The New One Minute Manager

by Kenneth H. Blanchard

“One night, years ago, I was bowling and I saw some of the ‘problem employees’ from my previous organization. One of the real problem people, who I remembered all too well, approached the line and rolled the bowling ball. Soon he started to hoot and holler and jump around. Why do you think he was so happy?” “Because he knocked down all the pins.” “Exactly. Why do you think he and other people don’t have that same level of excitement at work?” The young man gave it some thought. “Because they don’t know where the pins are—what they’re aiming at. I get it. How long would they want to bowl if they couldn’t see the pins?” “Right,” said the One Minute Manager. “I believe many managers assume wrongly that the people on their team know what to aim for. “When you assume that people know what’s expected of them, you are creating an ineffective form of bowling. You put the pins up, but when the bowler goes to roll the ball, he notices there is a sheet across the pins. So when he rolls the ball and it slips under the sheet, he hears a crack but doesn’t know how many pins he knocked down. When you ask him how he did, he says ‘I don’t know. But it felt good.’