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Gung Ho!

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 heading out to the country to observe the animals that inspired Andy’s grandfather and his Gung Ho philosophy. One of the first lessons she learned was from observing squirrels — the value of Worthwhile Work.

Workers have to understand their work is important, not in terms of units produced, but how it can affect people’s daily lives. Squirrels work hard to store away food for the winter otherwise they will not survive. People needed to understand that securing a brake pedal on a child’s bicycle for instance was important in terms of safety for the consumer. They shouldn’t merely see this act as another unit finished.

Wisdom in a Nutshell from The Spirit of the Squirrel:

• First, the work has to be understood as important.
• Second, it has to lead to a well-understood and shared goal
• Third, values have to guide all plans, decisions, and actions.

Two types of goals:

• Result goals – Statements set out where we want to be, whether in terms of units finished, shipped, or accounts collected.
• Value goals – Statements that set the impact we want to have on the lives of our team members, our customers, our suppliers, and our community.

The Spirit of the Squirrel
Worthwhile Work

Knowing we make the world a better place.

• It’s the understanding, not the work.
• It’s how the work helps others, not units dealt with.
• Result: Self-esteem – an emotion whose power ranks right up there with love and hate. . . . . .