Kenneth H. Blanchard,Blanchard Carew, The One Minute Manager Builds High Performance Teams (One Minute Manager S.)

Blanchard Kenneth and Johnson Spencer

The One Minute Manager

William Morrow & Company, Inc.

6 Henderson Drive, West Caldwell, NJ 07006

1982, 111 pp, US $ 19.95

REVIEW BY: ALTAF GOHAR

"People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Good Results"

'The One Minute Manager' by Blanchard and Spencer is a non fiction story. It carries the authors' opinion based on their studies in medicine industry and behavioral sciences. It seeks an effective manager practicing managerial methods best suited for optimum productivity and workers' job satisfaction. It also aims to find the discretionary time for managers so they could effectively perform their real job and personal life obligations. The audience of the book is both novice and practitioner managers. Blanchard is a World fame management author and consultant while Johnson is a renowned author in Medicine and Psychology.

"Help People Reach Their Full Potential; Catch Them Doing Something Right"

To achieve their purpose, the authors describe a story having a young man as one of the two central characters. The man searches the entire World for an effective manager, to learn about his/her managerial techniques, work for one and become one. During his quest, he finds many 'tough and autocratic managers' who benefit the company at the cost of its people. He also comes across the 'nice and democratic managers' who manage in the opposite style of the first group. The young man declares both groups as half managers; he looks for someone benefiting both the organization and its people. He almost gives up finding his ideal when he suddenly discovers the second central character in his own community, a 'special manager'. This manager turns out to be 'The One Minute Manager'. This manager, through his and his team's informal, sequential and interesting meetings with the young man, convincingly elaborates to him the three rules of effective management. He effectively practices the rules in his circle of influence. Based on the rules, his organization also serves as an academy, producing the future 'One Minute Managers'. Briefly, the rules are: One - Agree on your goal with the employee, write it precise and brief enough to be read in one minute, set performance standard and periodically the employee's behavior be matched with the goal. Two - On good performance, briefly tell the employee about it, praise and encourage immediately and specifically by explaining the consequential corporate benefits. Support success by physical touch if appropriate. Three - On bad performance especially of experienced one, let the person know beforehand and precisely of your reprimand intentions, do it briefly and immediately by specifying the misdeed and your feelings, stop for a few seconds, touch and value the person, don't attack personality but behavior and forget when over.

After exploring the amazing rules, the young guy asks the manager about their effectiveness. Through examples from sport, the special manager explains the importance of goal setting and feedback, especially for novice ones who are initially puzzled about their jobs. For the second rule, he superbly uses examples of a pigeon, a whale and a toddler. Regarding the third rule, the special manager considers performance review as an ongoing process, giving instant feedback on one misbehavior at a time and attacking the behavior, not the personality of the worker. This does not cause the employee to go defensive or blame others (Ref: 'Performance Appraisal: Dilemmas and Possibilities' by Michael Beer). The manager uses an ancient Chinese story and other examples to reinforce his reprimand viewpoint. The young man is so fancied by this style of management that he joins the organization on invitation and eventually emerges as the 'One Minute Manager' himself. He develops a model of the idea, writes a book and share with others. He, his people and company all benefit from one minute management which also enhances women influx into the company (as envisioned by McCracken in 'Winning the Talent War for Women').

"We Are Not Just Our Behavior, We Are The Person Managing Our Behavior"

The reader will find the book unique as it feeds knowledge into one's mind in the story telling tone, something uncommon for a technical subject. The authors successfully mould their viewpoint into a superb description and nicely define the problem through the young man's search for his ideal and the way he meets the half managers. They precisely identify the two causes of the issue as 'result oriented' or 'people oriented' management styles. Planned attacking points on the issue are exhibited by the conversations. Specific and simple solution to the issue is provided in an easy language. Basically the 'one minute' phrase is just symbolic which emphasizes on the briefness of all three rules of effective management. The text lacks practical evidence but the positive comments of various practitioners on its effectiveness sufficiently fulfill that requirement. The writers' expertise in own fields reinforces the book's effectiveness itself. The book negates both types of KITA (Ref: 'One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?' by Frederick Herzberg). There is a strong support to the argument of this book in the Oncken and Wass's article 'Who's Got the Monkey', particularly the discretionary time and initiative issues. The suggested rules when truly practiced will eliminate losers in a workforce. The book suggests a leading but non participating role for the manager in the team work, a driving force in technical jobs. The book considers the feedback from managers crucial for productivity (Ref: 'Motivating Professionals in Organizations' by Ralph Katz). As mentioned however, effective productivity in not just quality and quantity. The product/service gets stagnant after a quality standard is achieved; it's the TQM and the lust for continuous improvement that provide a winning edge over competitors. The book supports Peter Drucker's MBO, exhibiting a good answer to Mintzberg's question in his article 'The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact'. The book envisions the manager in the parental role for employees i.e. setting goals, encouraging some and reprimanding others at one time, making them more productive on the way to successful careers. A manager having partly charismatic and partly referent power will easily adapt to the idea.

"Goals Begin Behaviors, Consequences Maintain Behaviors"

Young engineers seeking a career in management will find reading this book extremely informative. For practitioner faced with management dilemmas of personal image, time management, productivity and workers' motivation, it teaches the art of situational leadership- a solution bearing long ranged and positive corporate effects.