Scott Adams has poked fun at this bit of business triteness that workers have probably come to enjoy hearing about as much as a dentist’s drill being scraped across a whiteboard.

This morning I began to wonder if the originator of this phrase was known. As it turns out, he is.

Allan H. Mogensen (1901-1989), known as Mogy, was an American industrial engineer and authority in the field of work simplification and office management. He is noted for popularizing flowcharts in the 1930s, and is remembered as “father of work simplification” (Wikipedia)

Allan Mogensen (left) with Ben S Graham, Jr. at an early 1960s conference. Graham was is the son of Benjamin S. Graham, Sr., an American organizational theorist. Image: Ben Graham Corp.

People like Mogensen deserve to be recognized for improving efficiency, safety, and ergonomics in the workplace… no matter how much we may cringe at hearing their slogans – especially when they’re mis-applied by incompetent managers.

The Old Wolf has spoken.