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

voluntary control of the muscles

of the arms, legs, and face, by breathing

slowly and deeply, and by placing the body in a

condition of general relaxation.

<p 214>

 

This antecedent condition of relaxation

brings all the forces of the mind and body more

completely under control and makes it possible

to marshal them more effectively. It also

gives one a feeling of control and assurance,

which minimizes the possibility of confusion

and embarrassment in the presence of an important

task. The possibility of developing

the power of relaxation by means of special

training is being taken advantage of in teaching

acts of skill, in all forms of mental

therapeutics, and in numerous other instances

where overtension hinders the acquisition or

accomplishment of a useful act. By assuming

the attitude of assurance and composure, the

actual condition is produced in a manner most

astonishing to those who have never attempted

it. No man can do his best when he is hurried

and fearful, when he is expending energy in a

manner as useless as a tug blowing off steam.

That relief is within his own power seems to

him impossible. He is not aware of his power

of will to change from his state of anxiety to

one of composure.

<p 215>

 

That the gospel of relaxation is more important

to the chief executive than to the day

laborer is quite apparent. Even in the case of

the day laborer the crack of the lash and the

curse of the driver may have been capable of

securing a display of activity among the laborers,

but such means are not comparable in

efficiency to the more modern methods. Laborers

are now given more hours of rest, are

not kept fearful and anxious, but are given

short hours of labor and long hours of rest.

They are judged by the actual results of their

labor rather than by their apparent activity.

 

_When accomplishing intellectual work of any

sort, it is found that worry exhausts more than

labor_.

 

Anxiety as to the results is detrimental to

efficiency. The intellectual worker should

periodically make it a point to sit in his chair

with the muscles of his legs relaxed, to breathe

deeply, and to assume an attitude of composure.

Such an attitude must not, of course,

detract from attention to the work at hand,

but should rather increase it. Upon leaving

<p 216>

his office, the brain worker should cultivate

the habit of forgetting all about his business,

except in so far as he believes that some particular

point needs special attention out of

office hours. The habit of brooding over

business is detrimental to efficiency and is

also suicidal to the individual.

 

It is, of course, apparent to all that relaxation

may mean permanent indifference, and

such a condition is infinitely worse than too

great a tension. An employer who is never

keyed up to his work, and an employee who

goes about his work in an indifferent manner,

are not regarded in the present discussion.

 

A complete relaxation of the body often

gives freedom to the intellect. The inventor

is often able, when lying in bed, to devise his

apparatus with a perfection impossible when

he attempts to study it out in the shop. The

forgotten name will not come till we cease

straining for it. Very many of the world’s

famous poems have been conceived while

the poet was lying in an easy and relaxed condition.

This fact is so well recognized by some

<p 217>

authors that they voluntarily go to bed in the

daytime and get perfectly relaxed in order

that their minds may do the most perfect

work. Much constructive thinking is done

in the quiet of the sanctuary, when the monotony

of the liturgy or the voice of the speaker

has soothed the quiet nerves, and secured a

composed condition of mind. The preacher

would be surprised if he knew how many costumes

had been planned, how many business

ventures had been outlined, all because of the

soothing influence of his words.

 

_This relaxation of the body not only gives

freedom to the intellect, but it is the necessary

preliminary condition for the greatest physical

exertion and for the most perfect execution of

any series of skillful acts_.

 

Mr. H. L. Doherty not only held the world’s

championship in tennis, but he was the despair

of his opponents, because of the apparent lack

of exertion which he put forth to meet their

volleys. So far as an observer could judge,

Mr. Doherty kept only those muscles tense

that were used in the game. The muscles

<p 218>

especially necessary for tennis were also, so

far as possible, kept lax except at the instant

for making the stroke. Partly because of this

relaxation, his muscles were free from exhaustion

and under such perfect control that at the

critical moment he was able to exert a strength

that was tremendous and a skill that was

amazing.

 

In a very striking paragraph Professor James

has shown the reason why poise and efficiency

of mind are incompatible with tenseness of

muscles:—

 

“By the sensations that so incessantly pour

in from the overtense excited body the overtense

and excited habit of mind is kept up; and

the sultry, threatening, exhausting, thunderous

inner atmosphere never quite clears away. If

you never give yourself up wholly to the chair

you sit in, but always keep your leg and body

muscles half contracted for a rise; if you

breathe eighteen or nineteen instead of sixteen

times a minute, and never quite breathe out at

that,—what mental mood can you be in but

one of inner panting and expectancy, and how

<p 219>

can the future and its worries possibly forsake

your mind? On the other hand, how can they

gain admission to your mind if your brow be

unruffled, your respiration calm and complete,

and your muscles all relaxed?”—“Talks to

Teachers,” p. 211.

 

In ancient Greece, one of the chief functions

of the school was to prepare citizens to profit

by the hours of freedom from toil. Herbert

Spencer, in his great work on Education, gives

a prominent place to training for leisure hours.

Such training is attracting the attention of

the American educator to-day as never before.

A few decades ago the majority of the American

population lived on farms, spent long hours of

the day in toil, and scarcely thought of recreation.

We have now become an urban population,

the hours of labor have been greatly reduced

during the days of the week, and Sunday

is a day in which the laborer is found in

neither the factory nor the church.

 

The employer of laborers fears the effect of

long hours of freedom from toil. He has

prophesied that such hours would be spent

<p 220>

in dissipations. He feared that as a result

his laborers would enter their shops with unsteady

hands and sleepy brains. That such

results are all too often due to freedom from

toil, no one would deny. That they are not

necessary will also be admitted. One of the

problems of the American people as a whole,

and of employers of labor in particular, is to

train up the rising generations so that they

may make the best use of the increasing hours

of freedom from labor.

 

To this end the schools are doing much.

Settlement workers are contributing their

part. Welfare work is becoming popular in

certain places. Local clubs are being organized

to develop interest in local improvement,

literature, politics, ethics, religion, music,

athletics. These agencies are so beneficial

in results that they are being generously

encouraged by business men.

 

_Upon entering business every young man

should select some form of endeavor or activity

apart from business to which he shall devote a

part of his attention. This interest should be so_

<p 221>

_absorbing that when he is thus engaged, business

is banished from mind_.

 

This interest may be a home and a family;

it may be some form of athletics; it may be

club life; it may be art, literature, philanthropy,

or religion. It must be something

which appeals to the individual and is adapted

to his capabilities. Some men find it advisable

to have more than a single interest for the

hours of recreation. Some form of athletics

or of agriculture is often combined with an

interest in art, literature, religion, or other

intellectual form of recreation. Thus Gladstone

is depicted as a woodchopper and as an

author of Greek works. Carnegie is described

as an enthusiast in golf and in philanthropy.

Rockefeller is believed to be interested in golf

and philanthropy, but his philanthropy takes

the form of education through endowed schools.

Carnegie’s philanthropy is in building libraries.

If the lives of the great business men

are studied it will be found that there is a

great diversity in the type of recreation chosen;

but philanthropy, religion, and athletics are

<p 222>

very prominent—perhaps the most popular

of the outside interests.

 

These interests cannot be suddenly acquired.

Many a man who has reached the years of

maturity has found to his sorrow that he is

without interests in the world except his specialty

or business. With each succeeding year

he finds new interests more difficult to acquire.

Hence young men should in their youth

choose wisely some interests to which they

may devote themselves with perfect abandon

at more or less regular intervals throughout

life.

 

The more noble and the more worthy the

interest, the better will be the results when

considered from any point of view. Indeed,

the interests which we call the highest are

properly so designated, because in the history

of mankind they have proved themselves to be

the most beneficial to all.