Lillian Gilbreth

By Mark Steer

Lillian Gilbrith
(1878-1972)

Whilst you might not have heard of them, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth deserve their status as one of history’s most influential husband and wife teams. They pioneered new techniques of industrial management called 'time and motion study' which spawned from Lillian’s 1915 PhD thesis on the psychology of management. Her ideas were revolutionary because they were the first to apply psychology to the field of industrial management.

For every task, Frank and Lillian sought the ‘one best way’ – the most efficient and effective method of getting a job done. In the workplace, for instance, instead of leaving each worker to do carry out a task in his own happy little way, the Gilbreth’s sought to standardise practices to make sure that jobs were carried out quickly and with good quality.

Their techniques were so successful that they were soon able to start up a management consultancy business. However, in 1924, Frank died unexpectedly, leaving Lillian to raise their twelve children single-handedly.

The business that the two of them had founded failed because so many managers at the time were unwilling to deal with a woman. So Lillian went back to basics. She started holding workshops in her house, so that she could look after her children, and slowly she rebuilt her reputation.

It was following a particularly successful consulting job at Macy’s that Gilbreth hit the big time. Having been asked to join the US government’s Emergency Committee for Unemployment during the Great Depression, she instigated a nationwide program called "Share the Work" to create new jobs.

Throughout her life, Lillian strived for what she called “happiness moments”, moments which could be gained by saving time and energy. To this end she invented a whole range of labour-saving devices including the pedal bin, shelves inside fridge doors and an improved design for electric food mixers.

Frank and Lillian’s exploits were immortalised in the biography Cheaper by the Dozen, which has twice been transferred to the silver screen.

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