PUTTING THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER TO WORK

by Kenneth & Robert Lorber Blanchard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 20, 1983

This, we're told, is the start of a series in which Blanchard will team up with specialists in various management areas--here, productivity expert Lorber. It doesn't have the neat fit or the snap of the earlier book, though; and it strikes some very false notes. A veteran manager, quizzing a One Minute Manager on how to translate the secrets of OMM into skills, is introduced to the ABCs of management: a distraction and a throwback. ""If managers can learn to understand and deliver the necessary activators (A) and consequences (C), they can ensure more productive behavior (B) or performance."" A second, amplified explanation puts the ABCs in terms of One Minute Goal Settings, Praisings, and Reprimands--at which point the reader is on a grid getting nowhere. In a little dialogue, meanwhile, the One Minute Manager speaks of the KISS method--Keep It Short and Simple; the veteran wonders if it doesn't mean Keep It Simple, Stupid; and the One-Minute-Man replies, all-too-revealingly, that since OMM is a positive approach, ""we use a positive way to express the concept."" Also, One-Minute-Man #2 tells an anecdote about a blind man and a dog that's unpleasant. (The dog urinates on the blind man; the blind man takes out a treat--not, he assures a bystander, to reward the dog inappropriately. ""I just want to find out where his head is so I can kick him in the tail."") Then there's expansion on effective reprimanding--how to say (ho-hum) ""You're OK but your behavior isn't."" Subsequently, a third One Minute Manager introduces our questing veteran to the PRICE system: Pinpoint, Record, Involve, Coach, Evaluate. The Involve step involves keeping a praising/reprimand log; the Coach step entails plotting the managee's performance on a graph; Evaluation calls for convincing the managees WE MEAN THEM NO HARM. Later, blessedly, a One Minute Manager is effectively reprimanded by a managee. But the attempt to reconcile textbook management precepts with the ""three secrets"" of One Minute Management is a dud: too condensed for easy readability, too complex for easy application.

Pub Date: Feb. 20, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION