Philip Crosby wrote a seminal book (Quality is Free) in which he argued that it’s cheaper to build things right the first time than it is to fix them later. Obvious now, but heresy in Detroit 1980. Quality quickly became not just a better way to manufacture, it became a marketing benefit as well. Not only was quality cheaper to make, it was cheaper to sell.

I’m struck that we need a new book, call it Efficiency is Free.

It’s cheaper to build carpets that don’t create poison gas than it is to do the easy thing and let people suffer later. It’s cheaper to build an 8 passenger car that gets 30 miles per gallon than it is to suffer the consequences of the 12 mile per gallon Suburban. It’s cheaper to design smaller, lighter and recyclable shipping containers once than it is to buy and hassle with billions of foam peanuts in the long run.

So why doesn’t everyone do this? For the same reason the quality revolution took a full generation to take hold–it costs more right now. It takes planning right now. It requires change right now.

Right now will always be difficult. But efficiency is still free.

Don’t talk to all your employees, all your users or all your prospects the same way, because they’re not the same.

The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition posits that there are five stages people go through:

1. Novice
–wants to be given a manual, told what to do, with no decisions possible

2. Advanced beginner
–needs a bit of freedom, but is unable to quickly describe a hierarchy of which parts are more important than others

3. Competent
–wants the ability to make plans, create routines and choose among activities

4. Proficient
–the more freedom you offer, the more you expect, the more you’ll get

5. Expert
–writes the manual, doesn’t follow it.

If you treat an expert like a novice, you’ll fail.