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Discipline Without Punishment: The Proven Strategy That Turns Problem Employees into Superior Performers
A guide designed to help a new generation of managers and HR professionals adopt a positive, proven method for getting problem employees back on track. More than 30 years ago, performance expert and author Dick Grote developed a powerful, nonpunitive discipline system that turned a troubled Frito-Lay plant from a hotbed of employee sabotage and toxic relations into a productive, respectful environment. Grote's method spread to other companies, and gained national recognition with the 1995 release of the first edition of Discipline Without Punishment. Despite the effectiveness of the DWP method, many supervisors and workplaces continue to cling to their long-established fear-based approaches that instill lots of resentment, with little or no payback in improved performance. In this newest edition of Discipline Without Punishment , you will find: This book remains an eye-opening, forward-looking, practical guide to making your disciplinary system equitable and effective. Discipline Without Punishment has become a management classic, helping thousands of companies and managers move to a responsibility-based approach for handling unacceptable performance, problem behaviors, and excessive absenteeism.
272 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 1995
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380 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 18, 2020
I’m somewhat new to management. But I have been doing it long enough to have made some mistakes in terms of hiring, disciplinary action, documentation, managing and responding to problem employees and yes, termination.
These mistakes have all been revokable. But all of them have been painful and costly in terms of lost productivity and lost sleep.
Fortunately, I have been able to learn from all of them and improve my thinking, planning and tactics accordingly.
That being said. I’m also trying to bone up on the business, management and leadership literature, and adopt sound practices based on said wise counsel.
I found this book to be VERY USEFUL!
I asked two of the managers I’m overseeing to read it.
And I have already implemented the policies and procedures from this text in our organization nearly verbatim (basically as I read it) to immediate great effect.
I handled two disciplinary actions this week as advised in this book, with clearly communicated expectations regarding employee commitment to behavioral change, and without (repeat, without) any punitive language or spirit, and they both went SO DANG WELL.
Great book.
Super helpful.
Super applicable.
LOVED IT!!!
These mistakes have all been revokable. But all of them have been painful and costly in terms of lost productivity and lost sleep.
Fortunately, I have been able to learn from all of them and improve my thinking, planning and tactics accordingly.
That being said. I’m also trying to bone up on the business, management and leadership literature, and adopt sound practices based on said wise counsel.
I found this book to be VERY USEFUL!
I asked two of the managers I’m overseeing to read it.
And I have already implemented the policies and procedures from this text in our organization nearly verbatim (basically as I read it) to immediate great effect.
I handled two disciplinary actions this week as advised in this book, with clearly communicated expectations regarding employee commitment to behavioral change, and without (repeat, without) any punitive language or spirit, and they both went SO DANG WELL.
Great book.
Super helpful.
Super applicable.
LOVED IT!!!
March 3, 2012
The author astounds us with the brilliance of common sense. I don't mean that sarcastically. The suggestions made should be perfectly obvious, but, unfortunately are not followed by many organizations.
The basic thrust of the "Discipline without Punishment" system is to treat people with dignity, to provide regular, accurate and timely feedback, to recognize good performance when warranted, and to use discipline as a means to improve performance and salvage employees, rather than as a means of "going through hoops" to justify a termination.
Some of the most insightful points raised:
-it is IMPORTANT and DESIRABLE to discriminate based on performance. Doing so keeps away/drives away the bums, and attracts/keeps the best employees.
-all employee problems fall into 1 of 3 DISTINCT categories: attendance, performance or conduct. Doing this makes it easier to determine the appopriate disciplinary response.
-performance problems are always due to a lack of knowledge OR a lack of execution. If the former, provide training, if the latter, engage in performance improvement discussions.
-the purpose of any performance improvement discussion is to get the employee's commitment to change. If the problem continues, you now have two problems: the original infraction and failure to live up to the previous promise to change.
The author encourages organizations to adopt the “Discipline Without Punishment” system, an endeavor that the author presents as a major overhaul. Of course, he is going to say that, since his consulting firm can help implement the changes (for a hefty fee I am sure!). I look at it another way. I think that many of the ideas raised in this book can be incorporated into a company’s existing discipline system. The emphasis has to shift, however, from punitive measures, from treating employees like children, from “jumping through hoops” to justify a termination, to an honest, dignified, mature, collaborative effort to helping the employee take responsibility for her own improvements so she can become a fully productive member of the organizational family again.
The basic thrust of the "Discipline without Punishment" system is to treat people with dignity, to provide regular, accurate and timely feedback, to recognize good performance when warranted, and to use discipline as a means to improve performance and salvage employees, rather than as a means of "going through hoops" to justify a termination.
Some of the most insightful points raised:
-it is IMPORTANT and DESIRABLE to discriminate based on performance. Doing so keeps away/drives away the bums, and attracts/keeps the best employees.
-all employee problems fall into 1 of 3 DISTINCT categories: attendance, performance or conduct. Doing this makes it easier to determine the appopriate disciplinary response.
-performance problems are always due to a lack of knowledge OR a lack of execution. If the former, provide training, if the latter, engage in performance improvement discussions.
-the purpose of any performance improvement discussion is to get the employee's commitment to change. If the problem continues, you now have two problems: the original infraction and failure to live up to the previous promise to change.
The author encourages organizations to adopt the “Discipline Without Punishment” system, an endeavor that the author presents as a major overhaul. Of course, he is going to say that, since his consulting firm can help implement the changes (for a hefty fee I am sure!). I look at it another way. I think that many of the ideas raised in this book can be incorporated into a company’s existing discipline system. The emphasis has to shift, however, from punitive measures, from treating employees like children, from “jumping through hoops” to justify a termination, to an honest, dignified, mature, collaborative effort to helping the employee take responsibility for her own improvements so she can become a fully productive member of the organizational family again.
October 1, 2022
I had mixed feelings about this book right from the first few minutes.
The book starts by sharing a story about a Frito-Lay plant in which morale had gotten so bad that multiple employees were writing profanity on potato chips on the assembly line using permanent markers. But the author swooped in and single-handedly turned the plant around - from nearly a hundred people fired in one year to eventually only two people fired in a different year. Morale was much higher.
That's odd, I thought. Why have I never heard of that before? I paused the book and went to fact check. Surely such a sensational story would have been all over the newspapers. Can you imagine opening a bag of potato chips and finding one with a rude word written in permanent marker? That would definitely garner national attention and would be a story repeated for decades.
Maybe it did happen. Maybe there are news stories. But the only other mention I could find was a Harvard Business Review article - in which the author of this book shared the same anecdote again, but with fewer details.
It's also odd that, if this method has produced such astounding results, that there isn't more talk of it. Maybe it would appear in business management or human resources management textbooks. Maybe it would at least be discussed in several business magazines as a key tool every business should adopt. Maybe it is, but I haven't seen it.
Ok, I thought, maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe the author neglected to mention that all of the marked potato chips were caught by an inspector and none left the plant. Maybe they managed to keep a tight lid on the story for decades, so it never leaked out to the press. Maybe it's hard to get much publicity, even for effective business techniques. It could all be real.
I continued to listen. I kept hearing some things I didn't agree with. But on the whole, it seemed harmless enough. Certainly some structure, even if not perfect, would be better than how many managers approach discipline and firing. The author does make some good points.
I'll also note that the book is mainly geared towards managers of unskilled labor. It would seem more appropriate to factories, fast food, retail and similar jobs. Although such managers generally don't have the latitude to institute a new program like "discipline without punishment". Perhaps this book is for higher-level managers to convince them to adopt the system. Or perhaps, once a company has bought into the system, this book is an instructional manual for line managers to use to be complaint. I could see that.
I do have to give props to the author for providing specific instructions in many cases.
I suppose I should say what "discipline without punishment" is. It's essentially like many concepts of multiple warnings leading up to a termination. It's more structured than what many companies do. It focuses on getting the employee to verbally agree to solve the problem, and the final step is a day off WITH pay, in which the employee has time to serioulsy consider how they can turn things around.
I felt a little uncomfortable as I got deeper into the book. The author is definitely much more focused on the well-being of the company over the well-being of the individual. Some of his beliefs seem more old fashioned and conservative. He does seem to feel strongly that women and racial minorities are likely to make unjustified complaints about harassment or being unfairly disciplined, seeming to not care about movements like "Black Lives Matter" or "#metoo". But then again, the original book was written in 2006, before such movements became widespread. Can we cut the author slack for being a product of the time? Perhaps I was being too harsh.
However, I became more and more concerned as I got closer to the end of the book.
There was a moment where the author suggested that only in 0.5% of cases was a doctor's note useful to prove the employee was not contagious and would not put other workers at risk. You can definitely tell this is a pre-pandemic book.
Then the author maintained that employees should always have perfect attendance, that sick leave should never be used AND that employees should come in EVEN WHEN THEY ARE SICK.
That's when I stopped.
I had the distinct feeling through much of the book that the author had little compassion for the employees and their struggles, and felt the company had little responsibility for them - and didn't even owe them any degree of flexibility. I thought maybe I was being a bit harsh. But this was completely overboard. The idea that human workers are machines that can be expected to show up every single work day of every year and never, ever need to miss work for any reason... they they should show up to work sick, when they feel terrible and are unlikely to be productive... that they should be encouraged to spread disease in crowded work environments and possibly in public transit on the way to work and the way back... madness! I would have said the same even before COVID-19 (I have strong feelings about how office environments tend to spread colds and flus), but now that we've experienced a pandemic, I hope most readers can agree this is absolutely unacceptable.
There MUST be better books on management and managing employee discipline out there. Avoid this book... like the plague.
The book starts by sharing a story about a Frito-Lay plant in which morale had gotten so bad that multiple employees were writing profanity on potato chips on the assembly line using permanent markers. But the author swooped in and single-handedly turned the plant around - from nearly a hundred people fired in one year to eventually only two people fired in a different year. Morale was much higher.
That's odd, I thought. Why have I never heard of that before? I paused the book and went to fact check. Surely such a sensational story would have been all over the newspapers. Can you imagine opening a bag of potato chips and finding one with a rude word written in permanent marker? That would definitely garner national attention and would be a story repeated for decades.
Maybe it did happen. Maybe there are news stories. But the only other mention I could find was a Harvard Business Review article - in which the author of this book shared the same anecdote again, but with fewer details.
It's also odd that, if this method has produced such astounding results, that there isn't more talk of it. Maybe it would appear in business management or human resources management textbooks. Maybe it would at least be discussed in several business magazines as a key tool every business should adopt. Maybe it is, but I haven't seen it.
Ok, I thought, maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe the author neglected to mention that all of the marked potato chips were caught by an inspector and none left the plant. Maybe they managed to keep a tight lid on the story for decades, so it never leaked out to the press. Maybe it's hard to get much publicity, even for effective business techniques. It could all be real.
I continued to listen. I kept hearing some things I didn't agree with. But on the whole, it seemed harmless enough. Certainly some structure, even if not perfect, would be better than how many managers approach discipline and firing. The author does make some good points.
I'll also note that the book is mainly geared towards managers of unskilled labor. It would seem more appropriate to factories, fast food, retail and similar jobs. Although such managers generally don't have the latitude to institute a new program like "discipline without punishment". Perhaps this book is for higher-level managers to convince them to adopt the system. Or perhaps, once a company has bought into the system, this book is an instructional manual for line managers to use to be complaint. I could see that.
I do have to give props to the author for providing specific instructions in many cases.
I suppose I should say what "discipline without punishment" is. It's essentially like many concepts of multiple warnings leading up to a termination. It's more structured than what many companies do. It focuses on getting the employee to verbally agree to solve the problem, and the final step is a day off WITH pay, in which the employee has time to serioulsy consider how they can turn things around.
I felt a little uncomfortable as I got deeper into the book. The author is definitely much more focused on the well-being of the company over the well-being of the individual. Some of his beliefs seem more old fashioned and conservative. He does seem to feel strongly that women and racial minorities are likely to make unjustified complaints about harassment or being unfairly disciplined, seeming to not care about movements like "Black Lives Matter" or "#metoo". But then again, the original book was written in 2006, before such movements became widespread. Can we cut the author slack for being a product of the time? Perhaps I was being too harsh.
However, I became more and more concerned as I got closer to the end of the book.
There was a moment where the author suggested that only in 0.5% of cases was a doctor's note useful to prove the employee was not contagious and would not put other workers at risk. You can definitely tell this is a pre-pandemic book.
Then the author maintained that employees should always have perfect attendance, that sick leave should never be used AND that employees should come in EVEN WHEN THEY ARE SICK.
That's when I stopped.
I had the distinct feeling through much of the book that the author had little compassion for the employees and their struggles, and felt the company had little responsibility for them - and didn't even owe them any degree of flexibility. I thought maybe I was being a bit harsh. But this was completely overboard. The idea that human workers are machines that can be expected to show up every single work day of every year and never, ever need to miss work for any reason... they they should show up to work sick, when they feel terrible and are unlikely to be productive... that they should be encouraged to spread disease in crowded work environments and possibly in public transit on the way to work and the way back... madness! I would have said the same even before COVID-19 (I have strong feelings about how office environments tend to spread colds and flus), but now that we've experienced a pandemic, I hope most readers can agree this is absolutely unacceptable.
There MUST be better books on management and managing employee discipline out there. Avoid this book... like the plague.
May 20, 2019
I like the idea behind this approach, and will be looking into implementing it at my workplace. I appreciated the examples and detail, though part of me is still wondering if it would be effective in my current industry, especially with the age range I tend to work with.
The occasional anti-union statements were a bit jarring, but honestly not surprising.
The occasional anti-union statements were a bit jarring, but honestly not surprising.
January 21, 2022
Generally, the book is good for it’s purpose, really practical. However, I don’t think some of the thinking suits nowadays, e.g. such statements that inspite of one being sick, employer wants him/her to be at work. Though different view is ok, to me it sounds unhuman… This is the reason of 3 stars.
October 15, 2023
As far as forced reading for work goes, this one wasn't bad. I think there was a lot of filler with the example stories but overall the content was good and helpful, though I feel like a lot of it is also common sense. I think a lot more companies should use this method.
January 31, 2024
This book feels like somebody just took the elephant in the room an put it on paper. We all know what types of leadership styles people are receptive to, but somebody put it in layman’s terms in a way that is helpful to all types of fields.
September 4, 2021
Makes MUCH more sense then when our CEO explained it.
December 4, 2022
A systematic list on how to effect positive results without harmful substances. This is a great book for newly hired managers.
July 4, 2016
I am surprised that more people in management have not read this book and that more companies do not use this system. Working in a carpet mill showed me that the system of getting rid of the problem employees does not work, it seems to take forever to fire someone who is just doing the job they have been hired to do. This costs the company money. So why do they keep these people on? Companies need to read and start following this book. It would save companies sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long-term (training, and lose of product, also not only “floor” workers, but those that are hired for management positions also).
I think anyone that is going into the management field should be required to keep a copy of this book on their desks and be able to know, from reading and reading it, to be able to use this valuable information in everyday work. They should also know how to hire the “right people for the right job” to begin with, but that is yet another book!
I think anyone that is going into the management field should be required to keep a copy of this book on their desks and be able to know, from reading and reading it, to be able to use this valuable information in everyday work. They should also know how to hire the “right people for the right job” to begin with, but that is yet another book!
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July 24, 2011Working my way through this one...
August 28, 2009
I had to read this for work. :) The ideas are good, the book is kind of dry, but apart from a strong anti-union bias out of nowhere in a couple of places, it's OK.
January 17, 2011
I have used some of the techniques and found this book helpful as a new manager.
July 11, 2015
Revolutionary management techniques that feel like common sense once you are exposed to them. Hardly any fluff to it. Good solid advice every manager should read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews