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National Resources Planning Board 



the habit of developing theories for (lie purpose of dis- 

 couraging action on new ideas. "A destructively 

 critical attitude will discourage others from giving 

 ideas." 



Leadership. — As the research worker progresses in 

 the organization otlier technical people are usually 

 assigned to work with him. The word "with" is used 

 advisedly, because in most research organizations the 

 emphasis is on cooperation rather than subordination. 

 His attitude shoidd be that of giving encouragement 

 and assistance to such men as have been assigned to 

 work with him and of giving them every facility to do 

 their work with as little interruption or digression as 

 possible. To get the best results he must be scrupu- 

 lously careful to make sure that his men get full credit 

 for what they do. He should study his personnel care- 

 fully, because much of the success of a scientific organ- 

 ization, whether large or small, depends upon having 

 men do the work for which they arc best suited. His 

 studies should relate not only to the abilities of his men 

 but also their temperaments. He should inspire his 

 men with confidence. They should not only be confi- 

 dent of his ability to direct their work but they shoidd 

 also be confident of their owti ability to do it. To 

 secure this result he must know how and when to en- 

 courage or criticize, and his manner of doing this should 

 be adapted to the peculiarities of the person with whom 

 he is dealing. 



Ability to complete as \t)ell as start work. — Young men 

 in business are frequently criticized because they seem 

 to be much better at starting work than at finishing it. 

 Industrial research workers are no exception, and this 

 difficulty is not confined to the young. It appears to 

 arise in part from the incompatability of certain of the 

 qualifications discussed in the first part of this report. 

 Self discipline will help to correct this tendency. Some 

 men, particularly in their earlier years, find it difficult 

 to pereevere toward a definite goal because their imagi- 

 nation and creative urge continually present to them 

 new and therefore more attractive ideas that divert 

 their attention. In other csises, flic worker will tend 

 to become interested in one particular phase of his 

 work, the subject matter of which may appeal to him 

 for its own sake. In both cases the remedy is for the 

 man to have a clear appreciation of the objective of his 

 work and a realization that the objective is the im- 

 portant tiling to attain. In other rases the worker 

 may tend to spend too much lime on one particular 

 phase of a subject because he feels that there he is safe, 

 and because he lacks the courage to do something new 

 and unorthodo.x. 



In still other cases, the difficulty may relate more to 

 the problem than to the man. As problems progress, 

 factors are frequently involved which are outside the 

 purely scientific domain in wliich the rosonrrli worker is 



primarily trained. For example, forms of apparatus 

 that have been used in laboratory experimentation may 

 have to be modified or even replaced by something quite 

 different. Economic questions may become important. 

 Here it is that adaptability and versatility enter. The 

 usefulness of the research worker will be greatly en- 

 hanced if he has sufficient perspective to recognize the 

 importance of these problems and is sufficiently versatile 

 or resourcefid to assist in solving them. This is true, 

 even though he may not be primarily responsible for the 

 larger scale development. If the research man finds 

 that he lacks the proper training to permit him to cope 

 with these factors he should acquire it by outside read- 

 ing and by conversation with those who have such 

 training. 



Planning.- — The first step in the successful solution of 

 a research problem is to have an objective that is 

 properly defined, stated, and understood. Much of 

 the work done in imiversities by graduate research 

 workers consists of finding new facts. While the 

 objective may be apparent in many industrial problems, 

 insofar as approach is concerned, it is not so simply 

 stated. The work frequently arises from some need, 

 and the objective is to meet this need, subject to certain 

 requirements. In other cases, the purpose may be to 

 apply new facts to existing conditions, to effect an 

 improvement, or to find a use for new facts. These 

 are the broad objectives of many industrial problems, 

 and an understanding of them is desirable. It is 

 especially important for the worker to have a thorough 

 understanding of the purpose of the particular part of 

 the work for which he is responsible, including the 

 application of the results to the company's needs. A 

 clear understanding of the immediate objective of his 

 work will assist him in laying his plans and in executing 

 them, and in bringing out details which might otherwise 

 be overlooked. If he constantly keeps the objective 

 in mind he will be less likely to digress into bypaths or 

 waste time on nonessentials; he will realize that everj' 

 step and every experiment should be so plaimed that 

 its successful accomplishment will bring him nearer his 

 objective. 



On this point a reviewer makes the following pertinent 

 comment. 



It is of interest from time to time to estimate the period tliat 

 would have been required to complete a problem if uo experiment 

 had been wasted. That is, once we have Bnally completed a 

 research project, how much time would be necessary to conduct 

 the essential work to prove the given point. Frequently, this 

 would be a very small fraction. Hence the incentive to careful 

 planning. 



Another pertinent comment on this section was made 

 by a research director. 



The important side is entirely mental and experimentation is 

 for the purpose of confirming the ideas. Successful research 

 does not depend upon the volume of experiments but upon clear 



