Chapter 14 Unattended Bagels

I chatted with several restaurant owners, and they said that Haidilao's method is easy to learn except for employees' right to exempt from bills. A boss said: "Don't talk about ordinary employees, I don't feel at ease about a chef who spends 300,000 yuan. Once I was sick and hospitalized, and the shark's fin was out of stock, so I asked him to order it. As a result, he ate 1 A rebate of ten thousand yuan!" Why isn't Zhang Yong afraid of his employees cheating for their own interests?Because his assumptions about people are different from those of these bosses.He believes that most people have moral self-discipline, so there are only a few who abuse power; if monitoring is done properly, there will be even fewer abusers.Therefore, the advantages of delegation outweigh the disadvantages, because most employees feel trusted and motivated, work harder, handle customer complaints more effectively, and have higher customer satisfaction rates.

Zhang Yong's optimistic assumption about human nature was confirmed by the research of an American economist, Paul Feldman.His research results are included in the book "Freakonomics", so it is widely known.Paul Feldman once headed a research institute that analyzed weapons spending for the U.S. Navy.The institute's income comes from various research projects.Every time he gets a research contract, Feldman always buys some bagels for everyone to eat as a reward. Later, Feldman gradually developed a habit. Every Friday, he would buy a basket of bagels and put them in the office for everyone to eat.Employees from other units in the office building knew about it, and they all came over to get a few bagels if they had anything to do, and the baskets soon bottomed out.Feldman had to buy more next time. At most, he bought more than 100 bagels a week.

To recoup the cost of the bagels, he placed a money basket with a price on it next to the bread basket.As a result, the unguarded basket returned 95 percent of the bread money.Feldman was delighted, thinking he had validated people's moral self-discipline.As for the 5% that was not recovered, he believed that some people did not pay due to negligence or lack of change. Later, Feldman decided to quit his research position at the institute to sell bagels exclusively.Feldman drives a car to deliver bagels to office buildings.Early in the morning, he left bagels and a basket of cash in the pantries of various companies, and returned after lunch to pick up the money and leftover bagels.

His economist friends thought he was crazy because, according to Economist, people would surely steal most of the bagels and he would lose his fortune.But Feldman was very confident and continued to follow his own method.To the surprise of my friends, although Feldman’s recovery of money was not as much as in the institute, it still reached 87%.For several years, Feldman delivered 8,400 bagels a week to 140 companies, making as much money as he had done as a researcher. While selling bagels, Feldman did not forget his own economist profession. He regarded his business as an economic experiment and recorded every data in detail.Feldman found that by measuring the difference between what he actually received and what he should have received, he could get a good gauge of the honesty of different customers.

Do people steal bagels?What factors determine that some people take it for free, some people pay, and some companies are more honest than others? Data show that people in smaller companies are more honest than those in larger companies.A small company with only a few dozen employees usually pays 3 to 5 percentage points more than a large company with a few hundred employees.This is somewhat unexpected to Feldman, because he thinks that the bigger the company, the more people will gather around the bread basket, and the more witnesses will prompt you to throw money into the cash box. However, this is not the case.In smaller groups, if you do a little thing, it will be known immediately, so people are careful about what they say and do.And in a big company, who knows who you are even if you don't pay for the bagel?This principle can also be applied to society.The crime rate in rural areas is much lower than that in cities, to a large extent, because crimes in rural areas are easier for villagers to know that this is the impact of the environment on people's morality.

Haidilao allows fellow villagers, friends and relatives to work together, which just strengthens the moral self-discipline of employees. Based on observations, Feldman also believes that morale is a very important factor.An employee who loves his job and his boss will be more honest. There is no doubt that Haidilao makes employees feel at home, which boosts their morale, and there are naturally fewer employees who abuse their power. As for within a company, Feldman believes that the higher the level of people, the more free-eating occurs.He used to deliver bread to a company occupying 3 floors for a long time.On the top floor is the management, and the two floors below are the general employees of sales, service and administration.The proportion of money collected downstairs is significantly higher than that upstairs.Feldman suspects that because these top managers are overly controlling, they are prone to dishonesty.But it was said meanly that maybe dishonesty was the reason these people got into management.

The data also reflects the mood of the individual will also affect the honesty.For example, the weather is a major factor.Good weather makes people pay a good price.In bad weather, such as wind and rain, people take more for nothing. This is also in line with Haidilao's situation. Working in Haidilao, the waiters tend to be in a good mood, because most of the customers will appreciate Haidilao's service. Anyone who is appreciated will be in a good mood. The most interesting thing is that festivals also influence people to pay, some festivals make people bad, and some festivals make people learn good.The payment percentage was down 2% the week before Christmas, Thanksgiving wasn't great, and Valentine's Day wasn't great either.Good holidays are 4th of July (Independence Day), Labor Day, Columbus Day. "9.11" anniversary, people also behaved quite well.Why do people behave differently on different festivals?Feldman found that the holidays with the least theft were those that engendered a sense of collective honor.The holidays that steal more are those days filled with anxiety and anticipation for loved ones.

The factors that affect people's honesty include environmental and emotional factors, but what makes Feldman most excited is not that he discovered why people are dishonest, but that people can still remain honest under the temptation of interests.Although some people stole bread from him, most people did not eat it for free even when no one else was there, or when it was cloudy and rainy, or at Christmas. Glaucon, a student of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, once described such a story: An upright and simple shepherd got a ring from a giant in a burrow, and has since then possessed the ability of invisibility.The honest shepherd stole the jewels, seduced the queen, and killed the king.

The story raises a moral question: Can a person resist temptation, especially when he knows his actions will go undetected? Feldman found the answer, people can be honest.At least on the bagel question, he's 87 percent sure. Zhang Yong used Haidilao's practice to confirm Feldman's theory.At least the tens of thousands of Haidilao employees as a whole have not abused the power granted to them. Any management requires motivation and monitoring; different management methods stem from different assumptions about human nature.In reality, each manager will choose more carrots or more sticks based on his own judgment of human nature.

Good management must be based on incentives and supplemented by monitoring, so that most employees can feel trusted.When a person is trusted, he will "die for his confidant", and management will get twice the result with half the effort. Bad management must focus on monitoring, supplemented by incentives, and monitor employees in a way that prevents thieves.If people are looked down upon, morale will naturally be low, and management will get twice the result with half the effort. The management efficiency of the Roman Catholic Church is the highest. Between the archbishop and the believers, there are only two management levels, the regional bishop and the priest of the church.Because the administrators of the church believe that the vast majority of believers have high moral self-discipline due to the fear of God.

The management efficiency of the prison is the lowest, because the prison administrators believe that the vast majority of criminals are the people with the lowest moral self-discipline and must be monitored 24 hours a day. The average annual management cost of an American criminal is $50,000, which is equal to 1.5 times the annual after-tax income of a middle-class American family.