Competition should not be for a share of the market-but to expand the market.
W. Edwards DemingRead
The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the distractions and non-work-related interruptions that impede productivity in the workplace.
W. Edwards Deming emphasizes the challenges faced by the average American worker, who experiences numerous interruptions throughout their workday. A staggering seventy percent of these interruptions are irrelevant to their actual jobs, suggesting that the work environment can often be chaotic and fragmented, ultimately affecting overall productivity and job satisfaction.
In practice
In a seminar on workplace efficiency, a speaker could use this quote to illustrate the importance of minimizing distractions.
Competition should not be for a share of the market-but to expand the market.
The job can't be finished only improved to please the customer.
Don't expect smart people to listen to you without proof.
Quality begins with the intent, which is fixed by management.
Learn the basics of analytics and people will love you. If you don't have time to learn, hire someone.
Just because you can measure everything doesn't mean that you should.
It is right and necessary that all should have work to do which shall be worth doing and be of itself pleasant to do, and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious.
I have a job I'm pretty good at. I am in charge of things. I am on committees. People respect me and take my counsel. I want to be strong and professional, but I resent how hard I have to work to be taken seriously, to receive a fraction of the consideration I might otherwise receive.
In an ideal world, nobody's work would be just about the money. People could pursue excellence in what they do, take pride in achievement, and derive meaning from knowing that their work improved the lives of others.
I love working if it's with people who are capable of having a good time. People with a little bit of enjoyment of what they do. If it's enormous pressure, and people feel that their lives are at stake, then it's agony. So I try to pick projects where I feel like I'm going to avoid those traps.
Labor rids us of three great evils; tediousness, vice, and poverty.
I'm not interested in doing work that doesn't captivate me.
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