This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Jared Richardson. Original Post: Measure something to improve it Feed Title: Jared's Weblog Feed URL: http://www.jaredrichardson.net/blog/index.rss Feed Description: Jared's weblog. The web site was created after the launch of the book "Ship It!" and discusses issues from Continuous Integration to web hosting providers. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Jared Richardson Latest Posts From Jared's Weblog

I've been telling a story for years but couldn't remember where I originally read it. I stumbled across it recently so I thought I'd post the story. It's an interesting insight into human nature.

A manufacturing facility wanted to improve production, so they put people with clipboards on the manufacturing floor to record information.

The first thing they did was turn up the lights. Sure enough, production went up!

The next thing they tried was dimming the lights. Production went up again!

Ignoring their choice of environmental factors to tinker with (the lights?), the lesson is interesting. Production increased because people realized that someone cared. The line worker realized that their work was important. I'm not just a cog in a big machine they thought. Someone is watching my work! As a result, production increased.

Apparently this is called the Hawthorne effect (Wikipedia link). I also saw it cited in Peopleware recently.

Of course, this also leads one to consider the old statement "Be careful what you measure because that's what you'll get."