I’m hooked.

 

It’s the newest worldwide craze.

 

I hadn’t heard anything about and within two days, it felt like the whole world was playing it.

 

I thought it was stupid at first… Then I thought I’d just give it a try… Then I spent about 4 hours on it the first day I got it, and each of the three days I’ve had it. I wonder how long it will last? I actually missed two days of writing blog posts on the weekend because I was playing this instead…

 

It’s actually pretty cool! I’ve gone out and walked around when I would usually be sitting on the couch or at my desk. It’s a really good fitness tool disguised as a game!

 

Be careful though. On the first day, I got so excited but I wasn’t progressing fast enough. So I thought that rather than walking around, I’d jump in my car and dive around. Bad call. When a Machop jumped out and I went to pull over to catch it, it got a little too close to the curb. By too close, I mean I hit it and popped my tire… Also, I’ve already spent $22 on it. Classic. I can never resist those “free” games with their in-app purchases… I would’ve spent over $100 on Candy Crush and its spin offs over the time I was addicted to it.

 

 

Anyway, not much to teach here, just letting you know you should get on it! There’s so much room for improvement, like being able to battle other trainers and selecting moves like the normal Gameboy versions instead of just tapping the screen in gym battles, but they will come. Like Snapchat – it started off with a pretty basic version and when it got serious traction it’s morphed into something almost unrecognisable from the original. If there was any way to, I’d definitely be investing in this.

I’ve set myself a challenge to write a blog post every day for a month. When I first started, it was so easy! I had so many thoughts and wanted to write more than one a day! About It’s getting a little bit tougher. Thankfully, whenever I had ideas to write, I made a quite draft with a few dot points of what I wanted to say and have been able to come back to them if I was struggling for ideas that day.

I want to practice writing and improve it, hence this writing challenge. Seth Godin recommends writing every day. It’s been a good way to get ideas flowing, and it’s helped me open my eyes a little more to the world around me because I’m always consciously trying to find something to write about.

I’m only about 10 days in and already struggling, but I’m committed to keep pushing on! Wish me luck.

The One Minute Manager – by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Background:

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson have written heaps of books, both together and individually. The most famous are probably Who Moved My Cheese? and The One Minute Manager, which now has around 15 different spin offs of other “One Minute” titles.

Ken Blanchard, PHD, is one of the world’s most renowned leadership experts. He has sold over 21 million books, was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 best selling authors of all time, and has worked with companies all around the world to improve leadership characteristics and qualities.

Spencer John, MD, has become a world thought leader for presenting simple solutions to complex problems. Known as the “King of Parables”, Johnson is a highly qualified psychologist with over 50 million books in print worldwide.

 

Quick Summary:

The One Minute Manager is a parable about a young man who is studying leadership and management within companies. He has interviewed many managers but has never really been inspired until he meets the “One Minute Manager”. Subtitled ‘The world’s most popular way to manage your life and work’, this is a short and simple book that provides you with a short a simple way to manage yourself and others. There are Three Secrets to One Minute Management: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Re-Directs (in the original publication, this was termed “Reprimands”, but was updated and rebranded was more positive connotations in the updated version called The New One Minute Manager as leaderships and management has progressed over the decades).

It is only about 80 pages long. As it’s a parable, it presents all of the ideas but allows you to interpret and internalise how you can best apply these in your life. I read this 12 months ago when I was still studying full time and thought it was a good read, but having re-read it as a full time employee with some more experience with managers, I think it’s now a GREAT read.

 

Who should read this:

This book is predominantly for managers, but I think it’s a good read for any employee (because we all have managers), and especially those with management aspirations of their own. These lessons can even be extrapolated to help you manage your personal life, not just your working life. I would love it if every one of my managers from now on read this book and applied its principles, and I hope when I’m a manager I can be as effective as the One Minute Manager.

 

Favourite Chapters:

 

Note: I’ll be referring to The New One Minute Manager version. It’s slightly updated from the original book, The One Minute Manager, but not drastically.

The New One Minute Manager

On the young man’s search for a world-leading manager, he finds a person who others call ‘the one minute manager’. (Or in the case of the updated version, ‘the new one minute manager’). As I said, this book is a parable, which is I guess a fictional story that has a moral or a non-fictional takeaway. I’m sure you can find a better definition but that’s how I think of it. In our first meeting with the One Minute Manager (from here on known as ‘OMM’), we learn that managing should be about facilitation of ideas. It should definitely NOT be about participating in the decision making of others. The OMM is about helping others come to their own decisions, not about making decision on their behalf.

We learn that some manager’s see themselves as “results oriented” while others are “people oriented”. Results oriented managers may refer to themselves as “bottom line managers”, “hard nosed”, “realistic”, or “profit-minded”, but generally they are seen by their subordinates as “tough”. People oriented managers may call themselves “supportive”, “considerate”, “humanistic” or “participative”, but at the end of the day may been seen as too “nice” or “soft” to produce financial results. Neither of these extremes are good, so the be a OMM, you need to be a combination of both.

My biggest takeaway from this section is the fact that “people who feel good about themselves produce good results”, and it is up to the manager to ensure that people are feeling good about themselves. This is the “key to productivity”, keeping in mind that productivity isn’t just the quantity or sheer volume of work output, but a big part of it is also the quality of the work. A major, major part of being a successful OMM is coaching your employees and training them to be better – you don’t need to be doing their job for them, so the better they become, the easier life is for you. By constantly coaching people, they will learn these Three Secrets for themselves and begi to deliver their own Goals, Praisings and Re-Directs without you.

 

The First Secret: One Minute Goals

This is a great way to help coach new employees or to help set people up for success in a new role or responsibility. The manager will be very present in the early stages of a new task to ensure things are progressing on the right path. The best way to do this is to set “One Minute Goals”. This is where the OMM and the employee work TOGETHER to set goals.

In a lot of situations, if you ask an employee what they do and you ask their boss what their employee does, you’ll get two very different answers. If this process is followed, all parties will be on the same page. This way, the employee won’t get in trouble for not doing something they never knew they were supposed to be doing! The key to this is that the manager doesn’t set the goals and give them to the employee. The OMM is there to facilitate discussion and help the employee set their own goals.

The most important goals are then written on one page. They are to be regularly reviewed in less than one minute so everyone can stay focused. If you’ve read about the “Pareto Principle” or the 80/20 rule, you’ll realise that 80% of the results come from 20% of the goals, so the manager and employee both keep a copy of the top 3 to 5 most important goals. Ideally, as the employee becomes more familiar with the process, they can begin to take on more responsibility and will eventually completely set their own goals autonomously and simply send their manager a copy.

As a side note, another book I liked a lot that emphasised goal setting was Life in Half a Second by Matthew Michalewicz.

 

Summary of One Minute Goals (from the end of the chapter):

1. Plan the goals together and describe them briefly and clearly. Show people what good performance looks like.
2. Have people write out each of their goals, with due dates, on a single page.
3. Ask them to review their most important goals each day, which takes only a few minutes to do.
4. Encourage people to take a minute to look at what they’re doing, and see if their behaviour matches their goals.
5. If it doesn’t, encourage them to re-think what they’re doing so they can realize their goals sooner.

 

The Second Secret: One Minute Praisings

As I previously mentioned, a manager’s job should be to help people feel good. Most managers are quick to point out when you’ve done something wrong. But a major key to being a OMM is to try and “catch people doing something right”. Especially in the beginning. It’s vitally important to give “crystal-clear feedback”. Feedback can be an “invaluable tool”, but only is it is done in specific terms.

Praising someone helps him or her feel good, but it must be sincere. By highlighting a specific incident and giving the feedback immediately, the praise becomes genuine. In the really early days of a new employee or a new responsibility, a OMM will even try to catch you doing something that’s ALMOST right. This way they can encourage positive behaviours. Again, as an employee settles in, these Praisings can become less frequent. The manager can step back and monitor the employee less and less as they earn trust. By coaching the employee on exactly when to give Praise and how these are to be delivered, the employee will learn to identify positive behaviours and start to Praise themselves!

 

Summary of One Minute Praisings (from the end of the chapter):

The first half-minute

1. Praise people as soon as possible.
2. Let people know what they did right – be specific.
3. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps.

Pause

4. Pause for a moment to allow people time to feel good about what they’ve done

The second half-minute

5. Encourage them to do more of the same.
6. Make it clear you have confidence in them and support their success.

 

The Third Secrets: One Minute Re-Directs

In the first version, this was termed “One Minute Reprimands”. It definite has more a positive spin on it now. These Re-Directs are important when an employee does something that doesn’t align with their goals. These are used for more established employees, once they are comfortable and have learned to set Goals and get Praisings.

Ultimately, Praise isn’t as effective in encouraging positive behaviours unless there are Reprimands or Re-Directs to eliminate negative ones. It helps people learn quicker and achieve their goals easier. Again, it is important that these are delivered very soon after the fact, rather than being saved up for semi-annual ‘performance reviews’. These need to be specific, and when it’s over, it’s over. You shouldn’t constantly dwell on the incident. Just take it on board and move on. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Re-Direct is the emphasise the fact that the issue relates to the specific incident or mistake, not to the person as a whole. The individual is still a great employee, they just made a one off mistake.

 

Summary of One Minute Re-Directs (from the end of the chapter):

The first half-minute

1. Re-Direct people as soon as possible.
2. Confirm the facts first, and review the mistake together – be specific.
3. Express how you feel about the mistake and its impact on results.

Pause

4. Be quiet for a moment to allow people time to feel concerned about what they’ve done.

The second half-minute

5. Remember to let them know that they’re better than their mistake, and that you think well of them as a person.
6. Remind them that you have confidence and trust in the, and support their success.
7. Realise that when the Re-Direct is over, it’s over.

Favourite Quotes:

“People look for more fulfilment in their work and their lives. They want to feel engaged and make a meaningful contribution. They’re less willing to trade time on the job to satisfy needs outside of work.”

“The most effective managers manage themselves and the people they work for so that both the people and the organisation profit from their presence”

“I believe in facilitating, but not participating in making other people’s decisions”

“To succeed sooner, managers must be both results-oriented and people-oriented”

“People who feel good about themselves produce good results”

“Productivity is more than just the quantity of work done – it is also the quality””

“Without giving people a quality product and the service they want, you won’t stay in business for long”

“In most organisations when you ask people what they do and then ask their boss, all too often you get two different answers”

“Managers [should] work with us to make it clear what our responsibilities are and what we are being held accountable for”

“If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening, you don’t have a problem yet – you’re just complaining”

“A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening”

“My manager shows me how to do it so I can understand it and do it myself”

“Help people reach their full potential – catch them doing something right”

“Laugh at [yourself] when [you] make a mistake, and get over it by doing better work”

“The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people”

“Most companies spend so much of the money on people’s salaries, and yet they spend only a small fraction of their budget to develop people”

“The number one motivator of people is feedback on results”

“Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers. Don’t let their appearances fool you”

“Take a minute to look at your goals, then look at what you’re doing and see if it matches your goals”

“Punishment doesn’t work when you use it with someone who’s learning”

“We are not just our behaviour – we are the person managing our behaviour”

“Your job is to show people how to manage themselves and enjoy it”

“You want [people] to succeed when you’re not around”

“Goals begin behaviours, consequences influence future behaviours”

“Deep down, people like to work for themselves”

The downside of Social Media… We look at it when we’re at our lowest, but people post when they’re at their highest. We get this insecurity that everyone is achieving more than us and doing better than we are.

At first we thought it was amazing to always be able to keep in touch with each other and see what everyone is doing. But my opinions of social media are slowly changing. Our news feeds are filled with amazing moment every single day. Everyone seems so successful!

The drawback of social media is that people post the highlights of their month. We’re scrolling through the newsfeed during our lowlights. When we’re sitting on the toilet at the job we hate, we see someone on holiday. When we are on the train home after our third failed job interview, someone just got a promotion. When we’re sitting at home alone in the pouring rain, someone is lying on a beach in the Greek Islands.

No one is posting their lowlights. No one is trawling through the feeds during their highlights. It gives us this false sense of failure or incompetence.

I’m not saying there’s a solution. I’m just saying you ned to be aware of it. Most people aren’t as successful and their profiles seem, and your life isn’t as bad as you imagine in comparison.

Politics

Today, 2nd of July 2016, Australia voted in the federal election. This is going to be a very short thought, because I don’t really have much of a thought about politics! Perhaps that’s another topic of discussion, but I don’t really feel much of an impact on my life. I don’t feel that the government has that much power over the trajectory of my life. I’d be worried if I thought it did. Another thought for another day is the extrinsic versus intrinsic factors of success.

But today’s thought is a few observations of the one day in every three years I take some kind of notice of politics.

Fighting for Democracy

Firstly, countries all over the world are fighting in revolutions to have to opportunity to cast their vote in a democratic election. Many Australians, myself included, couldn’t care less. Perhaps I should take more of an interest in it, but I feel like I personally have no influence over the outcome. We are somewhat forced to vote in Australia through the threat of a fine if we don’t vote. I’m curious what voter turn out would be if we took the US approach and made voting optional.

The Upper House

Secondly, the senate paper. It was massive. It didn’t fit in the voting booth! What’s up with that… I know it was a double dissolution so there were effectively twice as many seats up for grabs, but that paper was almost as tall as me.

‘How To Vote’ cards

Thirdly, people’s reactions to the ‘how to vote’ cards. One of the volunteers said that after about 10 elections he’d volunteered at he’d noticed a pretty strong trend. There were probably 6 or 7 groups handing out their ‘how to vote’ cards, but ultimately there are two main parties, Liberal and Labor, that people would follow. He said he noticed the following anecdotal statistics:

• 20% of people took the Liberal card
• 20% took the Labor card
• 30% took none
• 30% took all of them!

I’m sure this says a lot about our character. I’m the kind of person who takes every single card… That 40% of people that just take the one they want might be of stronger resolve. They know exactly what they want and they aren’t afraid of what others think of them. Those that take none don’t want to offend anyone. And those that take them all want to please everybody. Perhaps that 40% are the 40% that are most engaged in politics compared to the 60% that don’t really feel empowered. At the same time, you can’t please everyone! Maybe in 3 years I should take a little more interest and be stronger in my convictions and commit to one party!

Where were the sausages…

Finally, the biggest and perhaps most disappointing observation of the day… There was no sausage sizzle! What’s up with that??? The polling place I net to was pretty popular, I was waiting in line for a good 20-25 minutes. And there was no sausage sizzle! I saw a few Facebook posts of similarly disgruntled people across the city that missed out on their morning sausage. Are schools getting too much funding that they don’t need to put in the work to raise extra money? I should’ve set up my own stand!

 

As I said, I’m really not engaged in politics. Perhaps I should take up more of an interest… But at the same time, I don’t recognise the immediate impacts on my life. If I take a more active approach to politics, you might see more daily thoughts on this topic. But… it’s more likely that you won’t read another political thought from me for the next 3 years until the next federal election. Hopefully the sausages are back!

The idea of the “Ripple Effect” came from re-reading the book The Compound Effect. The “Compound Effect” is the idea that small change repeated over a long period of time will lead to massive changes. The idea of the Ripple Effect is that by making small changes in one area of your life, it ripples out to improve all other areas in your life.

As an example, you may consciously decide to make positive changes to your every day decision about your health. These might include making better decision about food and doing some physical exercise. Then the Ripple Effect takes hold:

– You’re eating better so you have more focus and energy, meaning your performance at work improves

– You’re not spending as much money because you’re pre-preparing a healthy meal to take for lunch instead of buying something crap near work

– You’re sleeping better because you’ve been exercising, meaning you start to feel better

– Your interpersonal relationships improve after you start treating others better because you are in a better mood after sleeping better and feeling better

 

The list doesn’t end there. The Compound Effect means that by repeating these small, positive health decision every day, you will see a massive change in the future. The other benefit is the Ripple Effect, which tells us that because we made those small, positive decision about our health, we start to see benefits in our finances, work, relationships and our overall well being.