Evening star., 1921-04-02
What's Wrong With
Your Work?
BY WILLIAM MAXWELL,
(vICE PRESIDENT THOMAS A.. EDISON. Inc.)

i, the contrary if we habituate ourselves
to logical processes Of thought we
are likely to, develop a noteworthy
speed in reaching our decisions. We
will have all of the advantages of
snap judgment with none of the dis
advantages that come from being "a
human dice box"
Logical conjecture. aided by imag-
ination. is one of the most valuable
forms in which logic can be employed
sists largely of the ability to put
yourself in the other fellows place
and after considering what motives
might reasonably be ascribed to him.
decide what thought ought logically
to predominate in his mind. Such a
one would avoid a pestilence. or it
may be something to encourage and
expand. In either case it is obvious
that you are more likely to adopt the
proper course in dealing with your
man if you know what is in the back
of his head"
Examples of logical conjecture in
business could be given almost with
out end. Assume, for instance. that
you are employed in the sales depart
ment of a company which deals with
retail merchants. A bulletin has been
sent out by you to several hundred
of these dealers, but you have acci-
dentally failed to include certain in
closures which were necessary to a
proper understanding of the bulletin.
Obviously: in such case. the bulle-
/ tin will not be fully understood, and
/ this means that 1t may be misunder-
stood How should you go about the
job of rectifying the blunder?
How would it do to send out another
| bulletin with a set of Enclosures. and
say nothing about the previous abor-
tive mailing of the bulletin? No; be-
cause 4 dealer who had read the first
! bulletin without the aid of the in
closures and thus received q mistaken
conception of the proposition con-
tanned therein might rely on such
conception, and. thinking it unneces-
sary to read the bulletin again. toss
the second copy into his waste basket
without noticing the attached inclos-
ures.
Logical Conjecture.
BY logical conjecture you will soon
arrive at the conclusion that the
proper course to pursue is to send a
letter of explanation to each dealer
concerned, together with a duplicate
of the bulletin and a set of the inclo-
sures that were previously omitted.
In order to develop the capacity to
conjecture logically you must, OF
course, first acquire a logical mind
Can this be acquired, or is it an in
! born quality? Our tests have con-
WINGED us that it is largely a matter
of training.
A good way to develop the logic OF
mental processes is to begin with the
mistakes that crop up in your work
This applies to errors of judgment as
well as to those which result from
inaccuracy. If you get into the habit
OF reasoning over your mistakes for
the purpose of conceiving every pos
sible consequence that raay arise
from them, and with the object OF
taking the proper steps to minimize
those consequences. you will soon dis
cover yourself applying similar logi-
cal processes of thought to all of
your work.
You will still be a "guesser." but
instead of doing your work by the
dice-box kind of guesswork, which
is wholly destructive. in its results
you will have the habit Of logical
conjecturing. which is highly con-
structive and a short cut to promo
tion.