To believe that 'Dynamite comes in small packages', you have to read the book "The One

Minute Manager" and you'll believe in this more than ever. A book comprising only a
hundred odd pages, which looks like one of those childhood fairy tales, amazingly packs
in three most valuable and effective lessons in management.

"The One Minute Manager" is a book for finding a balance between being an autocratic
manager, who cares only about the results, and a democratic manager, who cares only
about the people. The lessons are imparted in the form of an interesting parable about a
young man who has set out looking for world-class management skills. In his search, he
meets the One Minute Manager, a willing mentor who seems to have things well in
control and plenty of time on his hands.

During the course of the story, the young man finds that a good manager is an honest
man, who leads by example and who genuinely cares for his people. He learns that the
original One-Minute Manager has established certain precepts to ensure that a work
group is individually more responsible.

These are:

1. Set One-Minute Goals to ensure that your people understand perfectly what their
duties are, what is expected of them and that there are no surprises.
2. Give One-Minute Praise. Let the people know when they are doing the right thing
or when they are doing something right.
3. Give One-Minute Reprimands. Do it immediately and talk only about the
incorrect behavior only, not the people personally.

These concepts have been further propounded in the book. The parable finally ends in the
young man adopting and exploiting the one-minute policies and gradually attaining great
success and fame, like his tutor.

The book is deceptively simple. It is an inspiration to thousands of leaders and is a

business book that should be read and reread as often as possible. Ever since the first
edition came out in 1992, the book has been acting as a practical business guide for
managers who want to get the most from their employees.

The secrets of one-minute management will help a manager boost profits and
productivity immediately through increases employee morale and job satisfaction.

For any person who is currently manager striving to get the most from people, or who is
planning to become one in the near future, "The One Minute Manager" is an
indispensable success tool.

I loved this book. It is a very quick and easy read. I read it in under an hour, cover to
cover. The book contained many valuable lessons on management. The authors use one
minute as their base. You really don't need more than a minute to explain what needs to
be done. The authors actually encourage a manager to find a way to be able to explain
what needs to be done in less than one minute.

When a mistake is made, the same is true. You don’t need more than one minute to
explain where the error is and how to fix it. No one likes to be told they’ve made a
mistake, so to be able to let someone know in under a minute is actually a gift to them.

When praising a job well done, yet again, one minute is plenty of time to say “you’ve
done a super job, I really appreciate the time you spent on this project”.

The author explains how to effectively use your one minute to accomplish your task of
explanation, praise or reprimand.

Being a parent, many of these principals and teachings can be applied to parenting. We
should be able to tell our children what needs to be done in less than one minute, explain
something they should not have done in less than one minute and praise a great job, yet
again in less than one minute.

A good quick read and the book earned its place on my shelf with the “to be read again”
stack.

The objective of the book ‘The One Minute Manager’ by Kenneth Blanchard and
Spencer Johnson is to define the effective managers in this dynamic world of business
where various external and internal factors influence their performance. The author does
it through a search mission of a young man whose quest is to find managers who make
both- their organization and people win with their managerial skills. The author talks
about a continuum, where one end is occupied by tough or autocratic managers who
make their organization win but their people loose; while the other end is reserved for
nice or democratic ones who make their people win but their organizations loose.
Effective managers are ‘the one minute managers’ who adopt principles of one minute
goals, one minute praising and one minute reprimands.
The principle of one minute goals is to set a direction of every single person in the
organization. There should be allocation of clear responsibilities and accountability. Goal
and performance should be written in less than 250 words on one piece of paper which is
followed by assessment of difference between performance and goals. Our behavior
should be in conformity with our goals.
The second principle of praising consists of an attempt to catch people doing something
right and praising them instantly. There should be genuine effort to make people feel
good about their strengths because the author suggests that ‘only those people who feel
good about themselves perform’. The principle of one minute reprimand includes
reprimanding people when they do not perform well. But a Manager should know the
specific use of praise. Moreover, only the wrong behavior by an individual needs to be
reprimanded; not the individual himself.
This book is full of implications for managers. But the focus has been on one minute.
When every process is reduced to one minute, it leads to over simplification of the
process which a manager has to undertake. It has ignored the dual role that a manager
performs in structured organization where there are both subordinates and seniors. This
book has teachings for seniors only. But this book talks of empowering people and giving
them onus of their lives through applications of various principles of human relations and
communications. An eye opener for many indeed!

The One Minute Manager has sold over 13 million copies and has been translated into 37
languages, which proves that a good and interesting book doesn’t have to be thick. With
just 110 pages it provides a lot of information and examples to think about, and compare
those with real-life situations. If found this book in relation to the “Getting Things Done”
methodology, and ordered it right away. In the article below I provide a brief summary
and my personal thoughts about the contents of this book.

By incident I stumbeled accross The One Minute Manager book, with a short review
emphasizing on the fact that good books don’t need to be long. So I ordered the book,
and started reading it, and I hope that it can help to be more productive or more efficient
in everyday life, or leaves you with some new interesting insights you can build and think
further up-on.

“Once there was a bright you man who was looking for an effective manager. [...] work
for one [...] wanted to become one.” [ref01] One of the essences that the researcher is
struggling with is the balance between results and people. Some managers focus just on
the end-result, and don’t care about the people and their behavior, while a manager can
also pamper the people which he manages and forgetting about the results. Thes are the
extremes of the spectrum, but a nice relation to investigate. The One Minute Manager has
a plauqe on his desk: “People who feel good about themselves, Produce good results” It
may sound like an open door, but sometimes this is forgotten in everyday life, not only in
business but also in our private lives.

One Minute Goal Setting

1. “Agree on your goals;

2. See what good behavior looks like;
3. Write out each of your goals on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words;
4. Read and re-read each goal, which requires only a minute or so each time you do
it;
5. Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance,
and
6. See whether or not your behavior matches your goal.” [ref01]

The first step is goall setting, which is not only applicable to managers, but the steps can
be applied to every situation. The most important one to me are (1) and step (3). If you
work in a team there should be a full agreement of everyone on the goal the team is
working to. Step (3) emphasizes to stick with the important facts, or let’s call it “the
management summary”-approach. Try to be brief, and limit yourself to the important
pieces of information that really matter to the problem.

One Minute Praisings

1. “Tell pople up front that you are going to let them know how they are doing;
2. Praise people immediately;
3. Tell prople what they did right, be specific;
4. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the
organization and the other people who work there;
5. Stop for a moment of silence to let them “feel” how good you feel;
6. Encourage them to do more of the same;
7. Shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their
succes in the organization.” [ref01]

The One Minute Manager summarizes it as “Help people reach their full potential, catch
them doing something right” In the hard business world it are often the results that
matter, and in that line of reasoning you just hear from your boss when something went
wrong. Often these things are accumilated till the famous performance interviews.
However the essence of the technique is right, a compliment for doing something right is
a great stimulus to keep up with the good work. Managers often don’t take the time to
compliment someone.

One Minute Reprimands

1. Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing
and in no uncertain terms;
2. Reprimand people immediately;
3. Tell people what hey did wrong, be specific;
4. Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong, and in no uncertain terms;
5. Stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel;
6. Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on
their side;
7. Remind them how much you value them;
8. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation;
9. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it’s over.

This chapter was highly interesting, because it’s very different of how in general
reprimands are done. Sometimes it’s difficult to split the people from their behavior,
especially reprimanding people and their behavior. The One Minute Manager describes it
as: “We are not just our behavior, we are the person managing our behavior” If I were a
manager I would pay extra addition to this chapter. However it is also a useful technique
for clever people who can do their own goal setting and are pleased when they reach
certain goals. In the book some excellent examples are made, also with respect to
performance interviews and everyday practice.

Overview and final thoughts

This little book isn’t a multimillion bestsellor for nothing. It contains techniques and step-
by-step plans which are highly effective in everyday life, both for managers and everyone
working with other people. The book is very easy to read (just take a sunday afternoon),
well written, has good examples to eleborate on the important key points, and leaves you
with a lot of things to think about. Not only about effective goal setting, but also about
social behavior and the psychological consequences of actions.

Furthermore as an academic student I like the model in which it can be summarized:

“The One Minute Manager Game Plan” which is shown in the figure below. It’s easy to
understand, has a high level of logic and summarizes the essence of the book. Like I
stated in the introduction my overall opinion is: “Good books don’t have to be long !”

I can advise this book to everyone, and want to thank the writers Blanchard and Johnson
for the great way they have written down their story. I think I will see if I can get another
book from the series: “The One Minute Sales Person”.

“Take a minute: Look at your goals — look at your performanc — see if your behavior
matches your goals”
One Minute Manager Game Plan (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983, p.p. 101)

About Ken Blanchard

“Kenneth Hartley Blanchard is an American author and

management expert. His book The One Minute Manager (co-authored with Spencer
Johnson) has sold over 13 million copies and has been translated into 37 languages. He
has coauthored over 30 other best-selling books. [...] Blanchard is the “chief spiritual
officer” of The Ken Blanchard Companies, an international management training and
consulting firm that he and his wife, Marjorie Blanchard, cofounded in 1979 in San
Diego, California. Among many accolades, Blanchard has been honored as one of the top
10 Leadership professionals in the international Leadership Gurus survey for 2007 and
2008. The “Leadership Gurus survey” award, by Global Gurus International identifies the
top and most influential Leadership professionals in the world by merit and public voting.
Blanchard is a Cornell University trustee emeritus and visiting professor at the Cornell
University School of Hotel Administration. He and his wife were named Cornell
Entrepreneurs of the Year in 1991.” [ref02]

About Spencer Johnson

“Spencer Johnson is known for his 1998 motivational book, titled

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in
Your Life. It has stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list, and has remained on the
Publishers Weekly Hardcover nonfiction list. Johnson received a B.A. degree in
psychology from the University of Southern California in 1963, and his M.D. from the
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Johnson also wrote the book “Yes” or “No”: The
Guide to Better Decisions (1992), which has been translated into a number of languages
including Spanish, Korean and German . He co-authored the One Minute Manager series
of books with management writer Ken Blanchard. His latest book, which can make you
happy and successful is The Present. [ref03]

The "ABC's" in the Summary Chart represent the Activator, Behavior, and
Consequences of a librarian's work "performance" or "products."

This book explains "WHY" the following three simple techniques work: (1) One
Minute Goal-setting; (2) One Minute Praisings; and (3) One Minute Reprimands.

The book also explains "HOW" to apply those good management techniques.

In addition, the book can teach you that the quickest way to increase your productivity,
profits, satisfaction, and/or personal prosperity is by providing consistent predictable
positive reinforcement for desirable work behavior, if you are a manager, or by getting it,
if you are a subordinate librarian!

The ideas in this book constitute a revolutionary modern management method that has
produced results for all organizations which have used it since it was first published in
1982. This small but very profound book has demystified practical management
techniques so you may benefit --- if you choose!

Chapter 3) The First Secret --- "One Minute Goals" (p25)

The first and foremost concept of the philosophy of the "One Minute Manager" is the
creation of "One Minute Goals."

The "One Minute Manager" concept always makes it clear WHAT your
responsibilities are as an employee and for what you should be held accountable as a
supervisor. (p27)

Once the "One Minute Manager" has decided what needs to be done and the
subordinate librarian agrees with what needs to be done, they collaborate on creating a
"Duty Statement" that includes specific measureable duties and related tasks. Each
duty or major goal is recorded on a single page or less!

The "Work Standards" for work duties and related tasks (the work goals and the plans
for achieving them) must list specific quantitative measures that will be used to rate each
subordinate librarian.

Each "Rating Standard" or criterion that describes each "Duty" and related "Task"
should take less than 250 words to express.

Also, the second essential component of the "One Minute Manager" philosophy of
management is that a subordinate employee must be able to read and comprehend the
explanation within one minute.

The "One Minute Manager" keeps a copy and the subordinate librarian keeps a copy so
everything is clear and progress can be checked regularly. A one page statement should
be created for each separate duty or work goal in order to "OBJECTIVELY"
substantiate each subordinate librarians" accomplishments during the evaluation year.
This puts an "objective" focus on the significance of each assigned duty and related task
in the context of all others for which the subordinate librarian is responsible. (p28)

Thus, both the manager (or "supervisor") and the subordinate librarian "know" what is
"expected" of them professionally from the beginning. This method of "objectively"
recording work performance results can decrease the impact of "subjective" personality
differences.

Therefore, there should be no surprises in an "annual" Performance Evaluation due to

excessively "subjective" and previously unspecified imaginary rating standards in the
mind of a supervisor!

2009-07-19 - The wrong thing righter

Rating: 1/5
On the one hand this is a really easy book to read, a short flight and you're done. And
though it gives managers some easy stuff to do, in my opinion its the wrong stuff. It
makes the assumption that front line staff have control over their performance, they often
don't. Take for example a call centre where the workers are targeted to 100 calls per day.
Many of the customers will get poor service so the worker can get their quota. All the
coaching in the world will make no difference. What needs to change is the system
created by the manager.

Pros: Fast read, and easy to understand.

Cons: Gets managers to spend time on the wrong thing, the people rather than the system.

2009-06-03 - The 1 minute manager

Rating: 5/5

Very easy to read in this busy climate. Tips on managing self and others that can be used
at work and home

2009-06-01 - The gift of getting greater results in less time

Rating: 5/5

First published in 1982, The One Minute Manager is just 106 pages long, and many of
those pages are short blocks of text or motto-like summaries of ideas - in a form that one
might put on a plaque on your desk.

The books tells the story of a young aspiring manager, searching for enlightenment about
the best way of managing people, who comes across "the special manager" and who
learns from him and his colleagues the three secrets of successful management. These are
One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands. The anecdotal
style is clear and simple; I liked it, although some might think its simplicity verges on the
patronising. It might come across as patronising if delivered ineptly, too, although any
good idea will fail if implemented poorly. The authors seem to recommend telling
everyone in your organisation exactly what it is you are doing (I am sure they would be
delighted if you bought all your reports a copy of the book!) but, alternatively, if
deployed with a modicum of intelligence and situational awareness, these techniques
could be used successfully without anyone being aware of it.

The catchy "one minute" title of the book and many others in this series may give the
impression that the authors think that effective interaction between people can be reduced
down to one minute segments. Some of the recurrent themes in the book may reinforce
this, for example the special manager's intense dislike of having to repeat himself leading
to the first "one minute reprimand" of the young manager. A coaching style of leadership
and management should allow for some repetition for clarity, reinforcement and a host of
other reasons. To be fair, however, I don't think that that was Blanchard and Johnson's
intention - in many cases much thought and planning would have to go into achieving
short, sharp interactions. A One Minute Goal, for example, is a one page statement of a
(significant) goal, written on just one side of paper and capable of being read in just one
minute. Anyone who has tried this type of formal delegation knows that it can take a long
time to distil a host of complicated factors down into such a format.

This is yet another of those books that I wish I had read many years ago. While I think
that many experienced and effective managers will recognise much of the way they work
in the one-minute style, like so many great or inspirational books this one achieves clarity
through simplicity. As Winston Churchill once put it, "out of intense complexities intense
simplicities emerge". I believe Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson have achieved that
objective.

2009-02-11 - Basic
Rating: 3/5

Take 3 simple main points

- One minute goal setting

- One minute praise
- One minute reprimands

... and put them in a very short fictional story and you have this book.

There are so many dimensions to management and leadership missing its not true,
resulting in a somewhat shallow feel to the topic and perhaps a bit dangerous?

If you want a jigsaw where half the pieces are missing buy this book.
If you have NO experience of management or don't even know what the word manager
means buy this book.

Otherwise don't.

-- Lee

2009-01-03 - Simple but effective

Rating: 5/5

I had heard of this text but came to read it after seeing it in the library. The fact that it is a
short book helped draw me in.

Once I started reading it I found it hard to put down and went through it in a few hours.
Many Management texts are written in a style that requires some degree of perseverance
to get into, and may even require a guide to understanding some of the text itself. This
one does not.

It is written in a storytelling style that makes it somewhat easier to visualise and thus
easier to get the messages that the authors are conveying.

Whilst the messages are simple, this does not mean that they are redundant. On the
contrary, the approaches to the positive reinforcement of staff is a lesson that many do
forget 'in the real world'.

Whilst this should be seen as a stepping stone onto more complicated management
theories, it is worth stopping here a while; whether as a first text, or a reminder of the
basics.