In using the dictaphone, one can do much better work if one is in a room where there is little or nothing to distract attention. An outline of work ahead, may tempt to study and planning of what is ahead, rather than to carrying out the task scheduled for immediate performance. The presence of a paper with an outline merely of what is being done is found to be a great help, as the eye can rest on that, and after a few moments, will become so accustomed to
it that the whole attention will be given to the dictating.
Benefits of Eliminating "Decision of Choice." — There is always time lost by "decision of choice." The elimination of this is well illustrated by the bricks that are piled on the packet, which decides for the bricklayer which brick is next, making an obvious sequence, hence the saving of time of decision regarding motions, also the saving coming from the play for position. Oftentimes a handicap of slow mental action can be compensated for, in a measure, by planning ahead in great detail. In this way, if the plan is made sufficiently in detail, there is absolutely no time possible left to be wasted in "decision of choice." The worker goes from one step to another, and as these steps are arranged logically, his mind does not tend to wander away, but to keep on in an uninterrupted sequence to the goal.
Standard Equipment Important. — As for equipment, the phenomena of habit are among the most important features of the psychology of management and the possibilities of the elimination of unnecessary waste resulting from taking advantage of this feature is possible only when the equipment, surroundings and methods of the worker are standardized. Therefore the insistence upon standardization, even down to the smallest things, is vital for achieving the greatest output.
For example, — suppose the keys of the monotype machine, piano or typewriter were not located permanently in the same relative position. Consider the loss of time in not being able to use habits in finding
each key. Such an arrangement sounds ridiculous on the face of it, yet it is a common practice for many operators, especially of monotype machines, to make a complete mental decision as to the muscles and fingers with which they will strike the desired key.
Imagine the records of output of a typist who was using a different keyboard every day, if there were that many kinds of keyboards. It is easy for anyone to conceive the great advantages of standard keyboards for such machines, but only those who have made a study of output of all kinds of workers can fully realize that similar differences in sizes of output are being produced by the workers of the country for lack of similar standardization of working conditions and equipment.
Utmost Standardization Does Not Make "Machines" of the Workers Operating Under It. — The attention of those who believe that standardization makes machines out of the workers themselves, is called to the absence of such effect upon the typist as compared with the scribe, the monotype and linotype operator as compared with the compositor, and the mechanical computing machine operator as compared with the arithmetician.
Standard Methods Demand Standard Tools and Devices. — Habits cannot be standardized until the devices and tools used are of standard pattern. It is not nearly so essential to have the best tools as it is to have standard tools. [8] Experience in the hospitals
points to the importance of this fact in surgery. Tools once adopted as standard should not be changed until the improvement or greater efficiency from their use will compensate for the loss during the period of "breaking in" the user, that is, of forming new habits in order to handle strange tools. As will be brought out more fully under "Teaching," good habits are as difficult to break as bad ones, the only difference being that one does not usually desire to break good ones. Naturally, if a new device is introduced, what was an excellent habit for the old device becomes, perhaps, a very bad habit for the new device. There must come a time before the manipulation of the new device has become a habit when output will go down and costs will go up. It is necessary, before introducing this device, to investigate whether the ultimate reduction of costs will be sufficient to allow for this period of lower production. It is not fair, however, to the new device or method really to consider its record until the use of it has become such a habit with the workers as was the use of the old device.