Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1124IR // #c1124Synthesis

"…if the workman fails to do his task, some competent teacher should be sent to show him exactly how his work can best be done, to guide, help, and encourage him, and, at the same time, to study his possibilities as a workman."

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

[Use when]

Someone misses targets in their first month and the reflex is to let them go.

[Why it matters]

The first response to a miss was instruction. If that failed the man was moved to work he was better suited to, "instead of brutally discharging the man or lowering his wages."

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

More from The Principles of Scientific Management

#c1113"The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant…Your team's estimates never get shorter no matter how familiar the work becomes. #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.

Same situation, different book

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