When Subtraction Adds Value
People systematically overlook improvements that involve taking something away, so organisations miss a whole class of value-creating options.
Summary
Adams, Converse, Hales and Klotz observe that improvement usually means adding something, whether new features, training or investments. In a study of organisational change, fewer than 10% of hundreds of suggested improvements involved removing something, and follow-up experiments showed that people systematically neglect subtractive changes. The authors argue that subtraction has untapped potential, from removing unnecessary product features to
Editor's opinion
A genuinely novel, experimentally-supported behavioral finding: people systematically overlook subtractive improvements, with broad applicability.
Key concepts
Subtractive change · Addition bias · Organisational improvement