“If there was a single question that obsessed 20th century managers, from Frederick
Taylor to Jack Welch, it was this: How do we get more out of our people? At one level,
this question is innocuous—who can object to the goal of raising human productivity?
Yet it’s also loaded with industrial age thinking: How do we (meaning “management”)
get more (meaning units of production per hour) out of our people (meaning the
individuals who are obliged to follow our orders)? Ironically, the management model
encapsulated in this question virtually guarantees that a company will never get the best
out of its people. Vassals and conscripts may work hard, but they don’t work willingly.”