The One Minute Manager Part 4

"What do you think about all that?" asked the One Minute Manager.

"I'm amazed at how simple it is," said the young man, "and yet it works-you get results. I'm convinced that it certainly works for you."

"And it will for you too, if you're willing to do it," the manager insisted.

"Perhaps," said the young man, "but I would be more likely to do it if I could understand more about why it works."

"That's true of everyone, young man. The more you understand why it works, the more apt you are to use it. I'd be happy, therefore, to tell you what I know. Where do you want to start?"

"Well, first of all, when you talk about One Minute Management, do you really mean it takes a minute to do all the kinds of things you need to do as a manager?"

"No, not always. It just is a way to say that being a manager is not as complicated as people would have you believe. And also managing people doesn't take as long as you'd think. So when I say One Minute Management, it might take more than a minute for each of the key elements like goal setting, but it's just a symbolic term. And very often it does take only a minute.

"Let me show you one of the notes I keep on my desk."

When he looked, the young man saw:

The Best Minute I Spend Is The One I Invest In People

"It's ironic," the manager said. "Most companies spend 50% to 70% of their money on people's salaries. And yet they spend less than 1% of their budget to train their people. Most companies, in fact, spend more time and money on maintaining their buildings and equipment than they do on maintaining and developing people."

"I never thought of that," the young man admitted. "But if people get results, then it certainly makes good sense to invest in people."

"Exactly," the manager said. "I wish I had had someone invest in me sooner when I first went to work."

"What do you mean?" the young man asked.

"Well, in most of the organizations I worked in before, I often didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. No one bothered to tell me. If you asked me whether I was doing a good job, I would say either 'I don't know' or 'I think so.' If you asked why I thought so, I would reply, 'I haven't been chewed out by my boss lately' or 'no news is good news.' It was almost as if my main motivation was to avoid punishment."

"That's interesting," the young man admitted. "But I'm not sure I understand it."

Then he added anxiously, "In fact, if it's all right with you, maybe I could understand things better if I could get to some of my 'why' questions. Let's start with One Minute Goal Setting. Why does it work so well?"

Why One Minute Goals Work

"YOU want to know why One Minute Goals work," the manager said. "Fine." He got up and began to pace slowly around the room.

"Let me give you an a.n.a.logy that might help. I've seen a lot of unmotivated people at work in the various organizations I've been employed in over the years. But I've never seen an unmotivated person after work. Everyone seems to be motivated to do something.

"One night, for example, I was bowling and I saw some of the 'problem employees' at work from my last organization. One of the real problem people, who I remembered all too well, took the bowling ball and approached the line and rolled the ball. Then he started to scream and yell and jump around. Why do you think he was so happy?"

"Because he got a strike. He had knocked down all the pins."

"Exactly. Why don't you think he and other people are that excited at work?"

"Because he doesn't know where the pins are," smiled the young man. "I get it. How long would he want to bowl if there were no pins?"

"Right," said the One Minute Manager. "Now you can see what happens in most organizations. I believe that most managers know what they want their people to do. They just don't bother to tell their people in a way they would understand. They a.s.sume they should know. I never a.s.sume anything when it comes to goal setting.

"When you a.s.sume that people know what's expected of them, you are creating an ineffective form of bowling. You put the pins up but when the bowler goes to roll the ball, he notices there is a sheet across the pins. So when he rolls the ball, and it slips under the sheet, he hears a crack but doesn't know how many pins he knocked down. When you ask him how he did, he says, I don't know. But it felt good.

"It's like playing golf at night. A lot of my friends have given up golf and when I asked them why, they said, 'Because the courses are too crowded.' When I suggested that they play at night, they laughed because who would ever play golf without being able to see the pins?

"It's the same with watching football. How many people in this country would sit in front of their TV's on a Sunday afternoon or Monday night and watch two teams run up and down the field if there were no goals to shoot at or any way to score?"

"Yeah! Why is that?" asked the young man.

"It's all because clearly the number one motivator of people is feedback on results. In fact, we have another saying here that's worth noting: 'Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions.' Feedback keeps us going. Unfortunately, however, when most managers realize that feedback on results is the number one motivator of people, they usually set up a third form of bowling.

"When the bowler goes to the line to roll the ball, the pins are still up and the sheet is in place but now there is another ingredient in the game-a supervisor standing behind the sheet. When the bowler rolls the ball, he hears the crash of the falling pins, and the supervisor holds up two fingers to signify you knocked down two pins. Actually, do most managers say you got two?"

"No," the young man smiled. "They usually say you missed eight."

"Right on!" said the One Minute Manager. "The question I always used to ask was why doesn't the manager 'lift the sheet up' so both he and his subordinate can see the pins. Why? Because he has the great American tradition-Performance Review-coming up."

"Because he has Performance Review coming up?" wondered the young man.

"Right. I used to call that 'NIHYSOB' which stands for 'Now I have you-you SOB.' Such managers don't tell their people what they expect of them; they just leave them alone and then 'zap' them when they don't perform at the desired level."

"Why do you suppose they would do that?" the young man inquired, being very familiar with the truth in the manager's comments.

"So they can look good," said the manager.

"What do you mean, so they can look good?" asked the young man.

"How do you think you would be viewed by your boss if you rated everyone that reported to you at the highest level on your performance review scale?"

"As a 'soft touch,' as someone who could not discriminate between good performance and poor performance."

"Precisely," said the manager. "In order to look good as a manager in most organizations, you have to catch some of your people doing things wrong. You have to have a few winners, a few losers, and everyone else somewhere in the middle. You see, in this country we have a normal-distribution-curve mentality. I remember one time when visiting my son's school, I observed a fifth-grade teacher giving a state capitals test to her cla.s.s. When I asked her why she didn't put atlases around the room and let the kids use them during the test, she said, 'I couldn't do that because all the kids would get 100 percent.' As though it would be bad for everyone to do well.

"I remember once reading that when someone asked Einstein what his phone number was, he went to the phone book to look it up."

The young man laughed. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not kidding. He said he never cluttered his mind with information he could find somewhere else.

"Now, if you didn't know better," the manager continued, "what would you think of someone who went to the phone book to look up his own number? Would you think he was a winner or a loser?"

The young man grinned and said, "A real loser."

"Sure," the manager responded. "I would, too, but we'd be wrong, wouldn't we?"

The young man nodded his agreement.

"It's easy for any of us to make this mistake," the manager said. Then he showed his visitor the plaque he had made for himself. "Look at this:"

Everyone Is A Potential Winner Some People Are Disguised As Losers, Don't Let Their Appearances Fool You.

"You see," the manager said, "you really have three choices as a manager. First, you can hire winners. They are hard to find and they cost money. Or, second, if you can't find a winner, you can hire someone with the potential to be a winner. Then you systematically train that person to become a winner. If you are not willing to do either of the first two (and I am continually amazed at the number of managers who won't spend the money to hire a winner or take the time to train someone to become a winner), then there is only the third choice left-prayer."

That stopped the young man cold. He put down his notebook and pen and said, "Prayer?"

The manager laughed quietly. "That's just my attempt at humor, young man. But when you think about it, there are many managers who are saying their prayers daily-'I hope this person works out.' "

"Oh," the young man said seriously. "Well, let's take the first choice. If you hire a winner, it's really easy to be a One Minute Manager, isn't it?"

"It sure is," said the manager with a smile. He was amazed at how serious the young man was now-as though being more serious made a person a better manager. "All you have to do with a winner is do One Minute Goal Setting and let them run with the ball."

"I understand from Ms. Brown, sometimes you don't even have to do that with her," said the young man.

"She's absolutely right," said the manager. "She's forgotten more than most people know around here. But with everyone, winner or potential winner, One Minute Goal Setting is a basic tool for productive behavior."

"Is it true that no matter who initiates the One Minute Goal Setting," the young man asked, "each goal always has to be written down on a single sheet of paper?"

"Absolutely," insisted the One Minute Manager.

"Why is that so important?"

"So people can review their goals frequently and then check their performance against those goals."

"I understand you have them write down only their major goals and responsibilities and not every aspect of their job," the young man said.

"Yes. That's because I don't want this to be a paper mill. I don't want a lot of pieces of paper filed away somewhere and looked at only once a year when it's time for next year's goal setting or performance review, or some such thing.

"As you probably saw, everyone who works for me has a plaque near them that looks like this." He showed his visitor his copy of the plaque.

Take A Minute: Look At Your Goals Look At Your Performance See If Your Behavior Matches Your Goals

The young man was amazed. He'd missed this in his brief visit. "I never saw this," he said. "It's terrific. Could I get one of these plaques?"

"Sure," the manager said. "I'll arrange it."

As he was writing down some of what he was learning, the aspiring manager said, without lifting up his head, "You know, it's difficult to learn everything there is to learn about One Minute Management in such a short time. There's certainly more I'd like to learn about One Minute Goals, for instance, but maybe I could do that later.

"Could we move to One Minute Praisings now?" asked the young man, as he looked up from his notebook.

"Sure," said the One Minute Manager. "You're probably wondering why that works, too."

"I certainly am," the visitor responded.

Why One Minute Praisings Work

LET'S look at a few examples," the One Minute Manager said. "Maybe then it will be clear to you why One Minute Praisings work so well."

"I'd like that," said the young man.

"I'll start with a pigeon example and then move on to people," said the manager. "Just remember young man, people are not pigeons. People are more complicated. They are aware, they think for themselves and they certainly don't want to be manipulated by another person. Remember that and respect that. It is a key to good management.

"With that in mind, let us look at several simple examples which show us that we all seek what feels good to us and we avoid what feels bad to us.

"Suppose you have an untrained pigeon that you want to enter a box in the lower left-hand corner and run across the box to the upper right-hand corner and push a lever with his right foot. Suppose that not too far from the entry point we have a pellet machine-that is, a machine that can release pellets of food to reward and reinforce the pigeon. What do you think is going to happen if we put the pigeon in the box and wait until the pigeon runs over to the upper right-hand corner and pushes the lever with his right foot before we give him any food?" asked the One Minute Manager.

"He would starve to death," responded the young man.

"You're right. We're going to lose a lot of pigeons. The pigeon is going to starve to death because he doesn't have any idea what he is supposed to do.

"Now it's actually not too hard to train a pigeon to do this task. All you have to do is to draw a line not too far from where the pigeon enters the box. If the pigeon enters the box and crosses the line-bang-the pellet machine goes off and the pigeon gets fed. Pretty soon you have the pigeon running to that spot, but you don't want the pigeon there. Where do you want the pigeon?"

"In the upper right-hand corner of the box," said the young man.

"Right!" the One Minute Manager confirmed. "Therefore, after a while you stop rewarding the pigeon for running to that spot and draw another line which isn't too far from the last line, but is in the direction of the goal-the upper right-hand corner of the box. Now the pigeon starts running around his old spot and doesn't get fed. Pretty soon though, the pigeon makes it across the new line and-bang-the machine goes off again and the pigeon gets fed.

"Then you draw another line. Again this line has to be in the direction of the goal, but not too far away that the pigeon can't make it again. We keep setting up these lines closer and closer to the upper right-hand corner of the box until we won't feed the pigeon unless he hits the lever and then finally only when he hits the lever with his right foot."

"Why do you set up all these little goals?" wondered the young man.

"By setting up these series of lines, we are establis.h.i.+ng goals that the pigeon can achieve. So the key to training someone to do a new task is, in the beginning, to catch them doing something approximately right until they can eventually learn to do it exactly right.

"We use this concept all the time with kids and animals, but we somehow forget it when we are dealing with big people-adults. For example, at some of these Sea Aquariums you see 'round the country, they usually end the show by having a huge whale jump over a rope which is high above the water. When the whale comes down he drenches the first ten rows.