Tuesday, Aug. 09, 2011
The One Minute Manager (1982), by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
This slim volume, with its simple (critics argued, simple-minded) business homilies, immediately became a worldwide publishing phenomenon, and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestsellers list. In it, would-be effective managers are advised to "catch an employee doing something right," and to reinforce that good behavior with a One Minute Praising. Bad deeds are similarly to be pointed out and punished with a One Minute Reprimand. The authors themselves were accused of a bad deed by the Wall Street Journal — plagiarism, to be exact — which they denied. But by that time, the tiny tome was ubiquitous, having been distributed by FORTUNE 500 companies everywhere.