“Make something hard enough for people and they
usually won't do it”
A great story is told in industry circles about the 1950's controller bent on
saving money for his accounting firm. This was back before computers when
accountants “kept books” with pencils. The penny pinching
controller commanded all pencils purchased by the firm must be #3 pencils,
forbidding the purchase of the softer #2 pencils. He carefully calculated that
the harder lead in the #3 pencils would last almost three times as long.
The result? Instead of the #3 pencils lasting three
times as long, they lasted twenty times as long. Pencil purchases almost
dropped to zero. What had happened?
Sensible accountants refused to use the hard #3 pencils (virtually
impossible to erase). They simply brought from home their own soft and easily
erasable #2 pencils.
The point? Make something hard enough for people
and they usually won't do it. Policies and practices which account for this
human trait are smarter than those which ignore it. Want people to sign up for
bringing VBS cookies? Then don't say, "If you'd be willing to bring
cookies for VBS see Vivian Jones after the service this morning." That's a
pure #3 pencil statement—making it hard for people to do something. If I'm willing to bring cookies I have
to (a) know which woman is Vivian ; (b) remember to see her after church; (c)
find Vivian; (d) offer to bake cookies; (e)and arrange to deliver them
wherever. Why make it so hard for me to make cookies for VBS? Don't you want
me to make cookies?
However, the #3 Pencil Principle works both ways. It also reminds us how to discourage
people from doing something without issuing an outright ban. (Parents of
teens—alert.) Policies seldom
have to forbid a thing outright—just make it difficult and most people
won't do it. This, after all is what rebates are all about, right? You can ten
dollars back, but will you?
Most don't.
The #3 pencil principle: Most people won’t do things if you make it
hard for them, so make it hard for them to do what you really don’t want
them to do… and visa versa --
make it easy for people to do what you want them to do.
So,
what do you think?
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Keith Drury
www.TuesdayColumn.com
Original 1984
recording: http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/strategetics/leadership/36.mp3