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

and the fact that it was a big day.

I’m not near so tired as usual either.”

 

_A successful day is likely to be a restful one,

an unsuccessful day an exhausting one. The

man who is greatly interested in his work and

who finds delight in overcoming the difficulties

of his calling is not likely to become so tired as

the man for whom the work is a burden_.

<p 168>

 

The experience related summarizes the

experience of every worker who has studied,

either on his own initiative or at some other’s

instance, the effect upon output secured by

the removal of distressing or displeasing conditions

from the workroom.

 

The man who has been engaged in intellectual

or manual labor finds himself more or less

exhausted when the day’s work is done. The

degree of exhaustion varies greatly from day

to day and is not in direct proportion to the

amount of energy expended or the results

attained. A comparatively busy day may

leave him feeling fresh, while at the end of a

day much less occupied he may be utterly

“dragged out” and weary.

 

Some men habitually find themselves fatigued,

while others ordinarily end the day

with a feeling of vigor. These contrary

effects are not necessarily due primarily

to disparity in the amount of energy spent

or to unequal stores of energy available.

The discrepancy in many instances is due to

diverse attitudes toward the work or varying

<p 169>

degrees of success which has attended the

work.

 

Pleasure secured in and from work is the

best preventive and balm for tired muscles

and jaded brains. Dislike or discomfort, on

the other hand, adds to toil by sapping the

strength of the worker.

 

Victory in intercollegiate athletic events

depends on will power and physical endurance.

This is particularly apparent in football.

Frequently it is not the team with the

greater muscular development or speed of

foot that wins the victory, but the one with the

more grit and perseverance. At the conclusion

of a game players are often unable to walk from

the field and need to be carried. Occasionally

the winning team has actually worked the

harder and received the more serious injuries.

Regardless of this fact, it is usually

true that the victorious team leaves the

field less jaded than the conquered team.

Furthermore the winners will report next day

refreshed and ready for further training,

while the losers may require several days to

<p 170>

overcome the shock and exhaustion of their

defeat.

 

Recently I had a very hard contest at tennis.

Some hours after the game I was still too tired

to do effective work. I wondered why, until

I remembered that I had been thoroughly

beaten, and that, too, by an opponent whom I

felt I outclassed. I had been in the habit of

playing even harder contests and ordinarily

with no discomfort—especially when successful

in winning the match.

 

What I have found so apparent in physical

exertion is equally true in intellectual labor.

Writing or research work which progresses

satisfactorily leaves me relatively fresh;

unsuccessful efforts bring their aftermath of

weariness.

 

_Intellectual work which is pleasant is stimulating

and does not fag one, while intellectual

work which is uninteresting or displeasing is

depressing and exhausting_.

 

We can readily trace the source of energy

in mechanical devices. The hands of a clock

continue in their course because of the energy

<p 171>

locked up in a compressed spring or elevated

weight. The gun projects the bullet because

of the sudden chemical union of carbon with

saltpeter and sulphur. The steam engine

takes its energy from the steam secured by

combustion of coal or other fuel.

 

The work of the human organism is usually

classified as muscular or intellectual. In

either the expenditure of energy is as dependent

upon known causes as is the activity

of the mechanical devices mentioned

above.

 

Every muscular activity is dependent upon

muscular cells ready for combustion; without

such combustion no muscular work is

performed.

 

Every intellectual process is likewise dependent

upon brain cells ready for combustion,

and no intellectual work can be performed

without combustion of these brain cells.

 

To secure continued activity the clock must

be rewound, the gun must be recharged, more

coal must be supplied to the engine. In like

manner the continuation of muscular and in-

<p 172>

tellectual activity depends upon the restoration

of muscle and brain cells. The necessity

for renewal is greater or less according to the

amount stored in reserve and the rapidity of

consumption. A maximum head of steam

may keep the engine running for a long time

unless the load is too heavy or the speed too

great. Though under certain conditions the

amount of muscle and brain energy stored in

reserve is large, continuous or rapid activity of

necessity expends the reserve and leads to

exhaustion.

 

It is a simple process to rewind the clock,

to reload the gun, and to replenish the fuel.

To restore muscular and nerve cells is a very

delicate process. So wonderful is the human

organism, however, that the process is carried

on perfectly without our consciousness or

volition except under abnormal conditions.

 

Food and air are the first essentials of this

restoration. Indirectly the perfect working of

all the bodily organs contribute to the process

—especially deepened breathing, heightened

pulse, and increase of bodily volume due

<p 173>

to the expansion of the blood vessels running

just beneath the skin.

 

_Here pleasure enters. Its effect on the expenditure

of energy is to make muscle and brain

cells more available for consumption, and particularly

to hasten the process of restoration or

recuperation_.

 

The deepened breathing supplies more air

for the oxidation of body wastes. The heightened

pulse carries nourishment more rapidly

to the depleted tissues and relieves the tissues

more rapidly from the poisonous wastes

produced by work. The body, the machine,

runs more smoothly, and fewer stops for repairs

are made necessary.

 

In addition to these specific functions,

pleasure hastens all the bodily processes which

are of advantage to the organism. The hastening

may be so great that recuperation keeps

pace with the consumption consequent on

efficient labor, with the result that there is

little or no exhaustion. This is in physiological

terms the reason why a person can do more

when he “enjoys” his work or play, and can

<p 174>

continue his efforts for a longer period without

fatigue. The man who enjoys his work requires

less time for recreation and exercise, for

his enjoyment recharges the storage battery of

energy.

 

Not only can I endure more and achieve

more when I take pleasure in the task, but I

can also secure better results from others by

providing for their interest and for their pleasure

in what they are doing. This is a fact

which wise merchants and employers have

felt intuitively, but in most instances the

principle has not been consciously formulated.

High-grade stores do much to add to the pleasure

of their customers. Every resource of art

and architecture is employed to make store

rooms appeal to the <ae>sthetic sense and the

appreciation of customers. Clerks are instructed

to be obliging and courteous. Employees

are not allowed to dress in a style

likely to offend a customer and they are

schooled in manners and in speech. Space

is devoted to the convenience and comfort

of customers.

<p 175>

 

_The most successful establishments in the

world are the ones which do most to please their

patrons—not by cutting prices or simply by

supplying better goods, but by expediting and

making more pleasant the purchase of goods_.

 

They have discovered that customers inducted

into a beautiful shop and surrounded

by tactful obliging clerks are more willing to

buy and are more likely to be satisfied with

what they purchase. By adding to their patrons’

comfort and pleasure they are able to

accomplish more than by any other selling

argument. In like manner, restaurants and

hotels have learned that splendid rooms, flowers,

spotless linen, well-dressed and courteous

waiters, good furniture, and so on, all attract

customers and induce them to order more

generously.

 

Lawyers find in trying cases that it is quite

essential to regard the mood of clients, juries,

and judges. The pleased man is not suspicious;

he does not hesitate in coming to a conclusion,

and he is not likely to impute evil

motives to the actions of others. As has been

<p 176>

well said by Dickens, when speaking from the

viewpoint of the defendant, “A good, contented,

well-breakfasted juryman is a capital

thing to get hold of. Discontented or hungry

jurymen always find for the plaintiff.”

 

The salesman with a pleasing personality

is able to sell more goods than others less

happily endowed. Some salesmen try to supplement

this power—or supply the lack of a

pleasing personality—by “jollying” the possible

customer in various ways. Dinners,

theaters, cigars, and various other devices

are thus used, and in many instances with success.

 

Modern business employs such methods less

and less, chiefly because the customer recognizes

the purpose of the attempt, and either

refuses to accept the “hospitality” or is on

his guard to resist the effect. A pleasing

personality, however, inspires confidence, tends

to put the customer in a good humor and optimistic

mood, and results in sales.

 

A cold, formal manner, ill temper, or a

pessimistic outlook, on the contrary, will

<p 177>

handicap the sale of the best merchandise

made.

 

A man is said to be suggestible when he

comes to conclusions or acts without due

deliberation. Suggestion, then, is nothing but

the mental condition which causes us to believe

and respond without the normal amount

of weighing of evidence. While in a suggestible

condition we are credulous, responsive,

and impulsive. Such a mental condition is

favored and induced by pleasure. Discomfort

or dissatisfaction with the conditions or

surroundings prompts the opposing attitude;

we become suspicious and slow to act or believe.

While in a suggestible condition, we

place our orders freely and promptly. The

merchant who can please his customers and

bring them to a suggestible mood before he

displays his wares, therefore, has done much to

secure generous sales.

 

Advantageous results from suggestion are

not limited to the relationship between buyer

and seller.

 

The pleased and satisfied employee is open

<p 178>

_to the suggestions of foreman and manager and

responds with an enthusiasm impossible of

generation in one dissatisfied from any cause_.

 

Methods of insuring this pleasure in work

for employees are yet in the formative stage.

Until recently the want of such methods, indeed,

was not felt. The slave driver with the

most profane vocabulary and the greatest

recklessness in the use of fist and foot was

supposed to be the most effective type of boss.

The task system set an irreducible minimum

for the day’s work; the employer exacted the

task and assumed that no better way of handling

men could be devised. Piecework rates

provided a better and more reasonable basis

for securing something like a maximum day’s

work; bonus and premium systems have carried

the incentive of the wage in increasing efficiency

to the last point short of co<o:>perative

organization. But all of these systems fall

short in assuming that men are machines;

that their powers and capacities are fixed quantities;

that the efficiency of a well-disposed and

industrious employee ought to be proof against

<p 179>

varying conditions or environment; that a

man can achieve the desired standard, if only

he has the will to achieve it.

 

_Discipline has become less brutal if not less

strict. The laborer works, not alone to avoid

poverty and hunger, but to secure the means of

pleasure_.

 

It is not so long since harsh discipline was

common both in homes and in business. The

boy worked hard because