"No one can remember more than three points"
About this Quote
Crosby’s line lands like a jab at the corporate fantasy that people are rational hard drives. “No one can remember more than three points” isn’t a complaint about human frailty so much as a rebuke to managerial bloat: the slide decks, the mission statements with seven “pillars,” the training modules that mistake volume for rigor. He’s not saying audiences are dumb. He’s saying organizations are undisciplined.
The specific intent is tactical. Crosby, best known for pushing “quality is free,” spent his career trying to turn big, abstract commitments into behaviors a factory floor and an executive suite could actually repeat, measure, and defend. Three points is a design constraint: it forces prioritization, kills the urge to hide behind lists, and turns “strategy” into something that can survive contact with a normal workday.
The subtext is sharper: if you can’t reduce your message to three memorable commitments, you probably don’t understand it. Overstuffed guidance often signals internal politics, not complexity. Every extra “point” is usually a compromise, an attempt to keep everyone’s pet idea alive, which creates the worst outcome: a plan no one can recall, so no one can execute.
Context matters here. Crosby wrote in an era when American industry was being challenged by Japanese manufacturing discipline and quality systems. His provocation argues for cognitive ergonomics before the term existed: communication that respects attention as a scarce resource. Three points isn’t a magic number; it’s a demand for clarity with consequences.
The specific intent is tactical. Crosby, best known for pushing “quality is free,” spent his career trying to turn big, abstract commitments into behaviors a factory floor and an executive suite could actually repeat, measure, and defend. Three points is a design constraint: it forces prioritization, kills the urge to hide behind lists, and turns “strategy” into something that can survive contact with a normal workday.
The subtext is sharper: if you can’t reduce your message to three memorable commitments, you probably don’t understand it. Overstuffed guidance often signals internal politics, not complexity. Every extra “point” is usually a compromise, an attempt to keep everyone’s pet idea alive, which creates the worst outcome: a plan no one can recall, so no one can execute.
Context matters here. Crosby wrote in an era when American industry was being challenged by Japanese manufacturing discipline and quality systems. His provocation argues for cognitive ergonomics before the term existed: communication that respects attention as a scarce resource. Three points isn’t a magic number; it’s a demand for clarity with consequences.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
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