Making Experience an Asset: Judgment Formation · Increasing Human Efficiency in Business

MAKING EXPERIENCE AN ASSET: JUDGMENT FORMATION

WHY is it that of two men who are working at the same desk or bench the one acquires valuable experience rapidly and the other slowly?

Why is it that of two houses each employing a thousand men the one sees its employees securing experiences that enhance their earning capacity rapidly, but the other house is compelled periodically to secure new blood by importing men from rival firms?

Modern psychology teaches that experience is not merely the best teacher but the only possible teacher. All that any instructor can do is to select and to provide the conditions necessary for appropriate experiences and to stimulate the learner to make the most of them. The ignorant is changed into the learned by means of the utilization of profitable experiences. By the same method the novice is changed into the expert; the amateur into the professional; the inefficient into the efficient; and the errand boy into the manager.

One of the most important questions any man can ask is this: What experience am I actually getting from day to day and what experience might my situation offer?

One of the most important questions the employer of men can ask is this: How much more efficient will my men be to-morrow because of the experience of to-day? How might their experience be changed or utilized so that their efficiency might be increased more rapidly?

In planning to secure permanent increase in efficiency, whether for one's self or for one's employees, we simplify our problem by considering it under the two following subdivisions:--

What Experiences are Most Valuable?

How may these Most Valuable Experiences be Secured and Utilized?

Preparatory to the answering of these two questions it will simplify matters to consider the general conditions which affect the value of experience.

GENERAL CONDITIONS GIVING VALUE TO EXPERIENCE

1. Health and Vigor.

The mind and body are so intimately connected that the value of an experience is seriously affected by depletion or exhaustion of the body. The experiences acquired when one is fresh and vigorous are remembered; those acquired when one is tired are forgotten. Most college students find that lessons gotten in the morning are better remembered and are more readily applied than those learned after a day of exhaustive work. We get most out of those experiences secured when we are feeling the most vigorous, whether the vigor be dependent upon age, rest, or general health.

2. Experience is valuable proportionately as we apply ourselves to the task on hand. By intensity of application we not only accomplish more, but each unit of work contributes more to our development. Under the stress of voluntary and spontaneous attention, under the stimulus of personal efficiency-ideals, and under such social demands as competition and imitation we develop new methods of thought and action which are thereupon adopted as the methods for future action.

3. The value of an experience depends upon what has been called the ``personal attitude'' sustained during the experience. Three forms of ``personal attitudes'' have been distinguished and are designated as follows:--

(_a_) The submissive or suggestible attitude.

(_b_) The self-attentive attitude.

(_c_) The objective or the problem attitude.

(_a_) One is likely to be thrown into the submissive attitude when a new situation arises (a business problem), if one knows that he is in the presence of others who could solve the problem with relative ease or accuracy. In such a situation the individual is hampered in his thinking by the presence of those who are more expert than he. His thinking is therefore futile for the present difficulty and is devoid of educative value.

(_b_) The self-attentive attitude is similar to the submissive attitude, but is not to be confused with it. If when confronted with a difficult problem my attack upon it is weakened by the expectation of assistance from others, I am in a submissive attitude. If, however, my attack is weakened by my realization that I am on trial,--that what I do with the problem will be observed by others,--then I become self-conscious and am thrown into the self- attentive attitude. If I am conscious that I am being watched, it is quite difficult for me to hit a golf ball, to add a column of figures, or to deliver a lecture on psychology. So long as I am self-attentive my efficiency is reduced; I hit on no improved methods of thought or action, and my experience therefore has no permanent value.

(_c_) So soon as I can forget others and myself and can take the objective, or the problem attitude, the chances of efficient action are greatly increased. I find it relatively easy to assume this attitude when I feel that I stand on my own responsibility; that the problem cannot possibly be referred to any higher authority, but that the solution depends upon me alone. My chances of solving the problem would be much reduced, if it were proposed to me at a time when I felt domineered by a superior, or when I felt that he knew much more about it and could settle it much more easily and surely than I. If the problem demanded previous experience and the possession of knowledge which I did not possess, it would be likely to make me self-conscious and hence incapable of utilizing even the experience and the knowledge that I do possess. Past success, the possession of wide experience, and technical instruction keep me from assuming the self-attentive attitude and enable me to take the problem or objective attitude. This is the only attitude consistent with improved form of thought or action, and hence is the attitude essential for valuable experience.

4. That experience is the most valuable that is acquired in dealing with conditions similar to those in connection with which improvement is sought. Experience in wood-chopping makes one a better chopper but does not necessarily increase his skill in sawing wood. Experience in bookkeeping increases one's ability in that particular, but does not appreciably increase his ability to handle men. Speed and accuracy of judgment secured in inspecting one sort of goods cannot be depended upon, if a different sort of goods is to be inspected.

The experience secured in responding to one situation will be valuable in responding to a similar situation because of the three following facts:--

(_a_) Two similar conditions may secure identical factors in our activity. Thus school life and the executive's work secure such identical activities as are involved in reading, in writing, or in arithmetic, and so forth, whether accomplished in the schoolroom or the office.

(_b_) The method developed in one experience may be applied equally well to another activity. In connection with a course in college, a student may acquire a scientific method of procedure. At a later time he may (or he may not) apply this same method to the problems arising in his business or industrial life.

(_c_) Ideals developed in one experience may be projected into other experiences. If the ideals of promptness, neatness, accuracy, and honesty are developed in one relationship of life, the probabilities are somewhat increased that the same ideals will be applied to all experiences.

Provided that the four general conditions discussed are secured, we then have the more specific and important question to ask:--

WHAT EXPERIENCES ARE THE MOST VALUABLE?

Only those experiences are valuable that in an appreciable degree modify future action. One way in which an experience or a series of experiences modifies future action is in the formation of habits.

_Habit Formation_

Habit has a beneficial influence on future action in five particulars:--

(_a_) Habit reduces the necessary time of action. Repeating the twenty-six letters of the alphabet has become so habitual that I can repeat them forward in two seconds. To repeat them in any other than an habitual order, _e.g_. backwards, requires sixty seconds.

(_b_) Habit increases accuracy. I can repeat the alphabet forward without danger of error, but when I try to repeat it backward I am extremely likely to go astray.

(_c_) Habit reduces the attendant exhaustion. Reading English is for me more habitual than reading French. Hence the latter is the more exhausting process.

(_d_) Habit relieves the mind from the necessity of paying attention to the details of the successive steps of the act. When piano playing has been completely reduced to habit, the finger movement, the reading of the notes, etc., are all carried on successively with the minimum of thought.

(_e_) Habit gives a permanency to experience. For many years in playing tennis I served the ball in a way that had become for me perfectly habitual. For an interval of three years I played no tennis, but when I began again I found that I could serve as well as ever. If the manner of service had not been so perfectly reduced to habit, I would have found after an interval of three years that I was completely out of practice, _i.e_. that my previous experience did not have a permanent value.

(The subject of habit formation will be more completely presented in Chapter XIII.)

A second form of experience that is capitalized and so predetermines a man's capacity to act and to think is the formation of what is known as practical judgments.

_Practical judgments_

By a practical judgment is meant the conscious recall of a concrete past experience and the determination of some action by means of this consciously recalled event. I find that it will be necessary for me to secure a new stenographer. I solve the problem by consciously recalling how I got one before. Upon the basis of that consciously recalled previous experience I decide how to act now. This is a practical judgment.

In strictness what is capitalized is not the practical judgment itself but the original concrete experience that is recalled at a later time, and upon the basis of which a practical judgment is formed.

Practical judgments cannot be more comprehensive than one's previous experience. The necessary condition for fertility in the formations of practical judgments is therefore richness of previous experience. Indeed one's practical judgments are much more restricted than one's actual experiences. A practical judgment is dependent not merely upon having had the necessary experience, but upon the recall of it at the appropriate occasion. The key to a side door of my house was temporarily lost. After trying scores of keys, I found that a key to a room in the attic would also open the side door. This side-door key was again carried off last week. After much vexation and after trying numerous keys, I again discovered that the key to the room in the attic would open the side door. I failed to make the necessary practical judgment. If when the key was lost the second time I had recalled my former experience and had taken advantage of it, I would have formed a practical judgment and would have saved myself much inconvenience.

The formation of practical judgments is not a high form of thought. Indeed it is held by many that the animals are capable of some form of practical judgment. A much more effective form of thought is the formation of reflective judgments.

_Reflective judgments_

A practical judgment is based on a single concrete case. A reflective judgment is based on a generalization, an abstraction, or a principle derived from many previous experiences.

Last night a salesman tried to induce me to purchase an interest in an Idaho apple orchard. Thereupon I recalled an instance of a friend who a year ago had made such a purchase and had found it a profitable investment. If on the basis of this or some other concrete case I had accepted or rejected his offer, I would have made a practical judgment. As a matter of fact I caused several concrete instances to pass through my mind, made the generalization that most professional men lose when they invest in distant properties, and upon the basis of this generalization made my reflective judgment and rejected his proposition.

Last week on the golf links I saw a Bohemian peasant woman wearing clothes full of small holes. I tried to figure out how the clothing had become so injured. I recalled seeing a coat that had been left all summer in an attic till it had been eaten to pieces by the moths. On the basis of that recalled incident I satisfied myself by means of the practical judgment that she was wearing moth-eaten clothing. A few days later I saw three of these women working on one of the greens, and each of them had on clothing full of small holes. I began to reflect as to the cause of the holes. I observed that each woman held a bottle in her hand and was apparently applying the contents of the bottle to the roots of the dandelion plants. I inferred that the liquid must be an acid. Then of all the qualities of an acid I considered merely its corrosiveness. With that abstraction in mind I made the reflective judgment that the women were working with an acid and that from time to time particles of the acid got on their clothes and corroded them.

A manager of a large manufacturing and selling organization made a study of the conditions affecting the prosperity of his organization. From his observations he deduced the principle that for him it is more important to increase the loyalty of the men to the organization than to reduce the apparent labor cost. With this principle in mind he made various reflective judgments in upbuilding his organization.

In these illustrations of theoretical or reflective judgments it will be observed that no previous single experience was in the mind of the one forming the judgment but merely a generalization, an abstraction, or principle.

The experience that is really capitalized is the formation of the generalizations, abstractions, and principles which are thereafter available for reflective judgments and can be applied to a multitude of novel situations but situations in which the generalization, abstraction, or principle is a factor.

The significance of reflective judgments in increasing human efficiency was manifested in a striking manner by the following experiment. A group of individuals were tested as to their ability to solve a number of mechanical puzzles. The time required for each individual was recorded. The subjects then described as completely as possible how they had solved the problem (worked the puzzle). In some instances the subjects kept trying blindly, till by accident they hit upon the right method. In such cases the second and third trials might take as long or even longer than the first trial. If, however, the subject had in mind the right principle or principles for solving the problems, the time required for succeeding attempts fell abruptly. Curve A of Figure 6 is a graphic representation of the results of A with one of the puzzles. To solve the problem the first time required 1476 seconds. While solving it this first time A discovered a principle upon which success depended. The second attempt consumed 241 seconds. While solving the problem this second time he discovered a second principle. With these two principles in mind succeeding attempts were rendered rapid and certain.

Another young man, B, in solving his problem. (Chinese Rings Puzzle) succeeded after working 1678 seconds. At the completion of this successful attempt he had in mind no principle for working it. The second trial was not so successful as the first and lasted 2670 seconds. With succeeding trials he reduced his time but not regularly and was still working ``in the dark.'' His method was one of extreme simplicity and probably not different from the ``try, try again'' method employed by animals in learning. The results of his first ten trials are graphically shown in Curve B of Figure 6.

A comparison of Figure 6 with the five

{illust. caption = FIG. 6.}

figures of Chapter X will show how rapidly increase of efficiency is when dependent upon judgments as contrasted with improvement dependent upon habit.

A judgment once having been made may be utilized again and again. The process of applying these preformed judgments is known as an intuitive or perhaps better called an expert judgment.

_Expert judgments_

Just as appropriate concrete experiences determine the nature and the range of practical judgments, and as the formation of generalizations, abstractions, and principles determine the possibilities of reflective judgments, so the actual formation of the practical and reflective judgments determine the nature and the range of the intuitive or expert judgments.

Some years ago I had a need for an attorney to perform for me a petty service. Just at that critical moment I met a friend who was a lawyer. I employed him forthwith. At a later time I needed a lawyer again, recalled my former experience, and called up the same attorney. This employing him the second time was clearly a practical judgment. If I have frequent need for an attorney, I shall probably make use of my preformed practical judgment and employ this same attorney. This act will never become a habit, but it will approximate more and more a habitual action, and will seem to be performed intuitively, and will be an illustration of an expert judgment.

This morning I was asked to find a cook and man of general utility for an outing camp. I had no preformed practical judgment which I could apply to the case and did not even possess a remembrance of any experience upon which I might base a practical experience. In such a case therefore I am not only not an expert but I do not possess the necessary preliminary experiences for developing such ability.

During the last decade I have given much thought to this question: Does the efficiency of one's thinking depend at all upon the clearness and distinctness of the mental image used in the thinking? I settled the question in the negative. The formation of this principle (clear thinking does not depend upon clear visual image) was an act of reflective judgment. But now the application of this preformed judgment has developed into an expert judgment. Recently I was given the manuscript of a course in psychology and asked to appraise it. One of the chief points of the author was to advise all business men to develop clear visual images. In fact he asserted that clearness of thinking was in proportion to clearness of the visual image with which the thinking is carried on. Without again weighing the evidence for my principle, I applied my preformed judgment and by means of this expert judgment condemned the course.

A man is expert only in those fields in which he has developed the appropriate habits, the necessary, practical, and reflective judgments, and has had some practice in applying these judgments.

We find that four classes of experiences are valuable, _i.e_. such experiences as result in the formation of habits; such as result in practical judgments, in reflective judgments, and in expert judgments. Our final task is to consider methods for increasing the probabilities that such experiences may be secured and utilized.

SECURING AND UTILIZING THESE MOST VALUABLE EXPERIENCES

The conditions best adapted for procuring and utilizing one class of these most valuable experiences may not be the best for the other three classes. Our final problem must therefore be subdivided into four parts corresponding to the four classes of valuable experience.

_Special Conditions Favorable to Habit Formation_

The essential condition for habit formation is repetition with intensity of application. The modern movement in the industrial world known as scientific management supplies this need for repetition by standardizing all activities so that they will be repeated over and over in identical form; and it secures the intensity of application by means of the task and bonus system. By these means the most valuable experiences for habit formation are secured and utilized.

The working out of this fact is so admirably described in recent reports upon scientific management that further description here would be superfluous.

_Special Conditions Favorable to the Formation of Practical judgments_

In addition to the four general conditions discussed on pages 278 to 283@@@ the special conditions most favorable to the formation of practical judgments are the three following:--

1. The experiences most effective in arousing practical judgments are those that are most recent. A few days ago I purchased a piece of real estate and was asked how I wanted the property transferred. I replied immediately that I wanted a warranty deed and a guarantee policy. This was a practical judgment made upon the basis of a recent previous experience. As a matter of fact there are three distinct methods of transferring real estate, but until after my judgment had been made I was perfectly oblivious of the other methods, although I had had experience with them some years before. Thus I utilized only my recent experience in making my practical judgment.

2. Other things being equal, those experiences are most valuable in arousing practical judgments that have been the most frequent. I have seen burns dressed many times and in many ways, but most often they have been dressed with soda and water. When I was called upon recently to dress a burn I recalled the method which I had seen most often and formed a practical judgment based thereupon and was helped out of my difficulty.

3. Our most vivid and intense experiences are the ones most likely to be recalled and to be utilized in the formation of practical judgments. The mistakes that I have to pay for and the deed that secured my promotion are the experiences most fertile in the formation of practical judgments.

_Special Conditions Favorable to the Formation of Reflective judgments_

In addition to the general conditions mentioned on page 278@@@ the special conditions favorable for the formation of reflective judgments are as follows:--

1. A theoretical education. Proverbially schools teach generalizations, abstractions, and principles. The scholar and the student are compelled to practice in this most effective form of thinking. A justifiable criticism of the schools is that they are inclined to neglect the lower forms of thinking--the dealing with the concrete--in their zeal for the highest forms of thinking. However, a school education not only gives practice in handling generalizations, abstractions, and principles, but it provides the conditions necessary to stimulate the learners to amass a useful stock of concepts that at a later time will be used in reflective judgments.

2. Suggestions from others. Reflective judgments depend upon condensed experience. The condensation is not produced by compres- sion but by selecting the common though essential element from various former experiences and by uniting these elements into a new unity. This breaking up of former experiences by analyzing out the essential factor is a difficult task and one in which no man can proceed far without assistance from others.

At a recent meeting of psychologists a speaker presented a paper on the most helpful order of presentation of topics for a course in psychology. He simply called our attention to certain facts which we had all experienced as teachers of psychology. He then combined these abstracted elements in a new unity in such a way that I was enabled to form a reflective judgment as to the order of presenting topics in psychology. Without his suggestion I probably never would have been able to make the analysis necessary for the reflective judgment.

We need all the help we can get to assist us to analyze our own experiences. To this end we employ with great profit such agencies as conferences with fellow-workmen, conventions, visitations, trade journals, and technical discussions upon our own problem (cf. Chapter XI).

3. Verbal expression. We cannot well unite factors of previous experience into a new whole unless we have some symbol to stand for the new unity. As such a symbol, a word is the most effective. Animals never carry on reflective judgments and never can, since they do not possess a language adequate to such demands. The attempt to express one's thought in words is in reality often a means for creating the thought as well as a means for its expression. A few years ago I prepared a paper on the subject, ``Making Psychology Practical.'' In my attempt to express myself I clarified my thinking, formed new generalizations, and therefore was enabled to do with full consciousness (with reflective judgments) what previously I had done but blindly.

It is a most helpful practice to attempt to express in words just what one is trying to accomplish; what are the conditions necessary for success; what the conditions that are lower- ing efficiency; and what are the possibilities of the work, etc. The method of analysis and expression assists wonderfully in abstracting the aspects of one's experience necessary for the generalization, abstraction, and principle used in reflective judgments.

_Special Conditions Favorable to the Formation of Expert judgments_

There are no clearly defined special conditions for increasing one's capacity to apply expert judgments. The general conditions discussed on page 278@@@ seem to cover the case. If I have provided, as an executive, for all these conditions for developing expert judgments:--

(1) if I have good vigorous health,

(2) if I am working with enthusiastic application,

(3) if I have the right attitude towards my work,

(4) and finally, if I am having frequent experience in making practical and theoretical judgments,--I am then fulfilling the conditions most favorable for the development of expert judgments.