It is perhaps worth while to point out here that there is danger in giving too much information and too many facts to executives of small brain capacity who do not know how to use their authority intelligently. Curves such as those described in this and the preceding chapter, placed for the first time in the hands of the executive who does not know the technology or the general underlying principles of the business which he controls, are likely to prompt such a narrowminded director to send out a regular deluge of letters unjustly criticising the actions of his subordinates. There is a possibility that a small-caliber man in the manager's chair may send out too much

302 GRAPHIC METHODS

destructive criticism and not enough constructive criticism. If such a misfortune should occur it would cause every department head in the organization to withhold information and consider the whole curve-record system as a new form of diabolical torture. Curves are not intended to give any chief executive an excuse to "jump on" any department manager or foreman. The curve records are intended only to point out those danger points at which construction work is needed. An executive of the right type will soon realize as he uses the curves that he must do the constructive work himself, and that the curves will really have more effect in changing the procedure in his own office than in changing the detailed routine in the departments of his various subordinates.

One of the first tasks confronting any modern executive is that of training, on the one hand, his board of directors and executive committee, and on the other hand, his various department heads and their subordinates, to read curves accurately so that the facts presented may be intelligently grasped and applied to the benefit of the business as a whole.