Whale Done!: The Power of Positive Relationships by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Jim Ballard and Thad Lacinak (2002, Hardcover)

This was the third Blanchard book that I have read and so far it is my favorite. The fact that I was staying in Orlando right next to Sea World when I started reading it was a total coincidence, but it made some of the elements of the story really come alive for me. The ideas expressed here can apply to anyone or everyone, not just a manager of some business firm. Although, I have to admit that like many of Blanchard's books it was a little predictable and felt a little pollyannaish.

The story starts off with a character named Wes Kingsley, visiting the Shamu Killer Whale show at Sea World and thinking, "How do they get a ten-thousand pound creature with rows of two-inch razor sharp teeth to do all of those `tricks'"? Certainly, they cannot punish it, or get it to do those things out of fear. Plus, from the look of things, both the "trainers" and the whales seemed to really be enjoying themselves...

Wes stayed after the show and wandered around to find someone to talk to about it. He met Dave Yardley, the head of the killer whale program at Sea World, and learned that the first step is to build trust with the whale and that the process of building trust can take a lot of time. During this time, they make a concerted effort to accentuate the positive. The more attention you give to a behavior, the more it is repeated, even if is negative attention. So they ignore undesirable behavior and reward the desired behavior. In addition to not giving any attention to the unwanted actions, they re-direct or re-channel the energies, either to try again or to a totally different behavior (possibly one that they already know how to do) in order to have a new opportunity to catch them doing something right and give them a reward. Rewards, by the way, aren't always food, or we would have 15,000 pound whales instead of 10,000 pound whales, they also include touching and rubbing. Rewards for people in business or at home don't always have to be monetary; they can be time, new responsibilities, or even words of affirmation and praise.

Dave put Wes in touch with Annemarie Butler, a business leader who uses the same principles in business. Wes went to listen to Annemarie give a little talk about using these ideas in relationships with people. Whether you are managing a business or a home, the way that you deal with people is very much the same. You need to motivate, focus on the positives, and treat people as very important. (example of greeting a long lost friend).

Annemarie listed the ABC's of performance management. "A" is for Activator. Goals are good activators, but make sure you have the same goals as your followers; set goals with your people, not for them. "B" is for behavior or the performance. Then observe close enough to see that the goals are being worked on. "C" is for consequence, or how you respond to the behavior. (and this is where the big stuff comes in). There are four types of responses: 1) no response - usually what happen when someone has done what they should, 2) a negative response - usually what happens when they don't, 3) a re-direction (see below) or a positive response. (see below).

The redirection is what the trainers at Sea World talked about. It is going back to try again or totally changing the behavior in a chance to catch them doing something right. It gets the person back on track without a negative response. The re-direction describes the problem without blame or puts the blame on you for not being clear enough in th

I loved it, it was a good book. Easy read, and can be read by adults, teenagers, or parts of it by children. It is very easy to understand and a great new management method. I will definitely be keeping this book and beginning to incorporate the technique into my work place and home.

Great book about positive reinforcement. Ken Blanchard keeps it simple with many practical illustrations.

Undecided, I'll have to read it first, but i was told by a business friend that it was a great read and helps business owners to be able to motivate their employees.

This book was recommended to me at a conference I recently attended. I'm waiting for it to arrive but I've heard great things about it.