Sara B. Metcalfe
ILS565 - Management
Book Review
Blanchard,
Kenneth and Johnson, Spencer. The
One Minute Manager. New
York:
Berkley
Publishing Group, 1983.
The search for a
management book proved to be quite a daunting task. A search in the Amazon.com website using the word
“management” produced an overwhelming amount of material. How can there be so many books on
the same topic covering the same theories? How do I know which book is better than the other? Without having to scroll through the
list, and read each blurb about the book, how do I narrow down the search? I was looking for a very specific
book. I wanted one that would give
me the basics on how to manage people, and not necessarily in a corporate
setting. Currently supervising
twenty student employees without any real management experience was proving to
be more difficult than I originally imagined. I needed some good simple advise on how to improve my
management skills, without having to stoop to Management for Dummies.
While searching
through some book reviews for business and management books, I came across a
review for a book titled The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and
Spencer Johnson in the magazine Training.
“…for the person new to supervising, the text offers some
easy-to-grasp tools.
"We offer it on a regular basis and people love the heck out
of it," says Larry Fisher, assistant administrator of Human Resource
Development Services for the State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. "It's a great
motivator for a first-time manager.”[1]
Ken
Lowe, founder of the Home and Garden Television network and chairman and chief
executive officer of Scripps Networks in Knoxville, Tennessee, was interviewed
in Inc. on the topic
of his favorite management books:
“I hate to say it, because it seems so simplistic-but maybe
that's why I like it. It's a
basic block-and-tackle book, a `101' book. All businesses aren't
that complicated. We tend, as managers, to want to make them more complicated
than they are.”[2]
Having
researched it a little more, I also found that it topped the New York Times
Book Review for multiple months.
When the book
arrived through interlibrary loan, I was a little disappointed. The reviews had raved about its success
rates, and what a great resource it was for the management of any group of
people. But the book itself was
only 110 pages long. It seemed to
be about the size of a thorough research paper. How much could I really learn with only this small amount of
information? Since it looked like
an easy read, I figured I may as well breeze through it. If it wasn’t what I wanted or
needed, I could always search for and order another book through interlibrary
loan.
To my surprise,
this book proved to be exactly what I was looking for. The reviews were true to their
word. It was a basic, no
nonsense book offering a very simple method for managing people. It was written in the style of a story.
However the characters in this story are all human: no mention of mice or cheese! A young man’s quest to find the answer to the age old
question “How do I become a successful manager?”. It reminded me a bit of Mozart’s The
Magic Flute, where Tamino must endure trials by fire and water in order to
gain enlightenment (and of course, the girl).
The young man
starts out by interviewing a multitude of managers working in a wide variety of
areas: government, military,
corporate, academia, etc. What he
learns from talking to them, and their employees is that there are essentially
two types of managers: Autocratic
and Democratic. The
Autocratic manager rules with an iron fist. Their supervisors think the world of this management style,
as they are more concerned about profit and the success of the company then
they are about their employees.
This became obvious when the young man interviewed the employees of this
type of manager, who felt they were being used as pawns. The Democratic managers are the
complete opposite. They cared too
much about their employees, and not enough about the bottom line of the
company. The employees of this
manager felt that they were being managed successfully. The supervisors of the manager did not.
The young man
continues on his quest, and eventually finds his Valhalla. The “One Minute Manager”
has successfully combined the best traits of the Autocratic and Democratic
managers. Over the course of
interviewing and talking to the employees of this “god like”
manager, the young man learns the secrets of his successful management
style: productivity is both
quality and quantity. This is
achieved by employing three very simple one minute tasks (hence the title of
the book).
The employee
discusses with the manager what projects need to be done. In 250 words or less, the employee then
writes up the project goal, with objectives. Both the employee and the manager will have copies of the
goals. Each employee should only
have three to six goals, as the manager feels that 80% of what is really
important will manifest itself in 20% of your goals. The goals should be read and reread (in one minute or less,
of course), and the employee should take one minute out of each day to ensure
that they are working efficiently towards these goals. The benefit of this goal setting, is
that it puts the employee and manager on the same “wave
length”. They both understand
the role each is to play in the achievement of that goal. There are no misconceptions. This allows both parties to work
independently of each other, thus minimizing wasted time (every minute
counts….) on having to consult with “the boss”, or making
sure the employee is doing what they are supposed to. Communication is the key to the success of this
task.
When I first saw
the title of this task, I kept thinking about Pavlov and his theory. When our dog does something
wrong, we scold him. If he does
something right, we praise him up and down in our “happy” voices,
and give him a cookie.
Positive reinforcement.
This is not much different than the method used by the “One Minute
Manager”. The manager
actively seeks out positive behavior, and gives the employee a….yes, you
guessed it, one minute praising (I think there’s a pattern forming here).
To ensure its success, there is a whole process to carrying out this particular
goal:
1. Tell the employee right away when they’ve
done something right.
2. Tell them specifically what they did
right.
3. Tell the employee how you feel when they
do something right. And how their
actions benefit the organization.
4. Let this information sink in, by stopping
for a moment of silence.
5. Shake their hand, and tell them how proud
you are of them, and their commitment to the organization.
The manager lets his employees know that he is going to tell them up front, how they are performing. Most employees assume this means that they are going to be watched until they mess up. They are pleasantly surprised to learn that this is not the case. This management theory emphasizes positive reinforcement. People work to their fullest potential and are more apt to take chances when they feel good about themselves, and their abilities.
Employees of the
“One Minute Manager” become comfortable very quickly with their
duties and responsibilities. They
are able to work efficiently on their own, because they have set out their
goals, they know what’s expected of them, and they feel good about
themselves from the One Minute Praising.
However, if they fail to use their commonsense, and do not complete
their tasks to the best of their abilities or make a mistake, and the manager
realizes this, he will give them a one minute reprimand. (Here we go, back to Pavlov’s
psychology.) Again, the employee
has been told up front that they will be told exactly how they are doing (good
or bad). The steps to follow, to
ensure that the reprimand is done correctly, are very similar to those of the
praising.
1. Tell the employee right away when
they’ve done something wrong.
2. Tell them specifically what they did
wrong.
3. Tell the employee how you feel when they
do something wrong.
4. Let this information sink in, by stopping
for a moment of (uncomfortable) silence.
5. Shake their hand, to let them know that
you’re not out to destroy their lives.
6. Remind them how valuable they are to your
organization.
7. Make sure they understand that you still
think very highly of them, despite the mistake they made.
8. When the reprimand is over, it’s
over!
This method keeps
all personalities out of the reprimand.
All that the manager is interested in is fixing the mistake, not making
the employee feel worthless.
Managers should
by no means employ a stopwatch to ensure that each of these tasks takes no more
than a minute. The authors
just use this time frame to show that the management of people does not have to
take a lot of time, and can be so simple, if you just understand the
process.
You may now be
asking yourselves how all of this can be related to the management of
libraries. This style of management can work in any
situation both business and personal.
In many institutions,
librarians spend a good deal of time working alone. Often, their
supervisors are busy completing their own tasks, and have little time to spend
overseeing what their employees are doing. By sitting down with the employee, setting goals, ensuring
that they are confident in their position (made possible by the one minute
praising), and having them understand that you will always let them know how
they are doing (good and bad), the employee understands exactly what is
expected of them.
Though I am well
aware that it is not the be all and end all of management books, and that there
are better ones out there, it is a good place to get started. The basic concepts discussed in
the book, will make you more aware of how you currently manage your staff, and
how you can do it better. Managing people should be easier, less
daunting , and take less time than trying to find a simple management book, if
you understand the basic concepts.
And don’t forget to practice what you preach.