Increases in productivity and lower costs come from efforts to increase the quality of goods and services, not from time pressures and deadlines. In fact, emphasizing how “time’s flies” leads to decreased quality, not to mention undo stress and unsafe working conditions.
When you look at both sides of a clock, you find that time cancels out. Knowing this, time becomes secondary to quality. As W. Edwards Deming showed in his 1982 book, Out of the Crisis, with an emphasis on quality, rather than time, productivity increases. Deming did most of his work in Japan, following World War II. His book opens with a letter from Yoshikasu Tsuda of Rikkyo University: “we are keeping very strong interest to improve quality by use of methods which you started. . . . when we improve quality we also improve productivity, just as you told us in 1950 would happen.” As originally awarded in Japan and now worldwide, the image at the top is the prestigious Deming Prize.
To only see time from one side of a clock condemns an organization to the White Rabbit’s manic fixation on time, as in Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland”:
I’m late. I’m late for a very important date! No time to say “Hello, Good Bye” I’m late. I’m late. I’m late!