If you don't believe it, look at the figure on [page 158]. See what happened to production? Yes, that pretty dotted line—the one with the big dip in it—marks labor costs per trip.
The manager, you see—and now we come to the principle involved—had MADE HIS HELP SEE THAT THE BONUS PLAN AMOUNTED TO GIVING THEM WHAT THEY WANTED. And of course, that was more pay. At the same time it got the company what it wanted—more production.
CHART OF RECORDS OF DISPATCHING ELECTRIC TRUCKS
1922-1929
Fundamentally, the manager's system was precisely like the messenger boy's. And you can prove that in a trice by charting it on the same old basis.
Try it. It won't take you more than a couple of minutes.
This might go on for a long, long time. Innumerable examples might be introduced into this text to illustrate this balancing of wants and its importance to the successful conduct of this business of MANAGING—to illustrate that your own personal method of seeking cooperation or service is more a matter of reason than innate ability to "size up the other fellow."
There is, in a word, method back of this "KNACK OF HANDLING THE HELP."
The method is this. Ask yourself each time this simple question: What does your "helper" want?