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INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY
IN BUSINESS
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE
PSYCHOLOGY OF BUSINESS
BY
WALTER DILL SCOTT
AUTHOR OF ``THE THEORY OF ADVERTISING,'' ``THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF ADVERTISING,'' ``THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC
SPEAKING,'' ``INFLUENCING MEN IN BUSINESS''
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE POSSIBILITY OF INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY......1
II. IMITATION AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN
EFFICIENCY......................................26
III. COMPETITION AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN
EFFICIENCY......................................48
IV. LOYALTY AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN
EFFICIENCY......................................75
V. CONCENTRATION AS A MEANS OF INCREASING
HUMAN EFFICIENCY...............................104
VI. WAGES AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN
EFFICIENCY.....................................132
VII. PLEASURE AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN
EFFICIENCY.....................................165
VIII. THE LOVE OF THE GAME AND EFFICIENCY...........186
IX. RELAXATION AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN
EFFICIENCY.....................................204
X. THE RATE OF IMPROVEMENT IN EFFICIENCY............223
XI. PRACTICE PLUS THEORY............................254
XII. MAKING EXPERIENCE AN ASSET: JUDGMENT
FORMATION......................................276
XIII. CAPITALIZING EXPERIENCE: HABIT FORMATION......303
<p v>
INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY
IN BUSINESS
CHAPTER I
THE POSSIBILITY OF INCREASING HUMAN
EFFICIENCY
THE modern business man is the true
heir of the old magicians. Every
thing he touches seems to increase
ten or a hundredfold in value and usefulness.
All the old methods, old tools, old instruments
have yielded to his transforming spell or else
been discarded for new and more effective
substitutes. In a thousand industries the
profits of to-day are wrung from the wastes
or unconsidered trifles of yesterday.
The only factor which has withstood this
wizard touch is man himself. Development
of the instruments of production and distribution
has been so great it can hardly be
<p 1>
<p 2>
measured: the things themselves have been
so changed that few features of their primitive
models have been retained.
Our railroad trains, steamships, and printing
presses preserve a likeness more apparent
than actual. Our telephones, electric lights,
gas engines, and steam turbines, our lofty office
buildings and huge factories crowded with
wonderful automatic machinery are creations
of the generation of business men and scientists
still in control of them.
_By comparison the increase in human efficiency
during this same period (except where
the worker is the slave of the machine, compelled
to keep pace with it or lose his place) has been
insignificant_.
Reasons for this disproportion are not
lacking. The study of the physical antedates
the study of the mental always. In the history
of the individual as well as of nations,
knowledge of the psychical has dragged far
behind mastery of tangible objects. We come
in contact with our physical environment and
adjust ourselves to it long before we begin to
<p 7>
study the _*acts_ by which we have been able
to control objects around us.
It was inevitable, therefore, that attention
should have been concentrated upon the material
and mechanical side of production and
distribution. Results there were so tangible,
so easily figured. For example, if the speed
of a drill or the strokes of a punch press were
multiplied, the increase would be easily recognized.
The whole country, too, was absorbed
in invention, in the development of tools to
accomplish what had always required hand
labor. The effort was not so much to increase
the efficiency of the individual worker--
though many wise and far-sighted employers
essayed studies and experiments with varying
success--as to displace the human factor
altogether.
As the functions and limitations of machinery
have become clearer in recent years,
business men have generally recognized the
importance of the human factor in making
and marketing products. Selecting and handling
men is of much more significance to-day
<p 4>
than ever before in the history of the world
--the more so as organizations have increased
in size and scope and the individual
employee is farther removed from the head
and assigned greater responsibilities.
It is not a difficult task to build and equip
a factory, to choose and stock a store. The
problems of power and its transmission come
nearer solution every day. Physics and chemistry
have revealed the secrets of raw materials.
For any given service, the manufacturer
can determine the cheapest and most
suitable metal, wood, or fabric which will
satisfy his requirements, and the most economical
method of treating it.
Of the elements involved in production or
distribution, the human factor is to-day the
most serious problem confronting the business
man. The individual remains to be
studied, trained, and developed--to be
brought up to the standard of maximum
results already reached by materials and
processes.
Few employers can gather a force of effi-
<p 5>
cient workers and keep them at their best.
Not only is it difficult to select the right men
but it is even harder to secure top efficiency
after they are hired. Touching this, there
will be no dispute. Experts in shop management
go even farther. F. W. Taylor, who has
made the closest and most scientific study,
perhaps, of actual and potential efficiency
among workers, declares that:--
``_A first-class man can, in most cases, do
from two to four times as much as is done on
the average_.''
``This enormous difference,'' Mr. Taylor
goes on to say, ``exists in all the trades and
branches of labor investigated, from pick-
and-shovel men all the way up the scale to
machinists and other skilled workmen. The
multiplied output was not the product of a
spurt or a period of overexertion; it was
simply what a good man could keep up for
a long term of years without injury to his
health, become happier, and thrive under.''
Ask the head of any important business
what is the first qualification of a foreman
<p 6>
or manager, and he will tell you ``ability to
handle men.''
_Men who know how to get maximum results
out of machines are common; the power to get
the maximum of work out of subordinates or out
of yourself is a much rarer possession_.
Yet this power is not necessarily a sixth
sense or a fixed attribute of personality.
It is based on knowledge of the workings of
the other man's mind, either intuitive or
acquired. It is the purpose of this and
succeeding chapters to consider some of the
aspects of human nature that can be turned
to advantage in the cultivation of individual
efficiency and the elimination of lost motion
and wasted effort.
In a thousand instances, in factory and
market place, unrecognized use has been made
of the principles of psychology by business
men to influence other men and to attain their
ends.
_For the science of psychology is in respect
to certain data merely common sense, the wisdom
of experience, analyzed, formulated, and codified_.
<p 7>
_It has taken its place, alongside physics and
chemistry, as the ally and employee of trade and
industry_.
The time has come when a man's knowledge
of his business, if the larger success is to be
won, must embrace an understanding of the
laws which govern the thinking and acting of
the men who make and sell his products as well
as those others who buy and consume them.
The achievements of the human mind and
the human body seem to many to be out of
the range of possible improvement through
application of any science which deals with
these human activities. Muscular strength
and mental efficiency seem to be fixed quantities
not subject to increase or improvement.
_The contention here supported, however, is
that human efficiency is a variable quantity
which increases and decreases according to law.
By the application of known physical laws the
telephone and the telegraph have supplanted the
messenger boy. By the laws of psychology
applied to business equally astounding improvements
are being and will be secured_.
<p 8>
Employers sometimes find that their men
are not working well, that they loaf and kill
time on every possible occasion. The men
are not trying and are indifferent to results.
Under such circumstances a new foreman,
the dismissal of the poorer workmen,
modification of the wage scale or method of
payment, or some other device may correct
the evil and induce the men to exert themselves.
Again, the men are working industriously
and may feel that an increase in output would
be injurious to health or even impossible.
They think they are doing their best; while
the employer himself may feel that he is
achieving but little, although he assumes that
he is doing as much as it is wise to attempt.
For instance, Mr. Taylor, in his studies, found
that both employers and men had only a vague
conception of what constituted a full day's
work for a first-class man. The good workmen
knew they could do more than the average;
but refused to believe when, after close
observation and careful timing of the ele-
<p 9>
ments of each operation, they were shown that
they could accomplish twice or three times as
much as their customary tasks.
_Actual instances prove that great increase of
work and results can be secured by outside stimulus
and by conscious effort_.
If there is one place where the limit of
exertion can be counted upon, it is in an inter-
collegiate athletic contest. While taking part
in football games, I frequently observed that
my team would be able to push the opposing
team halfway across the field. Then the
tables would be turned and my team would
give ground. At one moment one team would
seem to possess much superior physical
strength to the other; the next moment the
equilibrium would be changed apparently
without cause. Often, however, the weaker
team would rally in response to the captain's
coaching. On the field a player frequently
finds himself unable to exert himself. His
greatest effort is necessary to force himself to
work. In such a mental condition a vigorous
and enthusiastic appeal from the coach may
<p 10>
supply the needed stimulus and stir him to
sudden display of all his strength.
I recently conducted a series of experiments
on college athletes to determine
whether coaching could actually increase a
man's strength when he was already trying
his ``best,'' and whether he could continue
to work after he was ``completely exhausted.''
I put each man at work on machines which allowed
him to exert himself to his utmost and
measured his accomplishment. While he was
thus employed, the coach began urging him to
increase his exertion. Ordinarily the increase
was marked--sometimes as much as fifty
per cent.
Again, when the man had exhausted himself
without coaching, the extra demand would
be made on him; usually he was able to continue,
even though without the coaching he
had been unable to do any more. There was,
of course, a point of exhaustion at which the
coaching ceased to be effective.
_The tests proved conclusively that when a man
is doing what he believes to be his best, he is still_
<p 11>
_able to do better; when he is completely exhausted,
he is, under proper stimulus, able to continue_.
Before a horse is started in a race it is
vigorously exercised, ``warmed up.'' To the
uninitiated this process seems so strenuous
as to defeat its purpose by wearing out the
strength of the horse. Every horseman knows,
however, that the animal cannot attain top
speed till after it has undergone this severe
discipline.
In training for a contest an athlete usually
takes long runs. Soon after the start he feels
weary and exhausted, but, by disregarding this
feeling and continuing to run, a sudden change
comes over him commonly known as ``getting
his second wind.''
Thus the runner feels wave upon wave of
exhaustion followed by waves of invigoration.
Had he stopped when he first began to tire,
he never would have known of his wonderful
reserve fund of strength which can be drawn
upon only by passing through the feeling
of exhaustion. He seems to be able to tap
deeper and deeper reservoirs of strength.
<p 12>
_Many men have never discovered their reserve
stores of strength because they have formed the
fixed habit of quitting at the first access of weariness_.
Thus they never become conscious of the
wonderful resources which might be used if
they were willing to disregard the trifling
wave of weariness.
Our best energies are not on the surface
and are not available without great exertion.
We have to warm up and get our second wind
before we are capable of our best physical or
mental accomplishments. All our muscular
and psychical processes are dependent upon
the activity of the nervous system. This activity
seems to be at its best only after repeated
and vigorous stimulation and after
it has reached down to profound and widely
distributed centers.
_Most of us never know of our possible achievements
because we have never warmed up and
got our second wind in our business or professional
affairs_.
When an individual succeeds in tapping his
<p 13>
reserve energies, others marvel at the tremendous
tasks he accomplishes. They judge in
terms of superficial energy, and for such the
results would, of course, be impossible, even
though many of the admiring spectators could
actually equal or excel the deed.
Consider for a moment the work achieved
by Mr. Edward Payson Weston who recently
walked the entire distance from New York
to San Francisco without halt or rest in one
hundred and four days. Throughout the
entire journey Mr. Weston covered about
fifty miles daily, once attaining the remarkable
distance of eighty-seven miles in twenty-four
hours. Though Mr. Weston is seventy years
of age, at the close of the walk he seemed to be
relatively free from exhaustion and undaunted
in spirit.
The work accomplished by such men as
Gladstone and Roosevelt is incomprehensible
to most of us who have never undertaken
more than puny tasks. These men retain their
strength and in no way seem to be undermining
their health by the accomplishment of their
<p 14>
Herculean labors. Body and mind seem to
respond to the demands made upon them.
Their periods of sleep and their vacations
seem to be no more than the hours and days
of rest required by those of us who accomplish
infinitely less.
No need, however, to go beyond the field
of business or industry to find men whose
super-energy has carried them to epochial
discoveries or feats of organization. The
invention of the incandescent lamp by Edison
is said to have been accomplished, for instance,
only after forty-eight hours' continuous
concentration on the final problem of finding the
right carbon filament and determining the
proper degree of vacuum in the inclosing
bulb. Months of experiment and research
had gone before; eighteen hours a day in the
laboratory had been no uncommon thing for
the inventor and his assistants, but in the last
strenuous grapple with success his own physical
and mental powers were alone equal to the
strain. Not once during the two days and
nights did he rest or sleep or take his attention
<p 15>
from the successive tests which led up to the
assembling of the lamp which lights the world's
work and play.
The steel blade that is used seems to last as
long as the one which is allowed to lie idle.
The wearing out in the one case does not seem
to be more destructive than the rusting out
in the other.
We have a choice between wearing out and
rusting out. Most of us unwittingly have
chosen the rusting process.
This, indeed, may be said to be Edison's
regular method of work, as it is the method of
many other men who have accomplished great
things in science and industry. Both mind
and body have been trained and accustomed to
exertions which seem quite impossible to ordinary
individuals.
Many persons find that increased intellectual
activity results in less fatigue and
greater achievements. As a student I did
my best work and enjoyed it most the year
I carried the greatest number of courses and
assumed the most outside duties. In my
<p 16>
capacity as adviser to college students I find
many who are able to accomplish thirty per
cent more work than is expected of college
students but fail to do equally well the regular
amount. There are others who can carry the
regular amount but not more without injury
to their health.
College grades afford a means of recording
intellectual efficiency directed toward particular
problems. With no apparent change in
bodily conditions the same student frequently
increases his efficiency a hundred per cent.
The increase seldom has an injurious effect
on health, but is merely evidence of the fact
that he has suddenly wakened up and is
applying energies which before were undiscovered.
A slow walk for a single mile leaves
many persons ``dragged out'' and exhausted,
but a brisk walk of the same or a greater distance
results in invigoration and recuperation.
Likewise the droning over an intellectual task
results in exhaustion, while vigorous treatment
whets the appetite for additional problems.
This swift, decisive attack on problems was
<p 17>
the method of Edward H. Harriman, who
crowded into ten years the railroad achievements
of an extraordinary lifetime. Decisions
involving expenditure of many millions of
dollars were arrived at so quickly as to seem
off-hand, even reckless. In reality, they were
the products of brief periods of intense application
in which he reviewed all the conditions
and elements involved, and forged his conclusion,
as it were, at white heat. Back of each
decision was exact and thorough knowledge
of the physical and traffic conditions of each
of his railroads. In the case of the Union
Pacific, at least, he gained this mastery by
patient, intensive study of each grade and
curve and freight-producing town on its 1800
miles of track.
The inhabitant of the torrid zone upon
moving to a northern climate is severely
affected by the chill of the atmosphere. The
discomfort may last for days or months, but
he becomes acclimated and is able to withstand
the cold without serious discomfort. Likewise
the inhabitant of a cool climate feels exhausted
<p 18>
by the heat of the torrid zone. In some cases
he is unable to accustom himself to the change,
but in many instances the acclimatization
follows rapidly and leaves the individual well
fortified against the dangers of excessive heat.
Persons who have accustomed themselves
to stimulants of any sort are completely depleted
if they are unable to get the special
form to which they have been accustomed.
This holds true for tobacco, morphine, coffee,
and many other forms of stimulants actually
indulged in by many persons. If they are
able to resist the temptation and deny themselves
the stimulant, the period of exhaustion
soon disappears and the subject may even lose
all craving for that which formerly seemed
essential to his very existence.
The quantity which we eat is partly a
matter of habit. There is doubtless a minimum
of nourishment which is absolutely necessary
for health and strength. On the other
hand there is doubtless a maximum limit
which cannot be passed without serious injury.
Our bodies seem to demand the amount of
<p 19>
food to which we have accustomed them. If
we should increase the amount ten or twenty
per cent, we might, for a while, feel some
discomfort from it, but soon our system
would begin to demand the greater quantity
and we could not again return to the lighter
diet without a period of discomfort. Likewise
the amount of food which most of us
consume could be reduced materially with no
permanent injury or reduction of energy or
danger to health. Following the reduction
would be a period of discomfort and probable
reduction of weight. This period would last
for but a relatively short time, after which we
would again strike a physiological equilibrium
such that an increase of food would not be
craved nor be of any benefit.
Any great increase in the amount of physical
or mental work results in a feeling of weariness
which is usually sufficient to cause us to return
to our habitual amount of expenditure of
energy. Our system is, however, wonderful
in its capacity to adjust itself to changed
demands which come upon it, whether these
<p 20>
demands be in the nature of changes in temperature,
in stimulants, in nourishment, or in
the expenditure of physical or mental energy.
There is, of course, a limit to possible human
achievements. There are resources which
may not be exhausted without serious injury
to health. Those who accomplish most, however,
compare favorably with others in length
of days and retention of health.
_While overwork has its place among the things
which reduce energy and shorten life, it is my
opinion that overwork is not so dangerous or so
common as is ordinarily supposed_.
In not a few industries, the dominant house
or firm has for its head a man past seventy
who still keeps a firm and vigorous grip on the
business: men like Richard T. Crane of
Chicago, E. C. Simmons of St. Louis, and
James J. Hill, whose careers are records of
intense industry and absorbed devotion to the
work in hand.
_Many persons confuse overwork with what is
really underwork accompanied with worry or
unhygienic practices_.
<p 21>
A recent writer on sociology calls attention
to the fact that nervous prostrations and
general breakdowns are most common among
those members of society who achieve the
least and who may be regarded as parasites.
Exercise both of brain and of muscle is necessary
for growth and for health.
Those nations which expend the most energy
are probably the ones among whom longevity
is greatest and the mortality rate the lowest.
In the city of Chicago there are many conditions
adverse to health of body and mind, yet
the city is famous for its relatively low mortality
as a parallel fact. It is also affirmed
that the average Chicago man works longer
hours and actually accomplishes more than
the average man elsewhere. This excess in the
expenditure of energy--in so far as it is
wisely spent--may be one of the reasons for
the excellent health record of the city.
In every walk of life we see that the race
is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong.
We all know men clearly of secondary ability
who nevertheless occupy high positions in
<p 22>
business and state. We are acquainted also
with men of excellent native endowment who
still have never risen above the ranks of mediocrity.
_Human efficiency is not measured in terms
of muscular energy nor of intellectual grasp. It
is dependent upon many factors other than native
strength of mind and body_.
The attitude which one takes toward life
in general and toward his calling in particular
is of more importance than native ability.
The man with concentration, or the power of
continued enthusiastic application, will surpass
a brilliant competitor if this latter is
careless and indifferent towards his work.
Many who have accomplished great things
in business, in the professions, and in science
have been men of moderate ability. For
testimony of this fact take this striking quotation
from Charles Darwin.
``I have no great quickness of apprehension
or wit, which is so remarkable in some clever
men,'' he writes. ``I am a poor critic. . . .
My power to follow a long and purely abstract
<p 23>
train of thought is very limited; and therefore
I never could have succeeded with metaphysics
or mathematics. My memory is extensive,
yet hazy; it suffices to make me cautious by
vaguely telling me that I have observed or read
something opposed to the conclusion which I
am drawing, or on the other hand in favor
of it. So poor in one sense is my memory,
that I have never been able to remember for
more than a few days a single date or a line
of poetry. I have a fair share of invention,
and of common sense or judgment, such as
every fairly successful lawyer or doctor must
have, but not, I believe, in any higher degree.''
This is presumably an honest statement
of fact, and in addition it should be remembered
that Darwin was always physically
weak, that for forty years he was practically
an invalid and able to work for only about
three hours a day. In these few hours he
was able to accomplish more, however, than
other men of apparently superior ability who
were able to work long hours daily for many
<p 24>
years. Darwin made the most of his ability
and increased his efficiency to its maximum.
For a parallel in business, Cyrus H. McCormick
might be named. The inventor of the
reaper and builder of the first American business
which covered the world was not a man of
extraordinary intellect, wit, or judgment. He
had, however, the will and power to focus his
attention on a single question until the answer
was evolved. Again and again, his biographers
tell us, he pursued problems which
eluded him far into the night and he was
frequently found asleep at his desk the morning
following. When roused, instead of seeking
rest, he addressed his task again and
usually overcame his obstacle before leaving
it.
All these considerations point to one conclusion.
It is quite certain, then, that most of
us are whiling away our days and occupying positions
far below our possibilities. A corollary
to this statement is Mr. Taylor's conclusion that
``few of our best-organized industries have attained
the maximum output of first-class men.''
<p 25>
_Not to give too wide application to his discovery
that the average day's work is only half
or less than half what a first-class man can do,
it is more than probable that the average man
could, with no injury to his health, increase his
efficiency fifty per cent_.
We are making use of only part of our existing
mental and physical powers and are not
taxing them beyond their strength. Increased
accomplishments, and heightened efficiency
would cultivate and develop them, would
waken the latent powers and tap hidden
stores of energy within us, would widen the
fields in which we labor and would open up
to us new and wider horizons of honorable
and profitable activity.
In succeeding chapters will be described
specific methods, many of which are employed
by individual firms, but which could be utilized
by other business men, to insure their own efficiency
and that of their employees. The experiences
of many successful houses will be linked
to the laws of psychology to point the way that
will bring about greater results from men.