Gung Ho!

by Ken Blanchard

Overview

Here is an invaluable management tool that outlines foolproof ways to increase productivity by fostering excellent morale in the workplace. It is a must-read for everyone who wants to stay on top in today's ultra-competitive business world.

Raving Fans taught managers how to turn customers into full-fledged fans. Now, Gung Ho! brings the same magic to employees. Through the inspirational story of business leaders Peggy Sinclair and Andy Longclaw, Blanchard and Bowles reveal the secret of Gung Ho—a revolutionary technique to boost enthusiasm and performance and usher in astonishing results for any organization. The three principles of Gung Ho are:

• The Spirit of the Squirrel
• The Way of the Beaver
• The Gift of the Goose

These three cornerstones of Gung Ho are surprisingly simple and yet amazingly powerful. Whether your organization consists of one or is listed in the Fortune 500, this book ensures Gung Ho employees committed to success.

Gung Ho! also includes a clear game plan with a step-by-step outline for instituting these groundbreaking ideas. Destined to become a classic, Gung Ho! is a rare and wonderful business book that is packed with invaluable information as well as a compelling, page-turning story.

Management legend Ken Blanchard and master entrepreneur Sheldon Bowles are back with Gung Ho!, revealing a surefire way to boost employee enthusiasm, productivity, and performance and usher in astonishing results for any organization.

Raving Fans brilliantly schooled managers on how to turn customers into raving fans. Gung Ho! now brings the same magic to employees. Here is the story of how two managers saved a failing company and turned in record profits with record productivity. The three core ideas of Gung Ho! are surprisingly simple: worthwhile work guided by goals and values; putting workers in control of their production; and cheering one another on. Their principles are so powerful that business leaders, reviewing the manuscript for Ken and Sheldon, have written to say, "Sorry. Ignored instructions. Have photocopied for everyone. I promise to buy books, but can't wait. We need now!" Like Raving Fans, Gung Ho! delivers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688154288
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/08/1997
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	61,369
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ken Blanchard, PhD, is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world. He has co-authored 60 books, including Raving Fans and Gung Ho! (with Sheldon Bowles). His groundbreaking works have been translated into over 40 languages and their combined sales total more than 21 million copies. In 2005 he was inducted into Amazon's Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 bestselling authors of all time. The recipient of numerous leadership awards and honors, he is cofounder with his wife, Margie, of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, a leading international training and consulting firm.

Read an Excerpt

THE GUNG HO STORY

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-- Robert Frost
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

I'd been set up.

Me, Peggy Sinclair, head-office rising star!

I should have realized it when Old Man Morris told me I'd been named General Manager of Walton Works #2.

The excitement of getting my own plant blinded me to what must have been obvious to everyone else. I'd never been in operations before. Always in a staff position. I knew the theory all right but I'd never done it. I wasn't trained or ready to run a plant. Even one doing well. And this one wasn't.

I thought I'd been forgiven for the staff study I'd authored which concluded that Old Man Morris's new strategic plan had a fatal flaw. He wasn't happy. But he acknowledged the problem and this saved the company $1 million. I thought Walton Works #2 was my reward. It was--just not the way I had it figured.

Tuesday, September 4, 8:00 A.M., I arrived at the Walton Works #2 plant full of energy and enthusiasm. By quitting time it was clear that I'd been had. Everyone knew the plant was the worst in the system. But I had never imagined anything this bad. The plant survived only because of the antiquated way our head office cost-accounted, and that was changing This plant was in major trouble.

Six months, a year at the most, and it would be closing. Gone! And I'd be going with it. The perfect scapegoat for Walton Works #2.

It didn't take a genius to see why productivity was so low. The company treated the rawmaterial piled in the yard better than it treated the workers.

As I met with my management team, I found only one bright spot: the 150-person finishing department. In spite of the problems with Walton Works #2, no other department in our whole thirty two-plant system was so efficient! That meant about l0 percent of this plant's workforce were gems. The rest appeared to be lumps of coal managed by Neanderthals intent on self-destruction.

Then, when I met with the Division Manager to whom the manager of the finishing department reported, I was told all wasn't well, even there.

"You'll want to get rid of the operations manager there fast," the Division Manager advised.

"Really? Why?" I questioned. I also wondered why this was my responsibility and not his, but right then I was mainly interested in why this operations manager should be fired.

Copyright ©1997 by Blanchard Family Partnership and Ode to Joy Limited. Gung Ho!. Copyright © by Kenneth Blanchard. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Editorial Reviews

"Gung Ho! will become the preeminent book in energizing and empowering people as The One Minute Manager® has become for management and Raving Fans for customer service.

Harvey Mackay

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles strike again. You need and business needs Gung Ho! This book will revolutionize any organization which adopts it, and those that don't won't survive. It's that simple.

Tom Peters

"Gung Ho! will make a difference in your life, and in the lives of all of those you have theprivilege to touch.

Anthony Robbins

"Gung Ho! shows in three easy steps how to release the energy and enthusiasm of your whole team and focus it on success. A great book.

Stephen R. Covey

Aboriginal North Americans are running banks and hospitals, designing computers and teaching in universities. They own and operate thousands upon thousands of successful businesses. It's nice to have the business-book world finally catch up to reality and give us Andy Longclaw, a man who saved 1, 500 jobs and may well save yours.

Phil Fontaine

I predict that like Raving Fans and The One Minute Manager®, Gung Ho! will become an invaluable tool in our team's pursuit of excellence. It conveys meaningful lessons about motivation, inspiration, and goal-setting that any organization can put to immediate use.

Sally Gore

Blanchard and Bowles lay out a three-step strategy for motivating employees: make sure they know why their work is important; give them control of how they do their jobs; provide encouragement. The authors related their story through the voice of a female plant manager who is said to have learned these truths from a Native American manager who had been told them by his grandfather.

The book reads like a fable, e.g., the first step is presented as 'The Spirit of the Squirrel.' The construct wears thin. Worse, the authors offer no specifics about how employees should work together (gung ho in Chinese), and what exactly management should do all day, except make sure all three steps recommended here are followed.

If in fact employees really are a company's most important asset, as managers everywhere seem fond of noting, one might wonder why such a three-step plan is needed at all.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In these days where the computer reigns supreme and management thought is presented in complicated models, there is something refreshing about management principles taught by allegory. Blanchard (The One Minute Manager), along with co-author Bowles (Raving Fans) recounts an organizational turnaround based on three Native American lessons. The problem inherent in the principles in this work, or any change program from weight-loss diets on up, is that there needs to be constant focus; success, if it is not continually renewed, is dissipated over time. Although new, this work makes a good preface and companion to Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox's The Goal -- Steven Silkunas, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, Philadelphia

Library Journal

Inspirational, instructiveThis is a delightful fast-moving story with a lesson. The setting is a factory that is in serious trouble, under threat of closure,

because of narrow-minded executives and employees who simply aren't motivated to accomplish the job that must be done.

Our heroes are the new plant manager, a woman, and a wise Native American who heads one of the departments-the high-producing department-in the factory.

Drawing on the wisdom passed along by his grandfather, the department head (who also holds an MBA) guides, educates,

and inspires the new plant manager. Together they turn the situation from hopeless to exemplary and award-winning. The philosophies shared in this volume are powerful and apply to many circumstances, not just manufacturing.

This small book is deceiving in its size. There's plenty of white space on the pages. At first, the reader may get the impression that the design of the page layout is unusual and was probably done to bulk-up the book. Gradually, the wide margins seem to make the book easier to read, a page-turner. There really aren't any chapters, though there are some natural breaks in the flow of the story to give you stopping points. Be warned: you won't want to stop. You'll want to stick with this book to the last page . . . then give it to someone else to read.