Increase Productivity, Profits, and Your Own Prosperity
The Big Idea From a classic story about a plant called Walton Works #2, here are invaluable management lessons on increasing productivity by fostering high morale. It will work for any type of organization! Based on three core ideas: work must be seen as important, workers must be in control of their own production, and managers must cheer workers on. This is a tried and tested Native American recipe for surefire success. Follow the step-by-step game plan to implementing each idea, and boost your company’s profit, energy, enthusiasm and performance! Introduction The day Andy Longclaw died in 1994, Peggy Sinclair promised to spread his grandfather’s teachings about Gung Ho. She walked into a Denny’s Restaurant, and by a wonderful coincidence, met Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, the authors of this book. They wanted to learn from her about these brilliant yet simple ideas which earned Walton Works #2 recognition in the White House Rose Garden as a role model for workplaces in America. The Gung Ho Story Peggy Sinclair was made General Manager of Walton Works #2, and was given a tight timetable of only four months to achieve a dramatic turnaround in performance for the whole plant. If there were no improvement in the numbers, the boss Old Man Morris would have to close the plant down, and hundreds of workers would become jobless. Among all the departments in the plant, it was the finishing department that had the highest productivity and level of enthusiasm. The head of the department was Andy Longclaw. Peggy Sinclair did what wise managers do; she chose to learn from one of her best people. As a good judge of character, she promptly fired one of her Division Managers who was clearly prejudiced against Andy Longclaw for being of Native American descent. The Gung Ho Game Plan • The Spirit of the Squirrel • The Way of the Beaver • The Gift of the Goose
Andy and Peggy established a routine of