The Assembly Line Lesson

"Faster workers." Everyone said that was the key to better production. Everyone was wrong.

Henry Ford watched his skilled workers walk back and forth. He changed the system instead.

But Ford saw something different.

The best worker in the world can't outperform a poor parts delivery system. The workers weren't the constraint. Their movement was.

When Ford brought the parts to the workers instead, productivity soared.

Here's the pattern: Systems aren't limited by capability, but by constraints.

We keep hiring faster runners when we should be shortening the track.

You see this everywhere:

• Teams adding more developers while ignored communication bottlenecks kill productivity
• Businesses buying faster computers while slow database queries remain unfixed
• Writers upgrading their tools while their cluttered workspace forces constant context switching

This is the Base Case Mindset - ask what's actually holding you back before optimizing.

Stop asking "How do we improve performance?" Start asking "What's actually holding us back?" The Momentum Engine shows where the leverage is.