Keys to creating raving customers
In the book Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, the authors were seeking to discover the secret to Raving Employees. In addition to their own personal experience, Blanchard and Bowles needed to do research and interviews with the people of importance in the most successful and dramatic “raving employee” stories of all times. Upon interviewing Peggy Sinclair, the authors discovered a totally unique and thoroughly effective approach to motivating and urging on employees in any situation. Peggy tells us that there are three very unique keys to growing “gung ho” employees.
These Gung-Ho principles are:
The Spirit of the Squirrel – Worthwhile work.
Work has to be understood as important, it has to lead to a well-understood and shared goal, and values have to guide all plans, decisions and actions.
The Way of the Beaver – In control of achieving the goal.
People who are truly in control work for organizations that value them as persons. Their thoughts, feelings, needs and dreams are respected, listened to, and acted upon.
The Gift of the Goose – Cheering each other on.
Gung Ho people do right work, the right way, for the right reward.
While the book dives deep into the affect these principles have when lived out in the lives of the employees (or team-members as the book suggests calling them), the true story presented in the book is the best testimony to the power of engaging and empowering people in organizations. It follows Peggy Sinclair and the Walton Works #2 plant in one of the most dramatic business turnaround stories in America. Walton Works #2 goes from near-closure to becoming “Gung-Ho” and one of the nation’s finest and most efficient workplaces.
The efficiency, the profitability, the innovations and creativity, the Raving Fans Service delivered to customers, all traced back to one thing – a workforce ready, willing, able, and eager to take on fresh challenges and to work together for the common good.
Written in first-person story-form, using Native American principles and the true story of a production plant’s total turnaround, “Gung Ho” is an exciting read, and highly applicable to any kind of management or leadership situation. The developing professional and/or MBA student should be at least aware of this book and other Blanchard writings.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Click the links for more resources on developing KSAs or to learn more about a western MBA in Moscow. Also, you may visit the Russian side of the GHP site with information about a совместные программы MBA.
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