Whale Done! 6

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.The Consultant is about to bring her lecture to the large group, including our friend West Kingsley, to an end; however, she still has a couple of points to share ... specifically regarding unacceptable behavior.

Consultant: "People ask me, 'What about unacceptable behaviors or poor performance on the job? How do you deal with those?' I usually recommend the Redirection Response. But if someone knows better and they continue with the unacceptable behavior, that's an attitude problem. A Redirection Response will have little effect because they already know what to do. They need to know in no uncertain terms that what they are doing is unacceptable to you. But remember, a Negative Response is a last resort. You tell people, immediately and specifically, what they did that was unacceptable - including the negative impact of their action and how you feel about it: disappointed, confused, frustrated. But since you don't want the focus to be on your feelings, always end that kind of message with an affirmation of the person. They need to know that it's the behavior, not them, that you find unacceptable."

 

The Consultant is describing the "how to" for some "tough love." (I've often heard the phrase - be hard on the process and easy on the people. I wonder if that applies here?) The Consultant continues with her recommendations ...

 

Consultant: "You should also remember that whenever you criticize someone's performance or give negative feedback, no matter how carefully you do it, it tends to harm or detract from your relationship with that person. If you keep it up, you will poison the relationship. They'll lose trust and start trying to get even with you. This is where it helps to think of a relationship as being like a bank account. If you give a Negative Response to someone who knows better, it helps if you have money in that relationship bank - that is, if you've previously been giving that person lots of WHALE DONEs. Then he or she won't mind the correction. When the trust is there, a mistake can even lead to better performance. WHALE DONE - accentuating the positive - always creates a constructive cycle."

 

And, with that, the Consultant concludes her presentation. Next time, Wes meets with the Consultant to further his understanding (and ours) of the WHALE DONE Response.

 

In the meantime, below is a quick reminder of the WHALE DONE Response.



Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc