The Bridge from Most to Best

By John Arms

The Bridge from Most to Best

Picture this.

A century ago, a worker stands on a factory floor. The foreman paces with a stopwatch, measuring every movement. The goal: eliminate wasted seconds, extract more output, and get the most from the worker.

Now picture today.

An employee logs into Zoom at 8:59 a.m. Outlook reminders flash. Slack pings. Dashboards tally tasks completed. In the background, software quietly tracks time on screen and keystrokes. The logic hasn’t changed. A hundred years later, the mindset is still about getting the most.

Pictured here are workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where a fire in 1911 killed 146 people who were barricaded in to prevent taking breaks.

The Era of “Most”

For over a century, organizations have been designed to maximize efficiency. Workers were inputs to be optimized and controlled. And for its time, the model worked. The “most” mindset powered industrial growth and created global corporations.

A Changed Economy, A Lingering Mindset

But today, work looks different. More than 70% of jobs in advanced economies are in knowledge and service industries—where creativity, adaptability, and insight matter most. And yet, the industrial mindset lingers. We still treat people as though more hours, more surveillance, and more pressure will yield more value.

The data tells us it’s not working:

• Only 21–23% of employees worldwide are engaged at work (Gallup, 2024).

• 77% of employees report burnout in their current jobs (Deloitte, 2023).

• Disengagement drains $8.9 trillion annually, or 9% of global GDP (Gallup, 2024).

• Despite employers spending more than $51 billion annually on wellbeing programs, global stress levels remain at record highs (Financial Times, 2023).

• By contrast, organizations where people have real autonomy see productivity rise by up to 40% (McKinsey, 2023).

Extraction is colliding with exhaustion.

The Bridge to “Best”

That is why we are on a bridge.

On one side is “most”: the inherited logic of the industrial age. On the other is “best”: the recognition that people perform at their highest when they create their own conditions—choosing how to focus, when to rest, what to learn, and how to contribute. It is not engineered by leaders or handed down from management. It emerges when people grab the reins themselves, shaping their own path to performance.

And the evidence is compelling—especially in the middle market:

• UK Four-Day Week Pilot (2022–23): Sixty-one midsize organizations—including local services, consultancies, and nonprofits—participated. Results: resignations dropped 57%, sick leave fell 65%, burnout declined 71%, and 92% of companies continued after the trial.

• Perpetual Guardian (New Zealand): A mid-sized financial services firm trialed a four-day week. Productivity rose 20%, customer engagement increased 30%, and employee stress scores dropped sharply. The company made the policy permanent.

• Fractional CFOs in Manufacturing & Services: Many midsize firms now rely on Fractional CFOs rather than full-time hires. Instead of being managed for hours and presence, Fractional leaders focus on outcomes—forecasting, strategy, cash-flow health—while internal staff handle daily execution. Companies reduce costs by up to 60% and gain sharper financial insights, not by extracting more, but by engaging expertise when it matters most.

• Fractional CMOs Driving Growth: A midsize healthcare services company recently transitioned from a full-time marketing director to a Fractional CMO model. Free from rigid oversight, the Fractional leader set strategy and let teams execute in their own ways. The result: faster decision-making, better use of creative capacity, and a doubling of lead flow in less than a year.

These examples aren’t about perks or reduced hours. They’re about not managing people as inputs—and instead trusting individuals to define the conditions where their best work emerges. Best over Most.

Mid-Shift Tension

This is the tension of our time. Work has shifted into the era of ideas, relationships, and creativity—but the mindset of “most” still dominates our dashboards and calendars. Leaders ask for innovation but measure hours. They call for agility but punish risk.

The Fractional model is perhaps the clearest sign of the shift underway. It rejects the industrial instinct to own and manage people full-time. Instead, it invites them to bring their best expertise, on their own terms, into the businesses that need it most. Fractional professionals choose what to focus on, how to deliver, and when to step back. The companies that hire them gain sharper outcomes without carrying the overhead of “most.”

We are still on the bridge. But the organizations that cross it—the ones that stop extracting and start trusting people to bring their best by choice—will shape the next era of work.

We live in amazing times,

John

Jason Voiovich Katie Walter Liz Otteson (she/her) Casey Fuerst Carl Levi