Gung Ho! is a management book written by well-know author Ken Blanchard. It was somehow never on my radar, so because of the strange title and my unfamiliarity I wasn’t expecting too much, and I only picked it up because I know Blanchard’s other famous theory.
But it turned out to be a delightful, short read. This book can help any starting, aspiring or even seasoned manager to get their priorities straight about working with people.
The theory is built around three core ideas (squirrel, beaver, goose). Decide on meaningful work, decide on how you want to accomplish your task and encourage one another.
What makes the story enticing is that it is based in reality (or is it??). It is built around the story of a factory on the brink of a shutdown, and an old wise Indian who sets out to transform the factory with his new boss. It is sort of misty whether this actually happened (the protagonist herself has some pages in the acknowledgements but seems worried about her privacy). But as the book states in the end notes: it does not matter whether this actually happened: this is a universally applicable theory for every successful company. And I agree.
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