The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams

by Blanchard, Ken

• ISBN13: 9780061741203
• ISBN10: 0061741205
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-09
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Newly updated and backed by decades of research, this classic guide will equip leaders and team members alike to unleash the power of teamwork.Never before in the history of the workplace has the concept of teamwork been more important to the functioning of successful organizations. Ken Blanchard, bestselling coauthor of Raving Fans, The One Minute Manager r and Gung Ho!, teams up with Donald Carew and Eunice Parisi-Carew to explain how all groups move through four stages of development on their way to becoming high performing teams-orientation, dissatisfaction, integration and production. The authors then show how a manager can help any group become effective quickly and with a minimum of stress.

Table of Contents

The One Minute Manager Receives a Call	p. 1
The Problem	p. 3
The Importance of Groups	p. 6
Characteristics of a High Performing Team	p. 9
The Importance of Vision	p. 16
Diagnosis	p. 19
Understanding Group Dynamics	p. 21
Orientation	p. 26
Dissatisfaction	p. 35
Production	p. 45
Integration	p. 52
Changes in Productivity and Morale	p. 59
Flexibility	p. 62
Four Leadership Styles	p. 65
Task and Maintenance Functions	p. 69
Teaching Someone Else	p. 71
Using the Concepts	p. 74
Answering the Questions	p. 77
Managing the Journey to Empowerment	p. 79
When to Change One's Leadership Style	p. 83
Regression	p. 90
Process Observation	p. 91
Understanding Group Dynamics	p. 95
The Manager as Educator	p. 96
The New One Minute Managers	p. 100
Sharing It with Others	p. 102
Praisings	p. 106
About the Authors	p. 108
Services Available	p. 112
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams
New and Revised Edition

Chapter One

The One Minute Manager was staring out his office window. It was still his favorite place to come when he wanted to think. As he gazed across the grounds, the sound of the phone ringing startled him. Coming back to reality, he walked over to the coffee table in front of his couch and picked up the receiver. When he was in his office the One Minute Manager liked to answer his own phone.

The voice on the other end of the phone was Dan Brockway, the director of training at a large chemical company.

"How's it going, Dan?" asked the One Minute Manager.

"Just fine," said Dan, "but I do need some advice on our Essentials of Management course."

The Essentials of Management course was a new training program that Dan was teaching at his company that focused on the key skills managers needed to be effective in the new millennium. He had spent some time with the One Minute Manager while he was designing the course and was enthusiastic about the commitment of his company's top management to expose all their managers to the best management thinking available.

"Didn't you just finish the first session?"

"I sure did," said Dan. "And the reviews were great with one exception. A young woman, Maria Sanchez, who coordinates our customer service programs, has some serious concerns about the usefulness of some of the materials. In fact she wrote me a letter about her concerns and distributed copies to key people."

"What were her concerns?" asked the One Minute Manager.

"She said all the concepts taught focused primarily on managing people one-on-one and, as such, are limited. She claims that 50 to 90 percent of most managers' time is spent in some form of group activity with two or more people, and yet our course doesn't emphasize teamwork at all. Therefore, we are not providing help in one of the most significant areas of a manager's job."

"That's interesting," said the One Minute Manager. "Tell me more.

"She also thinks the concepts of One Minute Management are based too much on control," said Dan. "The manager sets the goals, the manager gives praisings and the manager delivers reprimands. Let me quote from her letter:

'We need managers who can foster teamwork, facilitate group problem solving and focus the group's attention and enthusiasm on continuous improvement. In today's world, group productivity is more important than individual task accomplishment. The success of individual managers should depend on how well the manager's team improves in quality and productivity on a continuous basis. Systems that can pit team player against team player must be changed so that the priority of each team member becomes the accomplishment of the team's mission. To do that, managers must give up a great deal of control to their people. When that occurs, a feeling of team ownership is created and the team develops pride that comes from producing high quality accomplishments. You will never hear "It's not my job" in an organization committed to teamwork."

"She sounds like quite a person," said the One Minute Manager. "How can I help you?"

"Could you dictate a response to her letter? She could really disrupt our whole program if we don't get her on track."

"I don't think she's off track said the One Minute Manager. In fact, I'd like to meet her.

Sounds like she is really aware of some important issues. I think that one Minute Management principles are sound, but I would agree with her that if you teach those principles without any attention to group skills, you have given managers only half the story. Let's have lunch tomorrow at 12:30 in the main dining room of City Hotel so I can explain to you why I think Maria is on the fight track."

"That would be fine with me, said Dan. "Sounds like I still have some things to learn.""Don't feel like the Lone Ranger," said The One Minute Manager. "See you tomorrow!"

The next day at lunch, the One Minute Manager immediately got to the reason for the meeting.

"Dan, I used to be frustrated at work even though I knew all kinds of effective management techniques. For a long time I didn't know why I was frustrated. I finally realized one day, just as your friend Maria has realized, that most of my job was not supervising and working with people one-on-one but, instead, it involved working with people in groups."

"I thought a lot about what you said last night," commented Dan. "So you really don't believe that we spend much time supervising people individually?"

"No, I don't," said the One Minute Manager. "In fact, most managers spend less than 30 percent of their time directly supervising their people individually. They spend most of their time in group meetings dealing with their people or with peers and their boss, or with people external to their organization such as customers or suppliers. When I first realized that, I decided that I'd better learn something about groups and how they operate."

"Could you tell me what you learned?" asked Dan.

"First of all," said the One Minute Manager, "when groups are operating effectively they can solve more complex problems, make better decisions, release more creativity and do more to build individual skills and commitment than individuals working alone.

"Can't they also destroy productivity?" wondered Dan.

"They sure can, said the One Minute Manager, "if they're not managed well. That's why today's leader must be an enabler of people and a facilitator of teams."

"What else did you learn?"

"Secondly, all groups are unique, continued the One Minute Manager.

"They are all dynamic, complex, ever-changing, duals-have systems living systems that -- just like individuals --have behavior patterns and lives of their own."

"How do groups differ from one another?" asked Dan.

"Well, there are the obvious differences of size, purpose and individual members, but an important difference that is often overlooked is in their stage of development," said the One Minute Manager, All groups go through similar stages as they grow from a collection of individuals when they first get together to a smoothly functioning, effective team."

The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams
New and Revised Edition. Copyright © by Ken Blanchard. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams: New and Revised Edition by Ken Blanchard, Eunice Parisi-carew, Donald Carew, Ken Blanchard
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.