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The Hawthorne Effect is Alive and Well

Written by: Todd Youngblood

Article Overview: Genuinely good ideas have staying power, right? What if you could find a proven approach to continuous improvement with roots nearly a century old? Would you pursue it?

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The Hawthorne Effect is Alive and Well

Back in 1927 the Western Electric executives responsible for managing their "Hawthorne" plant near Chicago agreed to participate in a research study conducted by a Harvard Business School professor. At the time, very little was known about what factors had the greatest effect on industrial productivity, so it seemed like a good idea to set the consultants loose.

Interviews were conducted, environmental factors were changed and a host of labor, management and psychological issues were discussed and examined. Virtually everyone at the plant was involved in some way or another. It must have been quite exciting to have this brilliant group from a hot-shot northeastern university showing such interest in the making of telephone cable!

Anyhow, one of the recommendations was to brighten the place up by turning on more lights. Plant management complied and sure enough production increased. Now here's where it gets interesting... After a few months and more scholarly attention, the lights were turned back down. What happened to production? It went up again!

The plant guys couldn't figure out why; the executives couldn't figure out why. Even the research team was stumped, so they packed up all their data and went home to sort it out and come up with an answer. To make a long story short, they never did successfully uncover any statistical connection between changes made and productivity. (Even after all involved decided to extend the one-year project again and again until they finally wrapped it up five years later.)

So what's the moral to the story? With 20-20 hindsight and 75 more years study, it's clear:

Quite simply, this approach generates continuous learning. Is it harder to do with sales people than with factory workers? Well of course it's harder. The job is less defined and customers keep changing the rules. But so what? If it enables you to learn faster than the customer and the competition, it's well worth the effort. Got your Sales Excellence Council started yet?

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Home > Sales > Todd Youngblood > The Hawthorne Effect is Alive and Well
Article Tags: amp, brilliant group, environmental factors, expectation, harvard business school, hawthorne plant, hindsight, industrial productivity, labor management, li li, nbsp, northeastern university, plant management, psychological issues, scholarly attention, school professor, telephone cable

About the Author: Todd Youngblood
RSS for Todd's articles - Visit Todd's website

Todd Youngblood is passionate about sales productivity. His 30+ year career in Executive Management, Sales, Marketing and Consulting has focused on selling more, better, cheaper and faster. He began his career in 1976 as a Marketing Representative with the IBM Corporation and for fifteen years progressed through a wide variety of field and staff assignments. He then founded and operated an Information Technology Outsourcing firm providing Software Development and Maintenance Services. In 1994, he joined an electronic commerce firm serving the insurance and healthcare industries, as Vice President of Sales & Marketing. He established The YPS Group, Inc. in 1999 based on his years of experience in Sales Process Engineering � that is, combining creativity and discipline in the design, implementation and use of work processes for highly effective sales teams. Todd has worked extensively with firms in the Distribution, Manufacturing, Insurance, Services, and Telecommunications industries. He is the author of two sales management books, The Dolphin And The Cow and Think About It� He is married, has two daughters, enjoys cycling, is a second degree black belt in Choi Kwang Do and serves on the board of the Cobb Symphony Orchestra.

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