Whale Done! 4

Today, we will continue to learn with Wes Kingsley in Ken Blanchard's book entitled Whale Done! It carries the subtitle "The Power of Positive Relationships." The message and the "to do" items meld nicely with our journey to culture excellence in safety, quality, ethics, production, in fact, with all we do.

Last time, Wes and hundreds of other people were attending a seminar to learn how to be better motivators and how to help their co-workers and their families achieve their goals. The Consultant was just about to share the four types of Consequences demonstrated by people after a Behavior is observed.

A new slide appears on the overhead screen in front of the large room.

Consultant: "The most popular, of course, is the first, No Response. People are so accustomed to being ignored, they think of it as a normal condition of work. The response people really pay attention to is the Negative. Most people are managed by a leave-alone-zap approach. They never hear anything from their boss until they screw up. The No Response is followed by a Negative response, which can come in the form of an angry look, verbal criticism, or even some kind of penalty."

The Consultant shares a few stories about the killer whales at SeaWorld regarding the first three responses. As you can imagine, the consequences of choosing the wrong response can be dire when working with these large animals. She goes into further explanation on the third response - Redirection.

Consultant: "Redirection is the most effective way to address undesirable behavior ... the trainers don't pay any attention to whales' poor behavior. Instead, they quickly redirect their attention to another task and then observe their performance closely so they can catch them doing something right."

 

After sharing this insight into working with the whales, the Consultant applies this method to working with people.

 

Consultant: "Now, how does Redirection work with people? First, let me tell you I think that Redirection is the best way to turn countless low-morale situations around. You will find this response will work in 99% of the cases where you might be tempted you use a Negative Response on a person. It's a very powerful response because it gets the person back on track, and at the same time it maintains respect and trust by not calling attention to the off-course behavior in a negative way."

 

The Consultant flashed a new slide on the screen at the front of the room, which further explained the Redirection Response.

 

 

Consultant: "The fourth reaction people can get to their performance is a Positive Response. The trainers at SeaWorld might give the whales a bucket of fish, rub their bellies, or give them toys or playtime..."

 

Well, we certainly don't suggest you give your employees or co-workers a bucket of fish or even a belly rub. However, you might give them recognition for a job well done. (Be sure to utilize the Recognition Traits from our recent START session: timely, relevant, confirmed, specific, and sincere.) You can also provide a learning opportunity or perhaps even a promotion.

 

Consultant: "When a good performance is followed by something positive, naturally people want to continue that behavior. The intention of Redirection is to up a Positive Response ... it's important to emphasize here not to wait for exactly right behavior before you respond positively. Otherwise, you might wait forever."

 

Another new slide appears on the screen.

 

The Consultant explains that when the trainers at SeaWorld first begin training a new whale, the whale already knows how to jump. But he knows nothing about jumping over ropes or anything else for that matter. So the trainers start with a rope hanging underneath the water. The rope is high enough off the bottom of the tank to allow the whale the choice of swimming underneath it. If the whale swims underneath the rope, then the trainers don't pay any attention - No Response. However, every time the whale swims over the rope, they pay attention to him - Positive Response - they feed him.

 

Consultant: "The point here is that progress - doing something better - is constantly being noticed, acknowledged, and rewarded. We need to do the same thing with people - catch them doing things better, if not exactly right, and praise progress. That way, you set them up for success and build from there."

 

Our friend, Wes, has certainly taken a whale of a lot of notes (pun intended) during the Consultant's presentation. Next time, we will learn how to put all this together into the Whale Done Response.

 

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc