A common phenomenon we have is that when the deadline is approaching, the scarcity of time will capture all the attention of the brain and increase work efficiency quickly. So there is a saying: To make a thing complete well, two conditions are needed: slightly beyond the requirements of the ability + not enough time. Every student who did not finish his homework until the deadline, I believe they have a deep understanding of this.
In the book “Scarcity” co-authored by Cederhill and Princeton University psychology professor Elder Shafir, a large-scale study of this phenomenon has been done. After analyzing a large number of cases, they concluded that the poor will always be short of money, and the busy people will always be short of time.
How does this endless loop form? How to break it? The case of a hospital in the United States may give us some inspiration: St. John’s Medical Center is a hospital that provides emergency services. Every year, up to 30,000 operations are performed in the 32 operating rooms here, so all the operating rooms are always full.
Once there is a patient in need of emergency treatment, the hospital can only postpone the previously scheduled operation. Sometimes the doctors are still performing the operation at two in the morning, and the employees are also exhausted by long overtime work. They often provide a two-hour operation. Wait several hours for the operation. The resulting pressure and medical accidents will naturally increase accordingly.
Later, the hospital management invited a consultant, and his solution was surprising: one of the original operating rooms was set aside for emergency operations. A doctor recalled his reaction at the time: “I think this man is crazy! Our original operating room is not enough, and he has to take one away!”
But the consultant’s account is not calculated like this: surgery points. There are two types of “in-plan” and “out-of-plan”. If the latter forcibly jumps in the queue, the efficiency of the former will be greatly reduced, resulting in more overtime costs, waiting costs and medical errors. Every planned operation is forced to “pay off the debt” for the unplanned operation. Unplanned operations are predictable (accounting for 20% of the total annual operation volume), so when they are all collected in a dedicated operating room, other operations become regular.
The results confirmed the effectiveness of this method: after two years of implementation, the overtime rate at St. John’s Hospital has dropped by 45%, the admission rate has increased by 11%, and income has also increased.
Poverty not only limits my imagination, but also limits my IQ?
Despite the scarcity of time, there is one thing most people probably lack: money. The two authors are very interested in the research and analysis of the poor people in South Africa, India and other places in the book “Portfolios of the Poor” by American researcher Darryl Collins and others: Why even give the poor a sum of money , Will they still fall back into poverty? Why are they still reluctant to take measures when there is an opportunity to improve the economic situation?
”Portfolios of the Poor” mentioned that “after the poor get money, they tend to spend it quickly, making it difficult to save and invest” is also common. Because they often encounter all kinds of sudden money use situations in their lives, and the remaining money in their hands simply can’t cope with it.
”If you ask them, financial management is not important? They will say, important, but not urgent! Right now to fill the belly of the family, buy enough food, clothing, shelter, and prepare for the sudden illness and the neighbor’s wedding. Money is what I am anxious to solve.”
This phenomenon is actually common around us. Many people become dumb as soon as they fall in love. Why? Because of the extreme concern for love, it takes up the bandwidth of the mind, so concentration and rationality decline.
This is why the more companies want to make money, the less they can make it. Because their minds are all about saving costs and looking for customers, they are hungry for a lot of bad jobs, and they don’t have the mind to plan a more ambitious strategy. And those companies that made money often didn’t think about making money in the first place. Their starting point may just be how to serve others and create value for others.
There is a famous saying on the Internet: Don’t use tactical diligence to cover up your strategic laziness. This is the truth.
