A rule that specifies minimum acceptable performance converts into the maximum anyone delivers.
Gouldner's 1954 gypsum mine study. Specifying an acceptable minimum tells everyone exactly how little suffices, so the floor becomes the ceiling within weeks.
In practice
- A support policy specifying a four-hour response produces responses at three hours fifty-five minutes.
- A council's statutory minimum of two bin collections a month becomes two collections a month everywhere.