Official Review: Gung Ho!

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By: Ken Blanchard

This book was the basis of a customer service training that my company it in the process of adopting. It is a guide that helps improve morale in the workplace and turn employees into successful, productive individuals.

Gung Ho! is a story of a new manager brought into a company that was set to fail. There were several departments and moving parts and most of them weren’t doing so well. However, despite the downward spiral of the company, one plant was always had consistently good numbers. So new manager Peggy Sinclair tried to figure out what that division was doing right and apply it to the rest of the company in hopes that she could change things around.

When she visited the successful department, she met a head manager named Andy Longclaw (who actually thought he was getting fired because of his disagreements with the heads of the company). But Peggy was more interested in what Andy was doing right. Over time, Andy taught her three basic tales of the Gift of the Goose, the Way of the Beaver, and the Spirit of the Squirrel to show how different teams work together to gain the most effective results.

Blanchard took these simple principles and created a game-plan behind it for organizations to use. Behind the tales lies the core ideals of values and goals, empowered employees, and rooting each other on.

This is a pretty fast read which makes it easy to pass around the office and share with co-workers. The ideals are so simple that it makes it much easier for a whole organization to get on board. After the final training to reach all employees in the company, I’m already starting to see how things are turning around in my organization with the Gift of the Goose. Some people knock this book, thinking that the ideas are too simple and perhaps superficial, but I think that’s good for gaining resonation with an entire company where everyone has a different way of operating.