Where the Flow Stops · Chapter Five

A Number Both Sides Can Sign

A gain can be shared only when both sides trust the count, so the measure is agreed first and read last.

Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306

Chapter Five of Where the Flow Stops: Finding the Gain an Organisation Already Holds.

Abstract

A gain can be shared only when both sides trust the count, so the measure is agreed first and read last. It is twenty to eight on the last evening of the quarter, and the finance director is the only person left on the floor. On her screen is the scrap report for the plant, and it says what the plant manager has been saying in the corridor for a fortnight: scrap is down by about a third since the summer. Beside the keyboard is a printed sheet she has been asked to sign. It confirms the saving, so that the team on the line, who changed how the presses are set up at the start of each shift, can be paid the share of it they were promised in the spring. She believes the team did something real. She has seen the new set-up sheets taped to the presses. But she also knows three other things, and they sit in her stomach like a stone. The plant changed its steel supplier in August, and the new coil is more consistent. Volumes were low in the autumn, and the presses ran slower.

Read the PDFRead the whole bookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989209

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). A Number Both Sides Can Sign. In Where the Flow Stops. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989209

@incollection{santaanna2026where5,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {A Number Both Sides Can Sign},
  booktitle = {Where the Flow Stops},
  chapter   = {5},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989209},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/where-the-flow-stops/05-a-number-both-sides-can-sign/}
}

References

  1. Roethlisberger, F. J., & Dickson, W. J. (1939). Management and the worker. Harvard University Press.
  2. Levitt, S. D., & List, J. A. (2011). Was there really a Hawthorne effect at the Hawthorne plant? An analysis of the original illumination experiments. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 3(1), 224–238. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.3.1.224
  3. Galton, F. (1886). Regression towards mediocrity in hereditary stature. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 15, 246–263. https://doi.org/10.2307/2841583
  4. Kerr, S. (1975). On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Journal, 18(4), 769–783. https://doi.org/10.5465/255378
  5. Campbell, D. T. (1979). Assessing the impact of planned social change. Evaluation and Program Planning, 2(1), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/0149-7189(79)90048-X
  6. Strathern, M. (1997). 'Improving ratings': Audit in the British university system. European Review, 5(3), 305–321. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798700002660

Every chapter of Where the Flow Stops

  1. Chapter OneThe Meeting After the Meetingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989198
  2. Chapter TwoOne Order, One Desk, One Weekdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989200
  3. Chapter ThreeThe Question Nobody Asksdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989202
  4. Chapter FourThe Person Who Already Knowsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989206
  5. Chapter FiveA Number Both Sides Can Signdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989209
  6. Chapter SixThe First Ninety Daysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989211
  7. Chapter SevenThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989213

The other books in the library

  1. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyCash Asleep in the Buildingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989319
  2. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyChange That Staysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989557
  3. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book TwoEarneddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989328
  4. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IEnough by Designdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989348
  5. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyLuminous Integral Leadershipdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989368
  6. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Morphic Marketing SeriesLuminous Morphic Marketingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989389
  7. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book OneMindful Leadership Masterydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989430
  8. Ecstatic EconomicsOwning the Workdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23988988
  9. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Channel Keeps Itdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989022
  10. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Customer Already Told Youdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989055
  11. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIIThe Economy That Keeps Becomingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989451
  12. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VThe Embedded Marketdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989474
  13. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VIThe Gain Was Always Shareddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989502
  14. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Long Clockdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989072
  15. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Manager's Weekdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989102
  16. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIThe Pasture Was Never Emptydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989523
  17. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Price Nobody Chargeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989120
  18. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Second Briefdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989141
  19. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IVThe Standing Forestdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989542
  20. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Strategy That Reaches the Floordoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989179
  21. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWho Decidesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989215

The licence

Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.