Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1134IR // #c1134Synthesis

"…whenever the new method is found to be markedly superior to the old, it should be adopted as the standard for the whole establishment. The workman should be given the full credit for the improvement, and should be paid a cash premium as a reward for his ingenuity."

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

[Use when]

You have standardized a process and need a way to keep improving it.

[Why it matters]

Suggestions get a formal experiment against the current standard, and the winner becomes the new standard with credit and cash to its author.

Filed under situations:When you’re building the thing, not just planning it

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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