Is Your Magical Formula Less is More?
Magical Numbers and The Ringlemann Effect!
Maximilien Ringlemann and the Ringlemann effect!
I had forgotten all about Ringlemann until I read “The Magic Formula of Management: Five numbers, One Connecting Idea”* in The Economist. I’m not sure how I forgot about it because I continually emphasize concepts as scale down to scale up, focus on the one thing, and less is more, all the same idea and all founded on the Ringlemann effect.
I clearly remember when I was introduced to Ringlemann. A favorite college professor believed students learned best through experiences and practice. I remember walking into an 8 AM Operations Research class and being assigned to one of two teams. The class was small, maybe 20 students, so the experiment which consisted of a series of tug of war games, was more than doable.
The class learned about the Ringelmann effect that day as the Professor used the tug of war game to help us uncomplicate Operations Research theory. Less is More became the overarching theme of the semester.
French engineer, Maximilien Ringelmann, died in 1931 but his theory is as relevant today as it was when he lived. The tug of war game is still an excellent way to explain the theory of less is more. If you ever played a game of tug of war, how much…
