention fixes my mind

upon the adding of a column of figures, and it

may be distracted by a commotion in my vicinity.

Thus concentration produced by any

form of attention is easily destroyed by a

legion of possible disturbances. If I desire

to increase my concentration to the maximum,

I must remove every possible cause of

distraction.

 

_Organized society has recognized the hindering

effect of some distractions and has made

halting attempts to abolish them_.

 

Thus locomotives are prohibited from sounding

whistles within city limits, but power

plants are permitted by noise and smoke to

annoy every citizen in the vicinity. Street

cars are forbidden to use flat wheels, but are

still allowed to run on the surface or on a

resounding structure and thus become a public

nuisance. Steam calliopes, newsboys, street

venders, and other unnecessary sources of

noise are still tolerated.

 

In the design and construction of office

<p 114>

buildings, stores, and factories in noisy neighborhoods,

too little consideration is given to

existing means of excluding or deadening

outside sounds, though the newer office buildings

are examples of initiative in this direction;

not only are they of sound-proof construction,

but in many instances they have replaced the

noisy pavements of the streets with blocks

which reduce the clatter to a minimum. In

both improvements they have been emulated

by some of the great retail stores which have

shut out external noises and reduced those

within to a point where they no longer distract

the attention of clerks or customers

from the business of selling and buying. In

many, however, clerks are still forced to call

aloud for cash girls or department managers,

and the handling of customers at elevators is

attended by wholly unnecessary shouting and

clash of equipment.

 

Of all distractions, sound is certainly the

most common and the most insistent in its appeal.

 

The individual efforts towards reducing

it quoted above were stimulated by the hope

<p 115>

of immediate and tangible profit—sound-proof offices commanding higher rents and

quiet stores attracting more customers. In

not a few cases, manufacturers have gone

deeper, however, recognizing that anything

which claims the attention of an employee

from his work reduces his efficiency and cuts

profits, even though he be a piece worker. In

part this explains the migration of many industries

to the smaller towns and the development

of a new type of city factory with sound-proof walls and floors, windows sealed against

noise, and a system of mechanical ventilation.

 

The individual manufacturer or merchant,

therefore, need not wait for a general crusade

to abate the noise, the smoke, and the other

distractions which reduce his employee’s

effectiveness. In no small measure he can shut

out external noises and eliminate many of

those within. Loud dictation, conversations,

clicking typewriters, loud-ringing telephones,

can all be cut to a key which makes them virtually

indistinguishable in an office of any

size. More and more the big open office as

<p 116>

an absorbent of sound seems to be gaining in

favor. In one of the newest and largest of

these I know, nearly all the typewriting machines

are segregated in a glass-walled room,

and long-distance telephone messages can be

taken at any instrument in the great office.

 

_Like sound in its imperative appeal for attention

is the consciousness of strangers passing

one’s desk or windows_.

 

Movement of fellow employees about the

department, unless excessive or unusual, is

hardly noticed; let an individual or a group

with whom we are not acquainted come within

the field of our vision, and they claim attention

immediately. For this reason shops or factories

whose windows command a busy street

find it profitable to use opaque glass to shut

out the shifting scene.

 

This scheme of retreat and protection has

been carried well-nigh to perfection by many

executives. Private offices guarded by secretaries

fortify them against distractions and

unauthorized claims on their attention, both

from within and without their organizations.

<p 117>

Routine problems, in administration, production,

distribution, are never referred to them;

these are settled by department heads, and

only new or vital questions are submitted to

the executive. In many large companies,

besides the department heads and secretaries

who assume this load of routine, there are

assistants to the president and the general

manager who further reduce the demands

upon their chiefs. The value of time, the

effect of interruptions and distractions upon

their own efficiency, are understood by countless

executives who neglect to guard their

employees against similar distractions.

 

_Individual business men, unsupported by

organizations, have worked out individual methods

of self-protection_.

 

One man postpones consideration of questions

of policy, selling conditions, and soon until

the business of the day has been finished, and

interruptions from customers or employees are

improbable. Another, with his stenographer,

reaches his office half an hour earlier than his

organization, and, picking out the day’s big

<p 118>

task, has it well towards accomplishment

before the usual distractions begin. The foremost

electrical and mechanical engineer in the

country solves his most difficult and abstruse

problems at home, at night. His organization

provides a perfect defense against interruptions;

but only in the silence, the isolation of

his home at night, does he find the complete

absence of distraction permitting the absolute

concentration which produces great results.

 

This chapter was prefaced by an instance

where protection from distractions through

organization was joined with methodical

attack on the elements of the day’s work. This

combination approaches the ideal; it is the

system followed by nearly all the great

executives of America. Time and attention are

equably allotted to the various interests,

the various departments of effort which must

have the big man’s consideration during the

day. Analysis has determined how much of

each is required; appointments are made with

the men who must co<o:>perate; all other matters

are pushed aside until a decision is reached;

<p 119>

and upon the completion of each attention is

concentrated on the next task.

 

A striking instance of this organization of

work and concentration upon a single problem

is afforded by the “cabinet meetings” of some

large corporations and the luncheons of groups

of powerful financiers in New York. There

are certain questions to be settled, a definite

length of time in which to settle them. In the

order of their importance they are allotted so

many minutes. At the expiration of that time

a vote is taken, the president or chairman

announces his decision, and the next matter is

attacked.

 

_There is no royal method of training in

concentration. It is in the main developed by

repeated acts of attention upon the subject in

hand_.

 

If I am anxious or need to develop the power

of concentration upon what people say, either

in conversation or in public discourse, I may

be helped by persistently and continuously

forcing myself to attend. The habit of

concentration may to a degree be thus acquired;

<p 120>

pursuing it, I should never allow myself to

listen indifferently, but I must force myself to

strict attention.

 

Such practice would result ultimately in a

habit of concentration upon what I hear,

but would not necessarily increase my power

of concentration upon writing, adding, or other

activities. Specific training in each is essential,

and even then the