ABSTRACT
One of the commonest mistakes in planning and in managing a task is to confuse the effort expended with the results obtained: to think of effort as being synonymous with results. This chapter deals with two cases that highlight the difference between effort and results. The two cases are, a problem in highway repair, and a problem in maintaining a fleet of service vehicles. The repairs are a necessary fact of life, but they are not in themselves an indication of the service that the fleet performs. The least productive rule is to work on the interesting cases: the vehicles that need the most extensive repairs. The two cases were discussed in rather simplistic, qualitative terms. To gain further direct experience of their implications it is necessary to work through some fact situations that apply them in more concrete settings.
