One Minute Manager

Este libro me dejó un sabor amargo. The One Minute Manager, de Kenneth Blanchard y Spencer Johnson, es un libro muy corto que describe tres aspectos sobre un buen manager, o lo que los autores consideran un buen manager.

One Minute Goal Setting: La idea es dejar por escrito todos los objetivos del trabajo de una persona y que estos estén validados y entendidos por ambas partes. Es un punto valido para manejar las expectativas y dejar en claro el rendimiento esperado en una cierta tarea.

One Minute Praisings: Esto se basa en destacar aspectos positivos de una persona cada vez que se descubre que alguien hizo algo bueno. No estoy en contra de destacar a la gente, pero la forma en la que los autores comunican esto es muy triste. Da el ejemplo de que los refuerzos positivos se usan con los chicos y con los animales, y que debemos usarlos con los adultos también. No me gusta este enfoque. Les dejo el extracto del libro donde explica esto:

“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.
“The people leave that show mumbling to themselves, That’s unbelievable. How do they teach that whale to do that?’
“Do you think they go out in the ocean in a boat,” the manager asked, “and put a rope out over the water and yell, ‘Up, up!’ until a whale jumps out of the water over the rope? And then say, ‘Hey, let’s hire him. He’s a real winner.’ ”
“No,” laughed the young man, “but that really would be hiring a winner.”
The two men enjoyed the laugh they shared.
“You’re right,” the manager said. “When they captured the whale, he knew nothing about jumping over ropes. So when they began to train him in the large pool, where do you think they started the rope?”
“At the bottom of the pool,” answered the young man.
“Of course!” responded the manager. “Every time the whale swam over the rope—which was every time he swam past—he got fed. Soon, they raised the rope a little.
“If the whale swam under the rope, he didn’t get fed during training. Whenever he swam over the rope, he got fed. So after a while the whale started swimming over the rope all of the time. Then they started raising the rope a little higher.”
“Why do they raise the rope?” asked the young man.
“First,” the manager began, “because they were clear on the goal: to have the whale jump high out of the water and over the rope.
“And second,” the One Minute Manager pointed out, “it’s not a very exciting show for a trainer to say, ‘Folks, the whale did it again.’ Everybody may be looking in the water but they can’t see anything. Over a period of time they keep on raising the rope until they finally get it to the surface of the water. Now the great whale knows that in order to get fed, he has to jump partially out of the water and over the rope. As soon as that goal is reached, they can start raising the rope higher and higher out of the water.”
“So that’s how they do it,” the young man said. “Well, I can understand now how using that method works with animals, but isn’t it a bit much to use it with people?”
“No, it’s very natural in fact,” the manager said. “We all do essentially the same thing with the children we care for. How do you think you teach them to walk? Can you imagine standing a child up and saying ‘Walk,’ and when he falls down you pick him up and spank him and say, ‘I told you to walk.’ No, you stand the child up and the first day he wobbles a little bit, and you get all excited and say, ‘He stood, he stood,’ and you hug and kiss the child. The next day he stands for a moment and maybe wobbles a step and you are all over him with kisses and hugs.
“Finally the child, realizing that this is a pretty good deal, starts to wobble his legs more and more until he eventually walks.

One Minute Reprimands: Se basa en comunicar claramente cuando alguien hace algo mal, para corregir el comportamiento en ese preciso instante. Esto está bueno, no estoy a favor de "guardar" estos incidentes para la evaluación de rendimiento anual o semestral, es mejor comunicar errores al instante.

El libro luego desalienta el contacto del manager y el "subordinado" fuera de estas tres prácticas, y no estoy de acuerdo en eso. También el libro parece estar escrito como para niños de primaria. Los tres aspectos del libro tienen valor, pero el estilo para comunicarlos no es inteligente, se puede ver como una sátira.