The Brick Theory of Management

How to place new employees in the right jobs for them:

Put 400 bricks in a closed room. Put your new hires in the room and close the door. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours.

Then analyze the situation:

  • If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting Department.
  • If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.
  • If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.
  • If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.
  • If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.
  • If they are sleeping, put them in Security.
  • If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.
  • If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.
  • If they say they have tried different combinations, they are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.
  • If they have already left for the day, put them in Marketing.
  • If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.
  • If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Top Management.
  • If they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.