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Card #c1113IR // #c1113Synthesis

"The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant of how fast work can be done."

— In our words · Source: The Principles of Scientific Management (Frederick Winslow Taylor)

[Use when]

Your team's estimates never get shorter no matter how familiar the work becomes.

[Why it matters]

Taylor quotes his own earlier paper: the employer rarely forces a faster pace without "an actual record proving conclusively how fast the work can be done." So the crew's main interest is making sure no such record ever exists.

Filed under situations:When the team is looking to you to lead

More from The Principles of Scientific Management

#c1114"…after a workman has had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two or three times as a result of his having worked harder…You are tempted to raise a quota because someone beat it. #c1115"…since they were paid by the hour, the faster they went the less money they got, and finally telling him that if he went too fast the…You are setting up pay for work where you can't easily see the pace. #c1116"…there are many different ways in common use for doing the same thing, perhaps forty, fifty, or a hundred ways of doing each act in each…Every person on the team does the same recurring task differently.

Same situation, different book

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