(Cross-posted at Across Moon River)
See also my thoughts on the second book, The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey.

The One Minute Manager was a quick and easy read, but was packed with quotes for me. I suspect if I wasn’t borrowing this book from a coworker, I would have marked it up similar to my annotations on research papers when I was going through grad school. I enjoyed this book because the advice is easy to implement, but I know also to take it with a grain of salt. That is, the story brings out the best and touches very lightly on the worst. I suppose that is why there is a follow-up “monkey book”, The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey.

The presentation is a fictionalized story of a mentor(s), the One Minute Manager(s), imparting knowledge to a wanderer, the protagonist, in search of an effective manager. In short, there are three techniques to practice to be a One Minute Manager. Although the name may imply a “one minute management style” it’s really about minimizing time by using these three techniques for managing yet still being effective or as the One Minute Manager says himself, “it takes very little time for me to get very big results from people.” As with many stories, it is idealized but that doesn’t mean a part of it can’t be used vs. the whole.

The first thing that is impressed on the protagonist when he meets the One Minute Manager is the amount of time he has to be able to meet with anyone, whether subordinates or visitors like our protagonist. The only constraint is a weekly meeting with his subordinates, but the rest of his time is available. This theme runs through the other people that the protagonist meets, the three subordinates and another worker who does not practice one minute management and is constantly pressed for time.

The second is the importance of listening, but it is not quite phrased that way. The One Minute Manager quickly chastises the protagonist (within the second page of their first conversation) when he is asked essentially to repeat himself, “I already told you [the purpose of my weekly meetings]…do not ask me to repeat myself. It is a waste of my time and yours.” Though the important thing to note here is the responsibility of the One Minute Manager recognizing he is repeating himself because the protagonist doesn’t ask the same question, but rather tries to elicit an answer that he expects to hear by asking slightly different questions.

The protagonist doesn’t quite realize the lesson yet and makes the same mistake when the One Minute Manager gives him a list of six names and tells him it is his decision which or all of those six he wants to talk to. The protagonist asks again which ones he should talk to and the One Minute Manager says, “I already told you, I don’t make decisions for other people. Make that decision yourself.” Because it is a simple decision, the One Minute Manager is understandably irritated at having been asked twice. For those of us on the receiving end, how many times have we just given an answer because it’s an easy way out?

The first person the protagonist meets is Mr. Trenell and imparts the first of three techniques or “secrets”, the One Minute Goal Setting. Its essence is to capture what needs to get done or what is agreed to get done, the goal(s), and then recorded on a page. Each goal gets its own page and is no longer than 250 words or short enough to take about a minute to read. Goals are not numerous because “80% of your really important results will come from 20% of your goals,” or, key areas of responsibility. Goals are not individual tasks, but the larger picture of what is needed to be accomplished.

The other lesson Mr. Trenell has to share with our protagonist is the purpose of each employee, at a very high level, is to solve problems. The first step is properly identifying it. Put problems in behavioral terms, “I do not want to hear about only attitudes or feelings. Tell me what is happening in desirable, measurable terms.” Then ensure you have a problem by explaining, “what you would like to be happening in behavioral terms…If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening, you don’t have a problem yet. You’re just complaining.” Finally, find a solution by throwing out ideas and asking yourself if it gets done, will you get the result you wanted?

Excited, the protagonist asks for the next technique, but Mr. Trenell tells him to go see Mr. Levy. The second technique is the One Minute Praising. This technique is commonly used among parents with their children and pet owners with their pets. Its essence is to build confidence and good habits in the employee by closely monitoring them to catch them doing something right and then praising them for it right away–in other words, positive reward. The monkey book goes into more detail with this as it also later instills a sense of responsibility, but does not directly address it by this name.

To exercise the One Minute Praising, you also have break personal barriers by touching a person in a non-overly friendly way like on the shoulder. Even I was a little creeped out by this being a no-touchy person. There’s later justification for the use of touch (a gesture of trust, honesty, etc.), but I’d keep touch out of this unless you and the other party are comfortable enough with that. My old manager clapped me on the shoulder a couple of times and it was both unexpected and awkward, but I understood his intentions meant well.

There are three benefits to the One Minute Praising. One, quick feedback – you know when you’ve done something right because it is recognized immediately. Two, sincerity and familiarity are expressed when the specific action is described (though this can feel a bit Big Brother-y–the close monitoring should taper off when confidence and good habits have been established). Three, consistency or a spotlight focus on the good thing that was done – despite what else is going on, good or bad, the fact that you’ve done something good earns you praise. A side-effect of this is a carrot-and-stick. You never know when you’ll get the next praising so you keep working hard.

The protagonist takes a break from learning the techniques to visit Ms. Gomez, an employee outside of the One Minute Manager’s hierarchy but still within the company. He learns that the One Minute Manager’s group is the most efficient and effective in the company. He also learns that there is a lot of turn over in his group because he is effectively training them to be useful in other parts of the company (vs. leaving the company). We also learn that Ms. Gomez is very busy and really wants to meet with the One Minute Manager to learn his secrets, but never has the time.

The next day, the protagonist picks back up with learning the final technique, the One Minute Reprimand. This technique is for more seasoned workers, those who have the tribal knowledge of how they are expected to work. However, workers are human so they are prone to mistakes. The One Minute Reprimand is to keep workers from straying too far. Its essence is to point out wrong behavior, not the person.

Like the One Minute Praising, the three benefits are quite similar. One, quick feedback – you know when you’ve done something wrong because it is addressed immediately. Two, sincerity and familiarity, but also the reinforcement that sloppiness or bad quality will not be tolerated. Three, consistency – despite what else is going on, good or bad, the fact that you’ve done something wrong earns you a reprimand. There is a fourth benefit, less defensive response by focusing on the wrong behavior rather than the person. Like the One Minute Praising, there is a touching gesture to help send the message that the reprimand isn’t an attack on the person, but for their behavior.

It turns out the protagonist’s attempts at getting the One Minute Manager to repeat himself have been examples of a One Minute Reprimand. Though, the dialogue and the protagonist’s response is so well-crafted that of course the protagonist doesn’t take the reprimand personally, but I can imagine it would not be received the same way by some people in real-life.

The protagonist returns to the One Minute Manager’s office to discuss what he has learned. He asks the important question, “Why?” Why do these techniques work so well? And it turns out the One Minute Manager has yet another motivational quote to share, “The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people.” Feedback is important to let people know how they are doing, good or bad, so they can respond appropriately. I was reminded a bit of Agile where fast feedback is important and its concepts are reflected with the One Minute techniques discussed in the book.

One of the takeaways I was able to try out was the pigeon or whale idea. Pigeons are smart and if you want to train one to go from one corner of a box to another, you have to use consistent, positive rewards at gradual steps until the pigeon learns that it will get a reward if it goes to a particular corner of a box. A similar idea with teaching a whale to jump over a rope held above the water.

The concept of gradual rewards is similar to tough households raising children (common in Asian families of particular generations). There’s an end goal and the first step towards that goal is rewarded. Once the first step is made consistently, then there is a second step. The first step is no longer rewarded, but the second step is. And so on until the end goal is reached. Straight A’s is a common example of an end goal. By the time a kid graduates from high school, only straight A’s are rewarded. If there is a single B, not even a consolation prize except maybe a “I love you” disguised as “Try harder next time.”

One of my teammates has constantly been afraid of doing work on his own and has tried repeatedly to mob or pair. When it was clear that not enough work was getting done, I insisted we split to cover more ground, essentially forcing my team to start becoming more self-reliant rather than reliant on me. This sprint, he was telling me how his unit test stopped working and he found out it was because of a stray logging method in the code under test that the unit test framework didn’t understand. I praised him because he found the solution on his own rather than pester me to figure out his problem for him.

Clearly this book had me more engaged than the monkey book. I’ll leave you with some quotes I found useful to keep in mind:

• “People who feel good about themselves produce good results.”
• “…productivity is more than just the quantity of work done. It is also the quality.”
• “Productivity is both quantity and quality.”
• “A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.”
• “Help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right.”
• “…the most important thing in training somebody to become a winner is to catch them doing something right–in the beginning approximately right and gradually moving them towards the desired behavior.”
• “With a winner you don’t have to catch them doing things right very often, because good performers catch themselves doing things right and are able to be self-reinforcing.”
• “Unless discipline occurs as close to the misbehavior as possible, it tends not to be as helpful in influencing future behavior.”
• “If you are first tough on the behavior, and then supportive of the person, it works.”
• “We are not just our behavior, we are the person managing our behavior.”
• “You will be successful with the One Minute Reprimand when you really care about the welfare of the person you are reprimanding.”
• “…manipulation is getting people to do something they are either not aware of or don’t agree to.”
• “Sometimes…you have to care enough to be tough…I am very tough on the poor performance–but only on the performance. I am never tough on the person.”
• “Goals begin behaviors. Consequences maintain behaviors.”