He did leave a telephone number, but I was unable to listen as fast as he could speak, so I didn't catch the number.

It was obvious that he had called the wrong number. I felt that he was under pressure to make a large number of similar calls, so he couldn't slow down enough to leave clear information. His boss, Charlie, had provided a script with blanks for fill-in information and had demanded that he meet a quota of calls every day.

The script had filled-in blanks for items like the phone number, the quantity of items shipped, the money due and the product-identification number. Charlie congratulated himself and boasted to friends about the efficiency of his system.

"Look," he said, "we don't fool around. Just as an example, we don't need an experienced collection agent to collect past-due accounts. I set up a system so that an inexperienced clerk can handle collections. And to make sure that the clerk doesn't kill time gabbing, I demand that the clerk meet a quota of calls. There's no time to fool around. Beyond that, I'm working on software to automate the process so that we won't even need the clerk."

Indeed, the collection clerk was kept busy, not just all day long, but for many many days, because payments weren't coming in. Charlie never bothered to check for incoming past-due payments; that was somebody else's responsibility. He merely checked the clerk's daily records to make sure that the required number of calls had been made.

Every once in a while, the head of the accounting department would try to alert Charlie to the fact that past-due bills weren't being paid. Very patiently, Charlie would explain that he had taken care of the problem. Didn't this man know that Charlie had already set up a collection system?

But Charlie did pay attention. He reviewed every part of the script; he double-checked all the fill-in blanks. He even checked to make sure that the clerk understood the script. His system was foolproof. If bills were not being paid, somebody else was at fault.