Increasing Efficiency In Business by Walter Dill Scott (desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

CHAPTER II

IMITATION

 

AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN

EFFICIENCY

 

TWENTY years ago the head of an industry

now in the million-a-month

class sat listening to his “star” salesman.

The latter, in the first enthusiasm of

discovery and creation, was telling how he had

developed the company’s haphazard selling

talk and had taken order after order with a

standard approach, demonstration, and summary

of closing arguments. To prove the

effectiveness of “the one best way,” he challenged

his employer to act as a customer,

staged the little drama he had arranged, secured

admissions of savings his machine would

make, ultimately cornered the other, and sold

him.

 

“That’s great,” the owner declared the in-

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stant he had surrendered to the salesman’s

logic. “If we can get all our agents to learn

and use this new method of yours, we’ll double

our business in three years.”

 

Then followed discussion of the means by

which the knowledge could be spread.

 

“I’ve got it,” the manager announced at

last. “I’ll telegraph five or six men to come

in”—he named the agents within a night’s

ride of the factory—“and you can show

them how you sold fifteen machines last week.

 

“We could take down your talk in shorthand

and send it to them, but that wouldn’t

do the business. I want them to watch you

sell, to study how you make your points, how

you introduce yourself, how you get your

man’s attention, how you bring out his

objections and meet them, how you lead up

to the signing minute, and show him where

to sign. *What you say is about half the trick:

*how you say it is the convincing part—the

thing the slowest man in the force by watching

you can learn more quickly than the smartest

could work out at home.”

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The result of that conference was one of

the earliest organized training schools for

salesmen in the country. It was an unconscious,

but none the less certain, utilization

of the instinct of *imitation for increasing the

efficiency in employees. Since then, business

has borrowed many well-recognized principles

from psychology and pedagogy and adapted

them to the same end.

 

Many important houses have grafted the

school upon their organizations and *teach

not only raw and untrained employees, but

provide instruction calculated to make workmen

and clerks masters of their jobs and also

to fit them for advancement to higher and

more productive planes. Teaching is by example

rather than by precept, just as it was

in the old apprentice system.

 

_The newer method uses even more than the

older a perfect example of the process and the

product for the learner’s imitation and makes

them the basis of the instruction_.

 

No man was made to live alone. For an

individual, existence entirely independent of

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other members of the race is the conception

of a dreamer; apart from others one would

fail to become *human. Modern psychology

has abandoned the individualistic and adopted

the social point of view. We no longer think

of *imitation as a characteristic only of animals,

children, and weak-minded folk.

 

_We have come to see that imitation is the

greatest factor in the education of the young and

a continuous process with all of us. The part

of wisdom, then, is to utilize this power from

which we cannot escape, by setting up a perfect

copy for imitation_.

 

The child brought up by a Chinaman

imitates the sounds he hears, hence speaks

Chinese; brought up in an American home,

English is his speech—ungrammatical or

correct according to the usage of his companions.

If one boy in a group walks on

stilts or plays marbles, the others follow his

example. If a social leader rides in an automobile,

wears a Panama hat, or plays golf,

all the members of this circle are restless till

they have the same experience. The same

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phenomenon is seen in the professions and in

business. If one bank decides to erect a

building for its own use, other banks in the

city begin to consult architects. If one manufacturer

or distributor in a given field adopts

a new policy in manufacturing or in extending

his trade zone, his rivals immediately consider

plans of a similar sort. Partly, of course,

this act is defensive. In the main, however,

imitation and emulation are at the bottom

of the move.

 

For the sake of clearness, in studying acts

of imitation we separate them into two

classes—_*voluntary_ imitation (also called conscious

imitation) and *instinctive imitation (also

known as *suggestive imitation).

 

A peculiar signature may strike my fancy

so that consciously and deliberately I may

try to imitate it. This is a clear case of

voluntary imitation. Threading crowded city

streets, I see a man crossing at a particular

point and voluntarily follow in his path. In

learning a new skating figure I watch an expert

attentively and try to repeat his perform-

<p 31>

ance. In writing letters or advertisements

or magazine articles, I analyze the work

of other men and consciously imitate what

seems best. Or I observe a fellow-laborer

working faster than I, and forthwith try to

catch and hold his pace.

 

The contagion of yawning, on the other

hand, is instinctive imitation. Also when in

a crowd during the homeward evening rush,

we instinctively quicken our pace though there

may be no reason for hurry.

 

For precisely similar reasons, a “loafer”

or a careless or inefficient workman will lower

the efficiency or slow up the production of

the men about him, no matter how earnest

or industrious their natural habits. Night

work by clerks, also, is taken by some office

managers to indicate a slump in industry during

the day. To correct this the individuals

who are drags on the organization are discovered,

and either are revitalized or discharged.

 

_I have seen more than one machine shop where

production could have been materially raised_

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_by the simple expedient of weeding out the workmen

who were satisfied with a mere living wage

earned by piecework, thereby setting a dilatory

example to the rest; and replacing them with

fresh men ambitious to earn all they could, who

would have been imitated by the others_.

 

In these instances it is assumed that the

imitation is not voluntary, but that we

unconsciously imitate whatever actions happen

to catch our attention. For the negative

action, the “slowing down” process, we have

the greater affinity simply because labor or

exertion is naturally distasteful. One such

influence or example, therefore, may sway us

more than a dozen positive impulses towards

industry.

 

Imitation thus broadly considered is seen

to be of the utmost importance in every walk

of life. The greatest and most original genius

is in the main a creature of imitation. By

imitation he reaches the level of knowledge

and skill attained by others; and upon this

foundation builds his structure of original and

creative thought, experiment, and achieve-

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ment. Furthermore he does not imitate at

random; but concentrates his activity on

those things and persons in the line of his pursuits.

 

Among my associates are both industrious

and shiftless individuals. I instinctively imitate

the actions of all those with whom I come

in contact; but if I am sufficiently ambitious,

I will consciously imitate the acts of the industrious.

This patterning after energetic models

will render me more active and efficient than

would have been possible for me without such

examples.

 

_Imitation, accordingly, is an imperative factor

both in self-development and in the control of

groups of individuals. Knowing that I instinctively

imitate all sorts of acts, I must take

care that only the right sort shall catch my attention_.

 

And since imitation is a most effective aid

in development, I must provide myself with

the best models. To reduce my tendency to

idleness or procrastination I must avoid the

companionship of the shiftless. To acquire

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ease and accuracy in the use of French, I must

consort with masters of that tongue.

 

In handling others, the same rule holds.

 

_To profit from the instinctive imitation of

my men, I must control their environment in

shop or office and make sure that examples of

energy and efficiency are numerous enough

to catch their attention and establish, as it were,

an atmosphere of industry in the place_.

 

There are instances in which it would be

to the mutual interest of employer and employee

to increase the speed of work, but conditions

may limit or forbid the use of pacemakers.

In construction work and in some

of the industries where there are minute subdivision

of operations and continuity of processes

this method of increasing efficiency is

very commonly applied. In many factories,

however, such an effort to “speed up” production

might stir resentment, even among the

pieceworkers, and have an effect exactly opposite

to that desired. The alternative, of

course, is for the employer to secure unconscious

pacemakers by providing incentives

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for the naturally ambitious men in the way of

a premium or bonus system or other reward

for unusual efficiency.

 

To take advantage of their conscious or

voluntary imitation, workpeople must be

provided with examples which appeal to them

as admirable and inspire the wish to emulate

them. A common application of this principle

is seen in the choice of department heads,

foremen, and other bosses. Invariably these

win promotion by industry, skill, and efficiency

greater than that displayed by their fellows,

or by