HOW TO

WHEN NOTHING ELSE WORKS, TRY THIS

CHARLES SCHWAB HAD a mill manager whose people weren’t producing

their quota of work.

‘How is it,’ Schwab asked him, ‘that a manager as capable as you can’t

make this mill turn out what it should?’

‘I don’t know,’ the manager replied. ‘I’ve coaxed the men, I’ve pushed

them, I’ve sworn and cussed, I’ve threatened them with damnation and

being fired. But nothing works. They just won’t produce.’

This conversation took place at the end of the day, just before the night

shift came on. Schwab asked the manager for a piece of chalk, then, turning

to the nearest man, asked:

‘How many heats did your shift make today?’

‘Six.’

Without another word, Schwab chalked a big figure ‘6’ on the floor,

and walked away.

When the night shift came in, they saw the ‘6’ and asked what it

meant.

‘The big boss was in here today,’ the day people said. ‘He asked us

how many heats we made, and we told him six. He chalked it on the floor.’

The next morning Schwab walked through the mill again. The night

shift had rubbed out ‘6’ and replaced it with a big ‘7.’

When the day shift reported for work the next morning, they saw a big

‘7’ chalked on the floor. So the night shift thought they were better than the

day shift, did they? Well, they would show the night shift a thing or two.

The crew pitched in with enthusiasm, and when they quit that night, they

left behind them an enormous, swaggering ‘10.’ Things were stepping up.

Shortly this mill, which had been lagging way behind in production,

was turning out more work than any other mill in the plant.

The principle?

Let Charles Schwab say it in his own words: ‘The way to get things

done,’ says Schwab, ‘is to stimulate competition. I do not mean in a sordid

money-getting way, but in the desire to excel.’

The desire to excel! The challenge! Throwing down the gauntlet! An

infallible way of appealing to people of spirit.

Without a challenge, Theodore Roosevelt would never have been

President of the United States. The Rough Rider, just back from Cuba, was

picked for governor of New York State. The opposition discovered he was

no longer a legal resident of the state, and Roosevelt, frightened, wished to

withdraw. Then Thomas Collier Platt, then U.S. Senator from New York,

threw down the challenge. Turning suddenly on Theodore Roosevelt, he

cried in a ringing voice: ‘Is the hero of San Juan Hill a coward?’

Roosevelt stayed in the fight – and the rest is history. A challenge not

only changed his life; it had a real effect upon the future of his nation.

‘All men have fears, but the brave put down their fears and go forward,

sometimes to death, but always to victory’ was the motto of the King’s

Guard in ancient Greece. What greater challenge can be offered than the

opportunity to overcome those fears?

When Al Smith was the governor of New York, he was up against it.

Sing Sing, at the time the most notorious penitentiary west of Devil’s

Island, was without a warden. Scandals had been sweeping through the

prison walls, scandals and ugly rumours. Smith needed a strong man to rule

Sing Sing – an iron man. But who? He sent for Lewis E. Lawes of New

Hampton.

‘How about going up to take charge of Sing Sing?’ he said jovially

when Lawes stood before him. ‘They need a man up there with experience.’

Lawes was flabbergasted. He knew the dangers of Sing Sing. It was a

political appointment, subject to the vagaries of political whims. Wardens

had come and gone – one lasted only three weeks. He had a career to

consider. Was it worth the risk?

Then Smith, who saw his hesitation, leaned back in his chair and

smiled. ‘Young fellow,’ he said, ‘I don’t blame you for being scared. It’s a

tough spot. It’ll take a big person to go up there and stay.’

So he went. And he stayed. He stayed, to become the most famous

warden of his time. His book 20,000 Years in Sing Sing sold into the

hundred of thousands of copies. His broadcasts on the air and his stories of

prison life have inspired dozens of movies. His ‘humanising’ of criminals

wrought miracles in the way of prison reform.

‘I have never found,’ said Harvey S. Firestone, founder of the great

Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company, ‘that pay and pay alone would either

bring together or hold good people. I think it was the game itself.’

Frederic Herzberg, one of the great behavioural scientists, concurred.

He studied in depth the work attitudes of thousands of people ranging from

factory workers to senior executives. What do you think he found to be the

most motivating factor – the one facet of the jobs that was most

stimulating? Money? Good working conditions? Fringe benefits? No – not

any of those. The one major factor that motivated people was the work

itself. If the work was exciting and interesting, the worker looked forward

to doing it and was motivated to do a good job.

That is what every successful person loves: the game. The chance for

self-expression. The chance to prove his or her worth, to excel, to win. That

is what makes foot-races, and hog-calling, and pie-eating contests. The

desire to excel. The desire for a feeling of importance.