book review of one minute manager

The 1-Minute Manager: Summary Review & Takeaways

This is a summary review of The 1-Minute Manager containing key details about the book.

What is The 1-Minute Manager About?

The One Minute Manager is intended to remind each of us to take a minute out of our day to look into the faces of the people we manage. It shares three primary one-minute techniques of an effective manager: one-minute goals, one-minute praisings, and one-minute reprimands.

Who is the Author of The 1-Minute Manager?

Kenneth Hartley Blanchard is a bestselling author, business consultant, and motivational speaker.

Patrick Spencer Johnson is an American physician. He was known for the ValueTales series of children's books and his 1998 self-help book Who Moved My Cheese?, which recurred on the New York Times Bestseller list.

What are the main summary points of The 1-Minute Manager?

Here are some key summary points from the book:

• Effectiveness is a function of both quality and quantity: generally speaking, you want to achieve quality results in less time and micromanage others as little as possible.
• To become an effective manager, you want to adopt a management style that motivates success through:
• One-minute goals, where you clarify what is important to focus on and define measurable performance standards
• One-minute praisings, where you provide immediate positive feedback and give assurance that direction is right
• One-minute reprimands, where you hold others accountable and offer constructive criticism aimed at transforming their behavior
• Rather than one yearly review at the end of the year, you want to set specific, measurable goals with deadlines, and provide day-to-day coaching (as needed) in order to help achieve those goals. The goal-setting must be done together to ensure you're both in alignment and in agreement.
• One-Minute Goals are important as they define more clearly what constitutes success, put everyone on the same page, and enable accountability for results.
• One-Minute Praisings need to be consistent and specific. This means expressing not only a thank-you, but also specifying the specific impact on the overall operation.
• Praisings help with elevating the confidence necessary for achieving bigger things down the road. The more specific you are, the more people can understand what they did right and thus be able to replicate it.
• One-Minute Reprimands also need to be consistent and specific. The aim is to assist people in learning from failure, errors, and mistakes, so that they don’t repeat them.
• One-Minute Reprimands also need to be constructive and respectful. It’s important to remind people that their behavior is being critiqued, not who they are.
• There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses. Look and ask for commitment. Don’t employ people who are merely interested. Employ the ones who are truly committed.
• To become a better manager, you will need to determine your team member’s development level and the corresponding leadership style needed to move them to the next development level.
• Once you evaluate your team member’s development level, you will need to be able to change your leadership style based on your evaluation and the situation.
• You want to look at two factors to determine a person’s development level: competence and commitment. Anytime a team member is not performing well without your direction, it is usually a competence problem, a commitment problem, or both.
• Competence is a function of knowledge and skills; it can be gained through learning and experience. Commitment is a combination of self-confidence and enthusiasm for doing the task.
• The four combinations of competence and commitment make up the four stages of development levels:
• D1- The Enthusiastic Beginner: You are eager to learn, excited and curious (high commitment); however, you are inexperienced (low competence).
• D2- The Disillusioned Learner: You have acquired some experience (low-some competence), but haven’t made as much progress as expected. You could become frustrated and may even be ready to abandon the task or goal (low commitment).
• D3- Capable but Cautious Contributor: You have demonstrated moderate to high competence, but your commitment is variable. You may be self-critical, unsure, bored, or simply have low interest in the project or task.
• D4- Self-Reliant Achiever: You have both high competence and commitment, you are confident and self-motivated. You need opportunities for growth and impact, but you don’t need much direction or support.
• Once you establish the development level, your next step is to decide on the appropriate leadership style. There are four styles:
• S1- Directing (for the Enthusiastic Beginner):You provide high directive behaviour and low supportive behaviour. You take the decisions and provide specific directions — what, when, where, and how — about goals and tasks, and then monitor the person’s performance in order to provide feedback as needed.
• S2- Coaching (for the Disillusioned Learner): You provide high directive behaviour and high supportive behaviour. You direct the tasks, explain why, solicit suggestions, and start your journey to encourage involvement in decision-making.
• S3- Supporting (for the Capable but Cautious Contributor): You provide low directive behaviour and high supportive behaviour. You make decisions together. You support the person’s efforts, listen to suggestions, empower, facilitate, and ask good questions to elevate his or her confidence.
• S4- Delegating (for the Self-Reliant Achiever):You provide low directive behavior with low supportive behavior. The self-reliant achiever makes most decisions about what, how, and when. You express how much you value the person’s contributions and keep supporting his or her growth.
• If your team member is at development stage one, you use leadership strategy one. If he or she is at stage two, you use leadership strategy two, etc. The goal, generally speaking, is to move everyone to D4 (Self-Reliant Achiever — High Commitment, High Competence).
• Great managers…
• Know how to motivate and inspire people to produce desired results. They know it’s their responsibility as well.
• Instill confidence with those they work with. They care not only about results but also about people.
• Make less decisions for others but instead guide them to make decisions for themselves. They empower others to take more responsibility and manage themselves.

What are key takeaways from The 1-Minute Manager?

Lesson #1. invest in your working relationships.

What does a manager’s job boil down to? Developing new products? Selling? Controlling the finances? The correct answer is in the job title—to manage team members. After all, a business's success depends on the work of its workers (think about it: will you get high-quality products if those you work with are delivering low-quality work?). Therefore, business owners should consider the people they work with as their most important asset and ensure that their operation can maximize their potential. Sadly, the reality is that 70% of a company's budget is usually spent on salaries with 1% or less going to training.

The problem is that there are generally two types of managers: those who care so much about employee welfare that they sacrifice the business's performance to keep team members happy; and, on the flip side of the coin, those managers who only care about company performance, who are never happy, who are always telling those they work with that they need to do more or do better.

Ideally, you want to be the manager in the middle of these 2 extremes—one who delivers high-quality results but still has team members who feel good about going into work each day.

Lesson #2. Set Goals That Can Be Reviewed in 1 Minute

You might think that 1 minute is only long enough to leave a voicemail or fire off a quick email reply, but time-conserving managers know that they can do a lot in a minute. It all starts with defining 1 minute team member goals that are outlined on a single piece of paper and have measurable performance metrics.

1 minute team member goals work like this: You and your team member agree on concrete goals which can be written down in 250 words or less; this ensures reading time is kept to a minute or less for both the team member and you, the manager. You both keep copies for easy reference. An example might be: “For the next quarter, your goal is to increase sales by 5%.”

As well as being easy to understand and easy to monitor, 1 minute goals such as the above motivate people. You need to be careful not to set too many goals, though, as this defeats the whole point; remember the 80/20 rule and stick to having between 3-6 goals at any one time per person.

Lesson #3. Give Praise and Positive Feedback in One Minute

It’s rare that workers receive positive feedback; managers usually only pull a worker to one side when they have negative feedback to impart. This is due to managers usually only noticing when something goes wrong, which leaves team members feeling like they never make their manager happy.

With 1 minute team member goals implemented, managers can easily see where workers are hitting targets and can apply the 1 minute praise tool at the most effective moment—right after a worker has warranted the praise. Praise and positive feedback can be as simple as: “Alex, you did really great on yesterday’s presentation. The detail was superb. I’m proud to have you working for me.” Praise such as this shows workers that they are noticed, valued, and appreciated and encourages them to try even harder next time.

Managers want to remember, however, that workers are like whales… Think of killer whales that are trained to jump out of the water at marine parks. They are trained slowly, step-by-step, with the bar raised a little higher each time. So at first, the whale might just poke its head out of the water, but with continued work and reward, they will eventually jump out of the pool for the crowd. Workers are much the same: give praise for the small accomplishments at first before gradually raising the bar higher and higher.

Lesson #4. The One Minute Reprimand

The seasoned 1 minute manager uses 1 minute to praise someone but also applies the 1 minute rule when reprimanding an experienced team member. Just as with the 1 minute praise, the 1 minute reprimand should come right after the mistake (so that hostility doesn’t fester) and should explain what went wrong and how you feel. But there should be no hard feelings afterwards, so include a bit of praise even if it’s something like: “I know you and I know you can do better than this next time.” This way, those you work with know they are still valued despite their mistakes.

You might say, “Andy, that sales pitch this morning was really quite sloppy and unpersuasive. I’m disappointed in you, but I know you can do better. You’re a valued member of the team here, so keep up the good work on your other projects and don’t let this happen again.”

Team members feel that their mistakes are being treated fairly when reprimands are delivered like the above example and with the added praise, they remember their own worth and maintain their motivation to go above and beyond next time.

Book details

• Print length: 111 Pages
• Audiobook: 1 hr and 27 mins
• Genre: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction

What are the chapters in The 1-Minute Manager?

The Search The One Minute Manager The First Secret: One Minute Goals One Minute Goals: Summary The Second Secret: One Minute Praisings One Minute Praisings: Summary The Appraisal The Third Secret: One Minute Reprimands One Minute Reprimands: Summary The One Minute Manager Explains Why One Minute Goals Work Why One Minute Praisings Work Why One Minute Reprimands Work The New One Minute Manager A Gift to Yourself A Gift to Others Acknowledgments About the Authors

What are good quotes from The 1-Minute Manager?

“Take a minute: look at your goals, look at your performance, see if your behavior matches your goals.” ( Meaning )

― Ken Blanchard, The One Minute Manager Quotes  

* The summary points above have been concluded from the book and other public sources. The editor of this summary review made every effort to maintain information accuracy, including any published quotes, chapters, or takeaways

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Take Time to Read The New One Minute Manager (Book Review)

November 1, 2021 - 5 min read

Tick. Tock. Time seems to fly when you're not staring at the clock. That go-go-go mentality is all too easy to get sucked up in, which makes organization and efficiency all the more important. At least that's the philosophy of Spencer Johnson and Ken Blanchard. Their book The New One Minute Manager guides management teams on balancing their focus between employee success and business results in an efficient yet compassionate way, which easily makes this one of the top project management books we've covered. Take a minute (or two) to read this book review.

Summary and Book Review of The New One Minute Manager

The New One Minute Manager is an adaptation to what many consider one of best books about project management: The One Minute Manager . The original was published in the 1980s, and this latest version updates the practices with modern advice while holding true to the same methodology.

The book's symbol really says it all. On the front cover, you'll see what appears to be the face of a digital clock replacing the O in the word One of the title. It serves to remind readers to take a minute out of their day to focus on what really matters in business: the employees.

That theme carries throughout the book, with lessons on how even short moments can yield big results. The book is, after all, only slightly over 100 pages, and the narrative flow makes it an easy read. It's written as a story, following a young man who is out to find the most effective manager. He stumbles upon the One Minute Manager, who reveals insight on why efficiency must be among a manager's strengths .

Every sentence packs a major punch, either moving the narrative forward or delivering hard-hitting advice. Just consider these One Minute Manager quotes:

"If you can't tell me what you'd like to be happening, you don't have a problem yet. You're just complaining."

"Help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right."

Both of these excerpts discuss the point we want you to take away from this book review: be proactive about facilitating success among employees. It may only take small steps and a few minutes to achieve these results.

Key Takeaways from The New One Minute Manager

The New One Minute Manager is packed with great tips, as Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson maximize every word in their short book. However it's the three "secrets" that place this work among some of the best project management books:

• One minute goals : The One Minute Manager has employees write down goals that are no longer than 250 words. It's a quick, efficient way to set up expectations and benchmarks. And writing them down makes you more likely to accomplish them . Don't stop at just setting these goals, though. Employees should take a minute to reread them and evaluate progress.
• One minute prais​e : Sometimes, an employee just needs a small pat on the back to feel reassured, and it only takes a minute to give praise. Plus, it provides clear feedback on whether the individual is on the right track. This doesn't need to be some grand endeavor. Just be genuine and specific .
• One minute reprimands : Just as a book review requires highlighting success and room for improvement, managers must strike a balance when providing feedback. When it comes to reprimanding employees, the two most important parts involve explaining what exactly went wrong and how the individual can fix it. As with giving praise, this should take only a minute.

Implement Efficiency in Every Facet of Management

Beyond the tips described in the book, there are tools for leaders to improve team efficiency. Take our Project Management Software for example. Even with multiple projects going on, managers can set goals in Wrike, delegate responsibilities and provide feedback through Wrike's single system. Robust features also limit the need for meetings because project status information is available for all stakeholders to see and use.

Sources: Amazon.com , NewOneMinuteManager.com , Forbes.com , Inc.com , Rutgers.edu

Occasionally we write blog posts where multiple people contribute. Since our idea of having a gladiator arena where contributors would fight to the death to win total authorship wasn’t approved by HR, this was the compromise.

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Why Project Management 2.0 Is a Different Ball Game

that I attended in October, I met many project management practitioners. Some of them asked me about my views on Project Management 2.0. One of the questions was “How is Project Management 2.0  different from what many organizations have today?” I decided to summarize my answers and came up with a short list of key factors that distinguish Project Management 2.0 from traditional project management. They are: Environment. Manuel Castells, the author of "The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (v. 1-3)" and a visiting professor in 15 universities around the world, states that we are currently experiencing an IT revolution, just like our predecessors lived through an agricultural revolution and an industrial revolution. According to Castells, there is a shift from industrialism (mass production) to informationalism (flexible production), and this new type of economy is empowered by the development of technologies— first of all, the Internet. As the world shifts from an industrial economy to an information economy and big part of the workforce becomes information workers, the importance of innovation, creativity and productivity rises. In traditional project management, people are often managed like any other resource, just like bricks and machines. In the present economy, people cannot be managed the same way, as it will simply be counterproductive. In Project Management 2.0, people are encouraged to participate in project planning, to introduce their ideas on project development and to give their feedback on other team members’ jobs. Environment as the main differentiator drives the other distinctions listed below: Collaboration and collective intelligence. In an information economy, only organizations that are flexible enough, so that people and capacity can be rearranged and recombined quickly without major structural change, will be able to thrive. Quick access to information and rapid data-sharing become critically important in this environment, as they help companies minimize expenses, innovate, make better decisions and make them faster. Project Management 2.0 emphasizes the importance of leveraging the collective intelligence of the whole team, no matter where the team members are located, at the same office or on different continents. At the same time, Project Management 2.0 stimulates collaboration and catalyzes the change in processes. Here I’d like to paraphrase Andrew MacAfee’s quote about Enterprise 2.0 and apply it to the new trend in project management: Project Management 2.0 technologies are “trying hard not to impose on users any preconceived notions about how work should proceed or how output should be categorized or structured. Instead, they’re building tools that let these aspects of knowledge work emerge.” Emergent structures, one of the basic principles of Project Management 2.0, empowers people on the team level to easily share information and make changes to their part of the project plan. This way, bottom-up field knowledge makes its way into a project schedule, and the schedule becomes more realistic. Comparing this approach with the one represented by most current project management platforms, wiki inventor Ward Cunningham highlights an important shortcoming of the traditional way. He says: “For questions like ‘What’s going on in the project?’ we could design a database. But whatever fields we put in the database would turn out to be what’s not important about what’s going on in the project. What’s important about the project is the stuff you don’t anticipate.” The Project Management 2.0 focus on collective intelligence stipulates the next differentiator. Shift in the project manager’s role. Traditionally, the project management role is focused a lot on tight control of the budget and schedule. This part of the project management job becomes more subtle in a talent economy. Organizational agility requires a more flexible approach to budgeting and deadlines. At the same time, the importance of leveraging the human talent becomes more prominent.  Therefore, other parts of a project manager’s job, such as leadership skills, become more important. It's no longer enough for project managers to possess good people skills and to be fluent in project management best practices, tools and methodologies. To succeed today, project managers need enhanced leadership skills. They need to be flexible and focused on business value, writes Forrester Analyst Mary Gerush in “Define, Hire and Develop Your Next Generation Project Managers.” Productivity. Web 2.0 tools allow an unprecedented productivity increase when it comes to information-sharing and communications. There are many examples spanning from the consumer arena to the enterprise space, from Wikipedia and Facebook to GE’s corporate collaboration system. Project Management 2.0 focuses on taking advantage of this productivity to achieve better results in shorter periods of time. Have I enumerated all the distinguishing traits of Project Management 2.0? What’s your take on the main differentiators of Project Management 2.0? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Interview with Lazy Project Manager

Working on this collaborative project was a very valuable experience for me, as I met lots of interesting people, who have profound expertise in project management. Today I want to introduce you to one of them, Peter Taylor, also known as "the Lazy Project Manager". Peter is a dynamic and commercially astute professional who has achieved notable success in Project Management; currently as head of a PMO at Siemens Industry Software Limited, a supplier of global product lifecycle management solutions. He is also very interested in maintaining a good work/life balance. Peter has very impressive project management background, which also allowed him to come up with his own methodology that helps project managers become more productive. Read our conversation below and find out how lazy project managers can be efficient.Peter, could you please tell us a few words about your pm experience and background? My background is in project management across three major business areas over the last 25 years; MRP/ERP systems with various software houses and culminating in a role with KPMG, and then Business Intelligence with Cognos, and now as Head of a PMO within product lifecycle management (PLM) with Siemens Industry Software. I have spent the last 7 years leading PMOs and developing project managers. Why do you call yourself a lazy project manager? It all began with an insult from my manager. At the time I had been working on a training program for our project managers and one of the common questions people asked me was ‘how do you manage to seem so relaxed and yet run a large business operation with hundreds of projects? I was on my way back from Milan, Italy, and travelled with my manager. Now we have worked together for the last 15 years across three companies and he does know me very well. As we chatted about what would we like to do in life I mentioned that I enjoyed writing and speaking/presentations and that sort of thing could be fun to do. He agreed saying that I would probably be very good at this but that I was too ‘lazy’. And there you have it – an insult? Perhaps but more an insight really, he had identified the key to describing my approach to work and life. From this came ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ and the world of productive laziness. Now have I always been ‘lazy’ – no I don’t believe so. Certainly in my early days of project management I worked long and hard and definitely was a ‘busy, busy bee’ but after completing a major three year project I looked back and reflected on the effort I had put in to make the project successful. I realised that that much of what I had done was unnecessary and that I often created work for myself that was either not really essential or that others could have done (probably better that my efforts if truth be told). The Lazy Project Manager was first a website in November 2008 and then a book in September 2009. Now I would love to share the world of productive laziness with the world through speaking engagements. What is Productive Laziness? 'Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.' Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988) By advocating being a 'lazy' project manager I do not intend that we should all do absolutely nothing. I am not saying we should all sit around drinking coffee, reading a good book and engaging in idle gossip whilst watching the project hours go by and the non-delivered project milestones disappear over the horizon.  That would obviously be plain stupid and would result in an extremely short career in project management, in fact probably a very short career full stop! Lazy does not mean Stupid. No I really mean that we should all adopt a more focused approach to project management and to exercise our efforts where it really matters, rather than rushing around like busy, busy bees involving ourselves in unimportant, non-critical activities that others can better address, or indeed that do not need addressing at all in some cases. The Lazy Project Manager explores the science behind ‘productive laziness’ (yes there is some) and the intelligence behind ‘productive laziness’ (and yes there is some of that as well). It attempts to share with the reader some of my own experiences that have led to my style of project management where, it is often observed, that I appear to be less stressed, less busy and yet more productive. ‘Productive Laziness’ is the term that I use to express this approach and it is a style of working that is beneficial to an individual, through a better work/life balance, and to the project(s) that they are leading. How did you arrive at these ideas and came up with a whole methodology? As I explained the origins of the term were as a result of an insult but having created the Lazy Project Manager title I just worked through the typical lifecycle of the project and considered Productive Laziness at each step. I am not sure that I would describe it as a methodology but more of a way for project managers to better manage themselves when they are managing projects. The book does describe The Lazy Project Manager's Theory of Projects, from a Productive Laziness aspect: 'All projects are thick at one end, much, much thinner in the middle and then thick again at the far end. ' The point here is that, working with the productive lazy rule, a smart project manager should apply time and effort at the critical stages of a project, i.e. the start and the finish, and less time in the middle or the less critical stage. At this point it should be the project team that are productive and mostly self-sufficient. Does a project manager’s productivity depend on a project size? The size of his team? On the fact that the team is distributed across several locations? I don’t believe that it does. All of these factors complicate the process of project delivery but the principals of Productive Laziness remain the same. One of the biggest challenges to projects these days is the virtual project team. We all know about the Tuckman defined team phases, ‘forming - storming - norming - performing – (and these days mourning; the experience of leaving a good team at the close)’ – if you don’t there is plenty of information on the topic out there in ‘Google-land’. For virtual teams the forming part works pretty much as any team. Resources are identified and there you have a team. Some members will be happy and others less so. It starts getting tricky just after that. The ‘storming’ phase is important in preparing the team for working together, resolving character imbalances, sorting out territorial issues and generally getting everyone to know everyone else. Now without a face to face session (or two... or three) this will be very challenging and so you have to compensate somehow. At this time decisions don't come easily within the group and team members will no doubt vie for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members. Clarity of purpose increases but plenty of uncertainties will persist. Typically cliques and factions form and there may be power struggles. The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues. Compromises may well be required to enable real progress. Now in a virtual situation a lot of these issues can be hidden so, as the leader, you almost have to force the matter. It is also very easy to jump to a wrong conclusion about a fellow team member, apply stereotypical attributes and miss tensions hidden by a reduced communication process and lack of physical visibility at how people are behaving. If at all possible make the investment in a ‘hothouse’ face to face. By this I mean an intensive, almost 24/7 5 day team experience. Use an external facilitator to drive the storming process harder and faster to a conclusion. Make the business case that this is an investment, no matter how significant, that will pay off. If this is financially impossible then you may just have to accept that the ‘storming’ phase will be longer than usual. Can a team (not only the project manager) also be made more productive in a lazy way? Absolutely! In fact being a lazy project manager demands that you share the knowledge with your project team and teach them how to work in this way. For example in communications I talk about the importance of allowing yourself time to focus and concentrate at times. That the ‘open door’ policy is good but that there are times you, as the project manager, and your team should feel it acceptable to take time out and not get distracted by other matters. What would be the first 3 steps to becoming more productive, according to your methodology? Well where better to start than to focus the art of ‘productive laziness’ in the area of communication within the project. The would be ‘lazy’ project manager will think very, very carefully about what they need to communicate and how they need to communicate it and why they are communicating what they are communicating. The general guidance is that some 70-80% of a project manager’s time will be spent in communicating. That is 70-80% of your time! So, if you play the productive lazy game at all, and you only apply it in one area of project management it makes blinding sense to do it here, in communication. This is by far the biggest activity and offers the greatest opportunity of time in the comfy chair. Imagine if you would able to save some of that 70-80% of your time, how much more relaxed would you be? Beyond this then consider how you are using your project team. Are they being truly utilised in the sense of applying their combined knowledge and skills? Could you use them more, delegate more, trust them more, and benefit from their experience more? I bet you could. Try it. Finally, something I have always advocated if having fun.  Whilst this does not necessarily allow you to be more ’productively lazy’ it does bring a very positive feeling to any project and thus should encourage the wider team to more ‘lazy’ (in a good way of course). ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by’ Douglas Adams (Author of ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’) You have to laugh; well I think you have to laugh. Without a little bit of fun in every project then the project world can be a dark and depressing place. Setting a professional but fun structure for your project can really be beneficial for when the problems start to rise up to challenge your plan of perfectness. And problems will inevitably arise. I'd love to finish my statement with a funny story: A man in a hot air balloon was lost.  He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below.  He descended a little bit more and shouted: 'Excuse me madam, can you help?  I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am.' The woman replied: ‘You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above alkali desert scrub habitat, 2.7 miles west of the Colorado River near one of the remnant populations and spawning grounds of the razorback sucker’. ‘You must be a biologist’ said the balloonist. ‘I am’ replied the woman. ‘How did you know?’ ‘Well’ answered the balloonist ‘everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far’. The woman below responded ‘You must be a project manager’. ‘I am’ replied the balloonist ‘but how did you know?’ ‘Well, said the woman ‘you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.  You made a promise to someone that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem.  The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow it's now my fault!’ Thank you, Peter! It was a pleasure. For our readers I’d like to note that, if you liked Peter’s ideas and want to find out more, you are welcome to visit his site at www.thelazyprojectmanager.net and hear his free podcasts on iTunes. Also make sure to check out his book: "The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early".   

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Book Summaries

The one minute manager summary: golden insights from the book.

Sudarshan Somanathan

Head of Content

February 8, 2024

What sets a great manager apart from the rest? That’s what the protagonist of The One Minute Manager is trying to figure out.

Once he stumbles upon the titular one minute manager , he realizes that it’s possible to have it all—outstanding results, productive and satisfied employees, and work-life balance . He picks the manager’s brain to learn how to accomplish this holy trinity of managerial excellence, and that’s what forms the backbone of this book. ⏱️

Written in 1982 by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, this short fictional story reveals the tested techniques of exceptional leaders, emphasizing how to make the most of your team with minimal directives.

If you’re pressed for time, read our The One Minute Manager summary and discover its main takeaways. Stick to the end, and we’ll also explore how to apply these principles within ClickUp , a free project management solution that helps you go hand-in-hand with the book’s philosophy.

1. One Minute Goals  

2. one minute praisings, 3. one minute reprimands, 1. use clear language , 2. ensure your behavior matches your words , 3. separate undesirable behavior from the person, 4. facilitate independence, 5. treat everyone like a potential winner, 6. make people feel good, 7. share knowledge, the one minute manager: popular quotes, centralize your knowledge base and define expectations with clickup docs, set goals and track progress without micromanaging, offer meaningful feedback and collaborate productively.

The One Minute Manager Book Summary at a Glance

Let’s start at the very beginning: The story of the One Minute Manager introduces us to a young man on a path to finding an effective manager and learning from them. Most managers he knew were either strictly result-oriented or would just manage people. His goal was to track an individual who balances both these aspects and, more importantly, is willing to share the knowledge.

After stumbling upon a manager who might fit this description, he pays him a visit. At first, the young man was dumbfounded by the manager’s noticeably odd demeanor and practices. For instance, the manager seemed serious and rarely even spoke to his employees. Still, he was able to keep them content and achieve consistently positive results. 🤔

This seemed like an unnatural management style to the young man. It was only later, after speaking to three of the manager’s employees, that the man understood why they call him the One Minute Manager—and what makes him tick. 

Each of the employees shared a crucial secret of the One Minute Manager, forming the crux of the book. Let’s break down the three secrets—deemed as the three techniques of effective management—below:

The first staff member the young man spoke to was Mr. Trenell. He revealed that the manager always makes sure everyone’s on the same page when it comes to responsibilities. 📖

After the manager and the employee agree on what needs to be done, the latter is tasked with writing down the goals . Each goal takes up a total of one page and includes no more than 250 words, requiring only a minute of reading. 

To determine priorities for this one minute goal setting, the employees and the manager use the 80–20 rule or the Pareto Principle , which suggests that 80% of results stem from 20% of the team input. The aim is to focus on the 20%, usually resulting in fewer high-value goals over a disorganized array of tasks.

One minute goals work because the manager also sets clear standards for measuring employee performance . This leaves no room for uncertainty and enables every staff member to assess their output throughout the day.

Our next employee is Mr. Levy. He shared that the manager closely observes anyone with a new job at the company. The idea is not to micromanage staff members but to allow the manager to catch them doing something right and praise them immediately.

No one has to waste time talking—the one-minute praise is concise and efficient. The manager:

• Takes a few moments to offer specific details about what the employee excelled at
• Shares positive feedback on how the action offers a lasting benefit to the company
• Takes a slight pause to let the compliment sink—to avoid sounding robotic or insincere
• Ends the praise by encouraging the employee to keep up the good work

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a regular manager would just wait for the annual performance review to share positive feedback. This isn’t as effective because the employee may forget all about the action that needs to be reinforced. 😅

The final person the man spoke with was Ms. Brown, who told him about the importance of proper one minute reprimands. Much of the advice about one minute praisings also applies in this case. 

For example, the employee is aware that the manager will track their progress and offer regular feedback. With the consequences established upfront, the manager reprimands negative behavior immediately upon noticing it. He is specific about what went wrong and how he feels about it, giving the staff member a good understanding of where he’s coming from.

In the second half of the one minute reprimand, the manager makes sure the encounter ends on a positive note . He lets the employee know that he values their work even if they don’t perform at 100% all the time. Ideally, both parties understand the undertones and can laugh about it by the end of the conversation. 😄

Note: To soften the tone, the concept of One Minute Reprimands has been switched to One Minute Redirect in the later editions of the book, now called The New One Minute Manager .

Key Takeaways: The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Through its creative use of allegories and relatable story-like narrative, the book One Minute Manager provides many pearls of managerial wisdom, all science-backed and applicable in many situations. 🦉

Let’s read about some of the most notable tips provided in the book:

The book frequently uses the phrase in no uncertain terms when describing how managers should communicate with employees , whether instructing, praising, or reprimanding them. 

According to the book, the manager should never make assumptions about what employees know. They should present the information in transparent language to facilitate comprehension. That way, employees can define clear goals for themselves and work with greater precision and confidence. 

Most of us have encountered at least one manager who is a tough nut to crack. They’re always in hustle mode with no time for vulnerability or emotions, even when the team is not in a great mental space.

The One Minute Manager recommends the opposite—an effective manager is honest about their feelings and intentions. This is the leader who instills trust and security among employees instead of manipulating or lying to them to meet an end.

Because of the genuine approach, team members are much more motivated to contribute to the goals. They even follow suit and strive to be authentic in their communication. 

The manager in the book repeatedly emphasizes that when providing negative feedback to employees , the focus should be on pinpointing the specific behavior, not demanding their individual worth. The goal is to eliminate the unproductive or negative behavior, not the person.

For the same reason, the one minute manager shares kind words after reprimanding the employee to let them know their efforts are appreciated. When he finishes his review of the employee’s performance, he moves on, trusting the employee’s ability to take accountability for the setback and bounce back from the situation. 🏀

The manager in the book calls out leaders who assume employees know what they’re doing and leave them to their own devices, only to rebuke them later when something goes wrong. While managers shouldn’t micromanage staff members, they must train their workers or offer instructions if they want to see them succeed independently. 

To demonstrate how to do this, the one minute manager evokes a well-known psychological concept— shaping . Instead of expecting the employee to complete a task perfectly right away, the manager conditions them to identify desirable and undesirable behavior.

Over time, the employee can complete and even review the task on their own, reducing the need for excessive managerial supervision.

The world tends to label individuals as winners and losers. Typically, managers only want to hire “winners” as they think such individuals are more likely to contribute positively to the company’s goals . According to the One Minute Manager—it is a limiting and pointless approach. 

The one minute manager believes that everyone can be a winner if given the chance. While it’s natural to categorize, we mustn’t let this tendency deem us inefficient, especially while hiring. Instead of wasting time looking for the perfect candidate, the manager should invest in training the employees and help them all become winning team players . 🏆

If the work environment is hostile, with too many incidents of the manager disrespecting them, employees feel anxious and unappreciated, and productivity is the last thing on their minds. But one of the standout achievements of the one minute manager is that his employees seem to be happy at work.

Well, a good manager makes their employees feel good. They genuinely care for their well-being and treat them with kindness. That can look like:

• Respecting their work style and boundaries
• Listening to their concerns
• Sharing kind words regardless of performance

Leaders who manage people with care are able to achieve seamless workplace collaboration and attract favorable results. 💗

In the book, each of the three employees the young man spoke with said they’re becoming one minute managers themselves. Spoilers ahead: In the end, the protagonist also embraces the one minute management style—and writes a book to pass on the wisdom to the collective. 

This part of the book teaches us the importance of spreading knowledge to achieve common goals. By helping his employees adopt his management style, the manager was able to streamline operations and save his team a lot of time and effort. 

With more time and energy on their hands, the employees reduced their physical and emotional stress levels and became more secure . Problems such as absenteeism and high turnover were reduced greatly as well. 

Here are three quotes from The One Minute Manager that we found particularly impactful.

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

The One Minute Manager believes positive feedback is the number one motivator of people. Like breakfast provides fuel to start our day, feedback helps us take a look at our performance and powers initiatives to learn, adapt, and become better at what we do. 🍳

We are not just our behavior, we are the person managing our behavior.

Managers must ensure their behavior matches their goals. For example, even if you catch unproductive employees at work, your reaction shouldn’t be anger-driven but rooted in the fact that you want to foster a harmonious and growth-oriented workplace. 🌱

Goals begin behaviors, consequences maintain behaviors.

This quote, which the young man coined at the end, sums up the One Minute Manager’s whole philosophy. When employees set a goal, they’ve also set the right direction for where they want to go. And with proper praisings and reprimands, they can stay on track and learn how to get to the end point faster. 🏎️

Apply The One Minute Manager Principles and Learnings with ClickUp

Translating the three techniques of the One Minute Manager from theory to practice isn’t always easy because it’s easy to get overwhelmed by workplace uncertainties and fears. For example, how do we make a team feel safe when we’re hit with a major setback?

That’s exactly why you need project management tools like ClickUp . The software comes with management-focused features that allow you to streamline and monitor operations and have a bigger picture of your goals at all times. Its built-in productivity and communication features help you and your team save time , keep deadlines, and meet challenges with full transparency and confidence.🌹

If the one minute manager had ClickUp at his disposal back in the 80s, could his title have been the Half-Minute Manager? Maybe! 😊

Let’s explore some of ClickUp’s top functionalities that’ll help you implement The One Minute Manager’s principles.

ClickUp Docs allows you to create an all-in-one Workspace where each staff member can get informed about the company, project portfolio , roles, and SOPs. Instead of endless note-taking and back-and-forth emailing with the manager, employees look up anything work-related, be it tasks or documents, with a Universal Search feature.

As a manager, you can fast-track your tasks by using ClickUp AI . This native AI assistant gives you dozens of role-specific prompts for generating employee-facing documents and polishing existing ones for tone and clarity. Your teammates can also leverage the AI tool to summarize texts and extract action items.

Make your employees’ schedules clearer by creating tasks within ClickUp —divide their workflows into more manageable subtasks and daily checklists and add assignees, instructions, tags, and priority labels . By clicking on a task, the employee can access the fully customized Task view and gather all the information they need for execution.

That’s not all—thanks to ClickUp Automations , you can spend less time on task management by automating administrative actions like changing task statuses or sending emails. You can also jump on numerous views for different managerial actions, such as

• Tracking phase-wise progress of tasks with the classic Board view
• Checking overworked or underutilized team members on the Workload view
• Scheduling projects using the Gantt Chart view

Looking to improve your one minute goal setting processes? With ClickUp Goals , both managers and employees can define their objectives and break them down into smaller targets that are easier to review and measure.

Organize goals into folders based on what different teams in your organization are working on independently. ClickUp can track your progress automatically, displaying all percentages in one place so you can always see where you’re at. 

You can also build a ClickUp Dashboard using one of the 50+ available cards and create a visual overview of your team’s work and performance in real time. This lets you quickly identify strengths and bottlenecks and offer immediate and effective praisings and redirects.

When you know what’s working, it’s easy to standardize processes and optimize workflows with greater precision. With ClickUp’s native reporting tools, you can even plan remedial measures based on data-backed reports and keep your team relatively stable during tough times.

The one minute manager would probably love ClickUp’s ability to streamline communications. The platform offers all the features you need to run healthy feedback loops within your company. 

As a manager, you can use comments to review tasks and proof documents or other files. For a more direct and personal discussion, you can leverage the ClickUp Chat view to share one minute redirects or praises in a more relaxed space.

We personally love @mentions in ClickUp for quick positive behavior reinforcements that otherwise tend to get ignored in the annual performance review, especially for remote teams.

Show your team you value their opinion as a leader during efficient brainstorming sessions. Besides efficient feedback sharing, ClickUp also serves as a one-stop collaboration platform, thanks to tools like Whiteboards and Mind Maps , where you can analyze processes , discuss campaigns, and work on new ideas.

Bonus: Explore the ClickUp Template Gallery to download readymade manager-friendly templates.

Master One Minute Management Style with ClickUp

Book summaries pique our interest, but we’d always recommend giving the main book a full read. The One Minute Manager is only 110+ pages and shouldn’t take more than a few hours to finish!

This book offers handy tips for all leaders, helping them become more time-efficient without compromising on results or job satisfaction. And with a comprehensive project management tool such as ClickUp, these valuable concepts are easier to apply. Sign up today and set you and your team up for growth! 🌾

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The One Minute Manager - Book Review

Book Title: The One Minute Manager

Author: Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson

Approx Read Time: 80 – 90 min

Review: I got this book day before yesterday from the library at my internship workplace. As it was another book dealing with management and leadership, I delayed reading it until it was bed time. Expecting it to be too philosophically verbose and preaching a new theory, I sighed and picked it up to read. Thought if the book doesn’t turn out interesting, at least it would let me fall asleep. But I was proven wrong. This book is unlike any other book of its genre. It is written in a story format. Opening pages aroused such kind of curiosity that it made me jump straight into it and I couldn’t keep it down unless I had gobbled it up all.

The story begins with a young man searching out for an effective manager. His search leads him across the world and he keeps meeting managers who he categorizes into two types. – Autocratic who define themselves as hard-nosed, realistic, profit-minded and who like to be on top of every situation. And Democratic who define themselves as participative, supportive, considerate and humanistic. – Both the breeds pride themselves in their result minded focus and people oriented focus respectively and this bemused him. Why? Because the autocratic ones predictably had their companies prosper but also had higher turnover; while the democratic ones had happy employees around but company suffered. It was as if managers of the world were primarily interested either in results or in people.

The young man defined Effective managers as those who manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence. He was at loss since he couldn’t find them easily. He finally stumbles across one who is willing to share his secret. This one called himself the ONE MINUTE MANAGER and he was quite a character .

The One Minute Manager listens while his people review and analyze what they’ve accomplished, the problems they had, and what still needs to be accomplished. Yet he doesn’t believe in participating in any of his people’s decision-making . He is neither results-oriented, nor people oriented. He cares about people and results equally. The man is an admired leader that is highly spoken of by his employees, his three secrets being the key to his success. These secrets to productive and efficient managing are revealed to the young man and they are as follows.

One Minute Goal Setting : The basic philosophy of the One Minute Goal Setting is no surprises; everyone knows what is expected from the beginning. This is what it says,

• Agree on your goals.
• See what good behaviour looks like.
• Write out each of your goals on a single page using less than 250 words.
• Read and re-read each goal, which takes only a minute or so each time.
• Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance, and
• See whether or not your behavior matches your goal.

One Minute Praisings : Here basic aim is to help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right! It works when you,

• Tell people right from the start that you are going to let them know how they are doing.
• Praise them immediately.
• Tell people what exactly they did right – be specific.
• Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there.
• Stop for a moment of silence to let them feel how good you feel.
• Encourage them to do more of the same.
• Shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their success in the organization.

One Minute Reprimand : Main purpose here is to eliminate the behavior and keep the person. This consists of the reprimand and the reassurance, both being equally important. It will work well when you,

• Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing an in no uncertain terms.
• Reprimand people immediately.
• Tell people what they did wrong – be specific.
• Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong – and in no uncertain terms.
• Stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel.
• Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their side.
• Remind them how much you value them.
• Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation.
• Realize that when the reprimand is over, it’s over.

The above three secrets are very powerful and practical but do read the book to understand how it’s implemented and why the techniques are so effective. Otherwise risk it being a failure. After I finished reading this book, I saw the time and it was not even my close to my actual sleeping time. So I guess time was well spent.

Verdict: Go grab it, even if you don’t implement its techniques, at least you will understand why this book sold 13 million copies! Go to Amazon to get your copy .

Disclaimer: Please note that this post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

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The One Minute Manager | Book Review

“The One Minute Manager” is a classic management and leadership book written by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. It was first published in 1982, so it’s delivery is a little dated but still contains overall effective management principles in a story-telling format.

The book’s central premise is the idea that effective management can be simplified into “one-minute” principles that can be easily understood and applied by anyone. The authors present these principles through a parable, which follows a young and ambitious protagonist as he seeks the wisdom of the “One Minute Manager” to improve his leadership skills.

The key concepts of the One Minute Manager are as follows:

• One Minute Goal Setting: The authors emphasize the importance of setting clear, specific goals. They advocate that both managers and employees should agree on what the goals are, write them down, and keep them short and to the point.
• One Minute Praising: This principle focuses on reinforcing positive behavior by providing quick and specific praise for a job well done. The authors argue that recognition and positive feedback are powerful motivators.
• One Minute Reprimand: When a mistake or performance issue arises, the One Minute Manager should address it promptly, providing feedback in a respectful but firm manner. The idea is to correct behavior while maintaining the individual’s self-esteem.

Throughout the book, the authors stress the importance of striking a balance between achieving results and nurturing positive relationships. They emphasize that effective managers can build a highly motivated and productive team by using these simple yet powerful techniques.

“The One Minute Manager” offers a refreshing perspective on leadership by advocating for simplicity and efficiency in management practices. It encourages managers to invest time in their employees and to be clear in their expectations, resulting in improved performance and job satisfaction.

However, we heard some feedback from those who read it with us, that maybe the book’s simplicity may not fully address the complexities of modern management, particularly in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. While the principles are timeless, the book may be seen as somewhat outdated in the face of contemporary leadership challenges.

Reminder also, if you’re looking for some improvement to your leadership style, Key Instincts offers Leadership Coaching and Workshops.

Anyone going to try the one-minute philosophy?  Came across this free option to check out what we’re chatting about, if you haven’t read the book.

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The One Minute Manager: A Comprehensive Review

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The One Minute Manager Book Review

The One Minute Manager is a book written by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson that has become a classic in the world of management literature. First published in 1982, the book has sold millions of copies worldwide and has been translated into dozens of languages. It is a short and easy-to-read book that offers practical advice for managers who want to improve their leadership skills and achieve better results.

In this article, we will provide a comprehensive review of The One Minute Manager, highlighting its key takeaways and analyzing its strengths and weaknesses. Whether you are a seasoned manager or a new one, this book can help you become a more effective leader and build a more productive team.

Key Takeaways: A Comprehensive Analysis of The One Minute Manager

The three secrets of one minute management.

The One Minute Manager is based on three simple but powerful secrets that can help managers achieve better results in less time. The first secret is to set one-minute goals, which means defining clear and specific objectives that can be achieved within a short period of time. The second secret is to give one-minute praises, which means recognizing and praising employees for their achievements and contributions. The third secret is to give one-minute reprimands, which means correcting employees’ mistakes and behaviors in a constructive way.

These three secrets are the foundation of One Minute Management, and they can help managers create a positive and productive work environment where employees feel valued and motivated.

The Importance of Leadership Styles

The One Minute Manager also emphasizes the importance of leadership styles and how they can affect employees’ performance and satisfaction. The book describes four leadership styles: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Each style has its own strengths and weaknesses, and managers need to choose the right style depending on the situation and the employee’s needs.

For example, a new employee may need more direction and coaching, while a more experienced employee may need more support and delegation. By understanding the different leadership styles and using them appropriately, managers can build stronger relationships with their employees and help them achieve their full potential.

The Power of One Minute Re-Directs

One of the most valuable lessons of The One Minute Manager is the concept of one minute re-directs. This means correcting employees’ mistakes and behaviors in a timely and constructive way, before they become bigger problems. By giving one minute re-directs, managers can help employees learn from their mistakes and improve their performance, without damaging their self-esteem or morale.

One minute re-directs are not about blaming or criticizing employees, but about guiding them towards better results and behaviors. They are a powerful tool for building trust and respect between managers and employees, and for creating a culture of continuous improvement.

The Limitations of One Minute Management

While The One Minute Manager offers many valuable insights and techniques for effective management, it also has some limitations. One of the main criticisms of the book is that it oversimplifies the complex nature of leadership and management. The three secrets of one minute management may work well in some situations, but they may not be enough to address more complex issues or challenges.

Moreover, the book focuses mainly on the manager’s perspective, without taking into account the employees’ point of view. It assumes that employees are motivated by praise and reprimands, and that they are willing to follow their manager’s directions without questioning them. In reality, employees have their own goals, values, and motivations, and managers need to understand and respect them in order to build a truly collaborative and productive team.

The Relevance of One Minute Management Today

Despite its limitations, The One Minute Manager remains a relevant and useful book for managers who want to improve their leadership skills and build a more effective team. Its practical and straightforward advice can help managers overcome common challenges such as lack of motivation, poor communication, and low productivity.

Moreover, the book’s emphasis on positive reinforcement and continuous improvement aligns with modern management theories and practices, such as agile management, servant leadership, and growth mindset. By adopting the principles of one minute management, managers can create a culture of excellence and innovation that benefits both the organization and its employees.

In conclusion, The One Minute Manager is a classic book that offers valuable insights and techniques for effective management. Its three secrets of one minute management, leadership styles, and one minute re-directs can help managers become more productive, efficient, and empathetic leaders. While the book has some limitations, it remains relevant and useful for managers who want to build a more positive and productive work environment. If you haven’t read it yet, we highly recommend it.

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The One Minute Manager – Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson – Book Review

The One Minute Manager is a fast read, very brilliantly and clearly written. The idea are straightforward and very powerful. Very simple to implement but takes brilliance to utilize. A must read for all managers and leaders and aspiring managers.

Take a minute out of your day to look into the face of the people we manage. Realize that they are our most important resource.

“The Essence of Knowledge is, having it, to use it”

Effective managers manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence.

One Minute Manager has meetings once a week for a couple of hours. The manager listens while staff reviews and analyzes what they accomplished last week, the problems, they had, and what still needs to be accomplished. Then they develop plans and strategies for the next week.

You need to care about people and results. They go hand in hand.

Helping people to feel good about themselves is a key to getting more done.

Productivity is both the quantity and quality. Best way to achieve both these results is through people.

One Minute Manager does not make decisions for other people, he lets them make the decision.

There are three secrets of One Minute Manager

• One Minute Goals
• One Minute Praising’s
• One Minute Reprimands

THE FIRST SECRET – ONE MINUTE GOALS

One minute goal setting is the first and the foundation for one minute management.

The one minute manager always makes it clear what staff’s responsibilities are and what are they held accountable for.

Each goal is recorded on no more than a single page. It should be no more than 250 words, so it can be read in a minute. Both manager and the employee keep a copy of the goals.

One minute manager believes in the 80-20 goal setting rule . That is 80% of your really important results will come from 20% of your goals. So total of three to six goals are set for each employee.

In case a special project comes up, special one minute goals are setup.

Once the employee knows their job is the manager always makes sure what good performance is. The performance standards are clear. The manager shows what he expects.

“A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.”

• Read and re-read each goal, this only requires a minute or so each time you do it.
• Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance
• See whether or not your behavior matches your goal.

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The One Minute Manager: Book Review

The first edition of the book “ The One Minute Manager” was published in 1980 by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.  More than 13 million copies of  “The One Minute Manager” has been sold worldwide. The book has also been translated into more than   37 languages so far. Within its 112 pages, the book provides techniques for managers and everyone working in a team.

In this book ,  Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson define three important secrets to promote efficient and productive management. All the history of “The One Minute Manager” revolves around a young man in a quest for the ideal management and leadership skills.  In fact, “ The One Minute Manager ” is the story of a young man looking for an effective manager who is both interested in the results of the company and its employees. After some unsuccessful searches, he meets the “One Minute Manager”, a manager of a firm, living in another town, and who has a good reputation for being a good leader and manager. He decided to go and meet this manager in order to learn from him.  The latter proposes to him to question his collaborators who will reveal 3 techniques to him to manage simply and effectively people.

This short story brings together much of what the two authors have learned, during their medical and psychological studies, about how individuals work better with other individuals. In other words, how people produce good results while feeling happy and comfortable in their organization and with their colleagues. In other words, how to work in an ideal environment? The book is a collection of what many “wise” people have taught them and what they have learned for themselves.

The authors put an emphasis on the importance of sources of wisdom. Because people working with a manager tend to consider him as a source of wisdom or a reference.  The authors also based their ideas on three main aspects of interpersonal and organizational skills such as goal setting and reprimanding.

The book begins with a fairytale introduction: ” Once there was a bright young man who was looking for an effective manager. He wanted to work for one. He wanted to become one “. In the search for his quest, two styles of management stand out:  The “autocratic” manager. This one has little consideration for the individuals and cares first of all about the results.  The “democratic” manager whose employees seemed to win while their organization was losing. The results do not necessarily follow.

It seemed that most managers were primarily interested in either outcomes or individuals. Our young man felt that these two types of managers were only partially effective. “It’s like being a half-manager,” he thought. Then he heard wonderful stories about a very special manager. He was told that people liked to work for this man and that together they produced good results. Was it possible?

“The One Minute Manager” does not give an accurate coverage on the mechanic of management; instead, the book gives many lessons regarding the interpersonal relationships and the psychology supporting job performance. In order to demonstrate their techniques, Blanchard and Spencer start with the idea that employees which are valued tend to be more productive. “The One Minute Manager “gives a lot of information that allows an individual to develop interpersonal relationship skills in the workplace and even in other aspects of life.

One Minute Goal

The first technique in the book deals with the creation of One Minute Goal, which implies that the manager establishes a meeting with employees to agree on the objectives, record the objectives in a brief statement and review them occasionally to ensure the productivity of employees. The One Minute Goal process lasts one minute, meaning that it should be short. However, it should last longer in practice. The most important objective of One Minute Goal is to make sure that employees apprehend the responsibilities in each assignment and also to help them understand that confusion can lead to discouragement and inefficiency.                                                                                                                      Basically, setting One Minute Goal involves giving an approval on the formulated goals, evaluating the features of good behavior, putting the goals on paper, reading and reviewing each of the goals, making a daily assessment of the performance, and checking if the observed behavior suits the formulated goal.

One Minute Praising

The second technique of “ The One Minute Manager ” is related to the use of One Minute Praising, which deals with maintaining high levels of openness with employees concerning their performance.                                                                                         One Minute Praising explains the idea that employees who feel good about themselves deliver good outcomes. It is really important for the manager to praise instantly employees when they do something rightly. This is certainly one of the things most underestimated by managers: the importance of encouraging and congratulating the members of his team. Lack of recognition is the number one factor of loss of motivation in a team. What motivates people above all is to have echoes of their results.  Making a return as soon as possible on what is achieved, is, therefore, an extremely powerful ingredient to advance your team. Your goal as a manager should be to surprise people to do a good job and tell them. For example, if you train someone to do a new task, you have to surprise her, at first, doing something approximately right, until she learns to do it perfectly well.

One Minute Praising works better when the manager does the following:

– Make it clear to the person concerned that he will inform him or her of his reactions to his work

– Congratulate the person immediately

– Tell the person what he/she did well.

– Tell him/her how pleased he is with what he has done, how much it will help the organization and the other people who work there

– Observe a pause of silence to give him time to “feel” how happy he is

– Encourage the person to continue on this path

– Shake hands or touch them in a way that lets them know that they support their success in the organization.

We can say that the One Minute Praising thus contribute to the awakening of the potential of the individuals and to a strengthening of the use of this potential. The person knows what he has to do and receives congratulations as she reaches the goal.

One Minute Reprimand

The third technique, the One Minute Reprimand, is divided into two parts. First, the manager warns the employee that he will tell him clearly what he thinks of his work. If the goal has not been reached, the manager immediately reprimands the person by letting him see exactly where he was wrong. He tells the employee what he thinks of what he has done, then remains silent. The important thing is to act at the moment to have a greater impact on the person and be able to influence his future behavior. It is at this point that the manager goes on to the second part of the reprimand. He tells the collaborator that he is on his side and that he considers his person but not his behavior in this situation. The person knows that he has made mistakes or that she has not achieved the goal and that is why she is being reprimanded. The Manager Minute reminds him of what he did well to restore his own confidence in himself so that he wants to works harder to receive more compliments.  The One  Minute Reprimand does not attack the person but only reprimands his behavior. The One Minute Reprimands work well when the manager does the following:

For the first part, – Prevent the person concerned, in advance, that he will tell him what he thinks of his work, unequivocally

– Reprimand the person immediately

– Tell the person what she did wrong

– Tell the person what he thinks of what he  did

– Observe a moment of uncomfortable silence to make him feel what he feels

For the second part, – Shake collaborator’s hand or touch him in a way that makes he knows that he is on the same side as him

– Remind the collaborator how much you appreciate him

– Reaffirm that you consider his person, but not his behavior in this situation

– Remember that reprimands are over

Critical Analysis

This book contains the essentials of management. It is a fantastic tool for beginning managers and entrepreneurs. The management of people is very problematic and yet “ The One Minute Manager ” provides us with simple and concrete keys to apply. The diagrams and summaries present throughout the work help to have a clear and precise vision of the behavior that a “The Minute Manager ” must take to produce excellent results. It is a vast subject and the book collects only a small part, but I think it is very useful to see management in a different way. It shows how important it is to invest in people in order to win on all fronts.

Of course, this book has some limitation in terms of how broadly it can be applied. In addition, people trying to apply the techniques in the book will tend to fear failure. From my point of view, failure is part of the learning process and learning from our past failures is a good way to improve ourselves. I also fear that “The One Minute Manager” by making use of this techniques will seek to control the mind of its employees.

However, it is obvious that there are many things to understand in management. It is an extremely complex science because it affects the human being, which is very complex. Obviously, this book does not pretend to explain everything about management. But, its mission is just to give you some simple, practical tools, very easy to implement in your company, or elsewhere to effectively manage the people who are under your responsibility whether employees or not.

If you just created your business, it is that you intend to hire. If you are an entrepreneur who will hire for the first time, if you work in an association where you have people to motivate because they are under your responsibility, if you are in this situation where you are going to have to motivate the people who are under your responsibility, and you have no experience, this book will give you the few tools that will help you get started and you will see that they are really very simple. Read it, it will really change your life.

Blanchard, K., & Spencer, J. (2005).  The One Minute Manager.  HarperCollins: New York, NY.

Alexandre Koffi

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Clarify, Simplify, Achieve your vision

Julia langkraehr’s blog, book review: the one minute manager meets the monkey.

The other day, I was talking with a tech entrepreneur and asked him “What are the biggest challenges you face in your business?

He replied “Me, I’m the bottleneck. I tend to see something isn’t working, and I jump in and get involved.”

Most dedicated business owners can relate to this.

Letting go of the reins and handing them over your employees can be a real struggle, and if you want to grow your business, you’ve got to do it.

Business owners must carefully define the roles and responsibilities of the company, hand these jobs to the right person and have the confidence not to jump in or micromanage every task.

If you struggle with “bottleneck syndrome”, we recommend Ken Blanchard’s The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey .

The book explains when it’s time to let go and delegate and how to coach and empower your employees.

The monkey in the book’s title refers to this exact phenomenon. The monkey is whatever the “next move” is on a project or problem, it’s not the problem itself.

When an employee comes to a manager with a monkey, the monkey jumps from the employee’s back right onto the manager’s back.

The book tells you how to return the monkey to its rightful owner, so you can get back to your own role, responsibilities and to dos.

The whole ethos is “Don’t take on a problem if it isn’t yours.”   Step by step, the book reveals how managers can free themselves from doing everyone else’s job and ensure every problem is handled by the right person.

It offers four simple rules to help leaders become effective supervisors of time, energy and talent – especially their own.

• A boss and staff member shall not part company until appropriate “next moves” have been identified and specified.
• The dialogue between boss and staff member must not end until ownership of each monkey is assigned to a person.
• The dialogue between boss and staff member shall not end until all monkeys have been insured, giving the staff member the authority and freedom to handle their monkey.
• The dialogue between boss and staff member shall not end until the monkey has a check-up appointment. This means setting a time for follow up discussions.

These four rules dovetail perfectly with how you run your business on the Entrepreneurial Operating System.

Ultimately The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey is a time-management tool; so often I find leadership teams are working longer hours and harder than the the rest of the company, because they are taking on everyone else’s work as well as their own.

This book helps leadership teams to save time, and work on the things they should be working on.

For more information on delegation and coaching, contact us today on +44 (0)7795 667480.

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Project Life Mastery

Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson – The One Minute Manager Book Review

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson is truly an incredible book and a total MUST for any business owner who works with a team or with a group of people.

What was a defining factor for me in buying this book is how successful it's been and how it's contributed to many well-known businesses and organizations around the world, including Apple, Chevron, AT&T, Wal-Mart, Holiday Inns, Hewlett-Packard, Pepsi-Cola, KFC, Harvard University, US Army, Navy & Air Force, etc…  If this little book has contributed to the successes of all these amazing organizations, then something is up.  I wanted to find out what that is… and I did.

The essence of The One Minute Manager is based on the concept of:  “People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Results.”

When do you work your best?  It's when you feel good about yourself.

1. One Minute Goal Setting

2. One Minute Praising

3. One Minute Reprimand

I'll break down a little bit of an explanation of each, but you'll have to check out the book for the rest.

One Minute Goal Setting

At your weekly meetings with your team, each member is required to set goals.  This is setting a quick, one minute goal (nothing more than 250 words) on a piece of paper and then giving a copy to your manager and one for yourself.  Everything is one minute because in management, efficiency is key.

One Minute Praising

This is rewarding your crew when they're doing a great job.  It's spending one minute to make them feel good, acknowledging their accomplishments and hard work.  Rewarding others for their effort is key to building momentum with your team and having them enjoy working with/for you.

One Minute Reprimand

When people make mistakes, this is when you let them know and give them immediate feedback on it.  After letting them know how they messed up and how they could improve it or make it better, you reaffirm that you think well of them but not their performance in this situation.

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson go into these concepts much more clearly in the book.  The writing style and story is incredible and fun to read.  I recommend it for anyone that works with others, as it'll definitely improve your relationship.  I personally have started using these principles with my virtual assistants that I work with and hire through oDesk .

I enjoyed this book so much that I also bought the books,  The One Minute Entrepeneur  and  The 4th Secret of the One Minute Manager , also written by Ken Blanchard.  I'll be writing reviews on those books as well.

To check out The One Minute Manager on Amazon, click here .

Project Life Mastery delivers the self-development advice you need to improve and master every area of your life.

We provide world-class content, training, and coaching to maximize the potential in your personal and business life. Everything from physical fitness, to emotional mindset, to relationships, to your financial freedom blend together to turn you into an unstoppably extraordinary person with an unstoppably extraordinary life.

Whether you need online business advice, personal development coaching, or both, Project Life Mastery will guide you on your best path to mastery.

LET’S CONNECT:

Notes and Takeaways from The New One Minute Manager

When I read it: August 2021

Why I read it: I really enjoyed Who Moved My Cheese? so I decided to read another book by the same authors. The management framework in The New One Minute Manager provides a collaborative approach to leading, managing, and motivating people.

Go to the Amazon listing for the book or scroll down for my notes.

Want to get my future notes when I publish them? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter below.

Dr. Spencer Johnson was the author of thirteen New York Times bestsellers including Who Moved My Cheese? and The One Minute Manager .

The framework

The New One Minute Manager framework provides a collaborative approach to leading, managing, and motivating people.

Instead of taking a traditional top-down approach, you lead side-by-side. Top-down management can stifle long-term speed and innovation. Collaborative management unlocks long-term speed and innovation.

Results vs. people

Managers should take one minute out of every day to remind themselves that their people are their most important resource. Attracting, developing, and keeping talent are a manager's primary responsibilities.

According to authors Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, the number one expense for most companies is people’s salaries, but most organizations only spend a small fraction of their budget developing people. Most companies spend more time and money on maintaining their physical assets than they do developing their human capital.

One-minute managers are both results-oriented and people-oriented because people and results go hand in hand. The best way to achieve successful results is with people. Many managers prioritize people or results. They're either tough or caring. Great managers prioritize both people and results. They're both tough and caring.

One-minute managers don’t believe their reports work for them. They view direct reports as partners who work together to improve. People like working for one-minute managers because they work with their managers, for them.

Autonomy and facilitation

One-minute managers let their people decide what they're going to do. They believe in facilitating, but not in making other people’s decisions. For example, this could be accomplished in a weekly meeting that allows team members to review and analyze what they achieved the previous week, the problems they had, what remains to be accomplished, and their plans and strategies for getting those things done.

Clarity and accountability

When employees have clarity, they’re much more likely to succeed. It’s like bowling. If you can’t see the pins, how can you roll a strike or knock any of them down with confidence. When employees don’t know what they’re aiming at, it erodes their confidence and makes work unenjoyable. One common management mistake happens when you assume your employees know what they’re aiming for. Don’t assume your employees can see the pins.

When your people know what their job is and what high performance looks like, your expectations are clear. And when your expectations are clear, your people are empowered to self-manage and drive self-accountability. Alternatively, when roles and responsibilities are ambiguous, accountability is impossible.

Feedback and motivation

People want fulfillment from their work, and fulfillment comes from making meaningful contributions. People are most productive when they feel good about themselves. So, helping people feel good about themselves is part of maximizing productivity.

When people are motivated outside of work, but they’re not motivated while at work, it’s the manager’s performance issue. When people aren’t motivated period, that’s the individual’s performance issue.

The number one motivator of people is feedback on results. People want to know how they’re doing. Feedback keeps people going.

One-minute managers recognize that feedback is an invaluable management tool. They provide feedback on specific terms about what their people are doing well and poorly. They recognize that it's easier for people to do well when they receive crystal-clear feedback on how they are doing. Feedback helps people succeed. There are two types of feedback: praisings and redirects.

The one-minute manager's three secrets

There are three secrets to one-minute management:

One-minute goals. Goals create clarity about what is most important.

One-minute praisings. Praisings build confidence.

One-minute redirects Redirects address mistakes.

It takes substantial time to manage people, but it only takes a minute to refocus them on goals and provide actionable feedback on how they’re doing. These concepts represent only 20 percent of management activities, but they help us achieve 80 percent of results.

Goals provide direction and focus. Praisings and redirects are all about providing people with actionable feedback to help them accomplish goals sooner. By combining all three, you create clarity on what’s important, build confidence, and improve behavior on your way to achieving results.

1. One-minute goals

In most organizations when you ask someone what they do and then ask their manager the same question, you often get two different answers. This means some people don't know what their job is. In these situations, it's difficult to drive accountability. It's impossible to be a good manager without being on the same page with your team members about what high performance looks like.

With one-minute goals, managers make it clear what their peoples' individual responsibilities are and what they are being held accountable for.

One-minute managers don't set goals for their people. They help their people to develop their own goals.

Applying the Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule, 80 percent of your results will come from 20 percent of your effort. So, you want to set goals related to the key areas of your responsibilities that represent the 20 percent. This usually results in three to five goals. If an unexpected project or priority arises, you'll set a new one-minute goal to account for it.

Once agreed upon, each goal should be written down along with what needs to be done by when. Each goal should take no more than a paragraph or two to express so you can review it in less than one minute. This makes it easy to check progress and stay focused on what’s important.

One-minute managers regularly encourage their people to review what they're doing to see if it matches their goals.

2. One-minute praisings

One-minute managers try to catch their team members doing something right. And when they do, they provide a one-minute praising as soon as possible.

The most important thing to do to help an employee succeed is to catch them doing something approximately right in the beginning so they’re motivated to eventually learn to do it entirely right. Don’t wait until people do something exactly right to provide praise.

When you give a one-minute praising, you spend the first 30 seconds letting the person know the specific thing they did right along with how good you feel about it and why. You then pause for a moment to allow the person to feel good about what they've done. Then, you spend the next 25 seconds, encouraging them to do more of the same and reminding them that you have confidence in them to succeed.

3. One-minute redirects

One-minute redirects are about helping people manage themselves so they can succeed when you are not around. Making a mistake is not a problem, but failing to learn from one is. Redirects help people learn by showing them what they need to do differently.

One-minute managers do not shy away from negative feedback. When a team member makes a significant mistake, they provide a one-minute redirect as soon as possible. When you address things early and often, it allows you to deal with one poor behavior at a time. This makes the person more likely to internalize and act on the feedback. Redirects allow you to deliver feedback in small doses instead of waiting until your frustration builds from multiple, repetitive mistakes.

When someone makes a mistake, first make sure their goals are clear. If the goals are unclear, take responsibility and create clarity. Ensuring your team members have clear targets is your job as the manager.

When someone makes a mistake and the goal is clear, provide a redirect as soon as possible. First, confirm the facts and review the mistake together. Be specific. Explain how you feel about the mistake and how it impacts results. Then, pause and be quiet for a moment to allow the person to reflect. Finally, let the person know that they’re better than their mistake and that you think they are a good person. Remind them that you have trust and confidence in them and want to support their success. Then, move on together.

With one-minute redirects, don’t attack the person. You want to get rid of the bad behavior, but keep the good person. The goal is not to tear people down. You want to build them up. To do this, avoid attacking someone’s self-concept. When our self-concepts are under attack, we become emotional and defensive. Behavior and worth are not the same things. We are not our behavior. We are the person managing our behavior.

The trick is to separate the person’s poor behavior from their worth. This is why reaffirming your belief in them after you redirect a mistake is important. The idea is to be tough on the behavior while remaining supportive of the person. You tell them what they did wrong, you tell them how you feel about it, and you remind them that they’re better than that. Their performance is bad, but they are good. A proper redirect is both tough and caring. It’s respectful.

One-minute managers don't make decisions for their people. When a team member asks you to make a decision for them, provide a one-minute redirect. For example, say "I don’t make decisions for other people. Make that decision yourself.” Then, pause for a long moment and allow them to process the redirect. Finally, reaffirm your confidence in them.

One-minute managers don't solve problems for their people. When a team member comes to you with a problem, provide a one-minute redirect. For example, say "‘Good! That’s what you’ve been hired to solve.’ Then, pause for a long moment and allow your team member to process the redirect. And don’t forget to finish by reaffirming your confidence in them.

If a team member asks you for help solving their problem, you may want to help them facilitate a solution so you can teach the person how to help themselves in the future. Be sure to play the role of facilitator and not problem-solver by asking the kinds of questions the team member can ask themselves in the future.

Hiring new people

When you hire someone new, don’t leave them alone. When you leave people alone, you miss out on opportunities to catch them doing things right. You also miss out on opportunities to redirect them and clarify what’s expected of them and what high performance looks like. In the beginning, it’s all about finding opportunities for legitimate praisings.

One-minute managers spend extra time with their people upfront when they are taking on new tasks, projects, or responsibilities. They do this in two ways. First, they observe their activities and provide feedback. Second, they require their people to send progress reports. The goal is two-part. They want to catch people doing things right so they can provide one-minute praisings and they want to notice when people are doing things wrong so they can provide one-minute redirects.

When a team member starts a new task, prioritize catching them doing something right over pointing out what they're doing wrong. You still need to provide redirection and hard feedback, but prioritize praise when possible. Top performers catch themselves doing things right often. People who are learning need praise and encouragement from others. One-minute praising build your team members' confidence in what good performance looks like. In time, they start to catch themselves doing something right and praising themselves.

Random anecdotes

Good management leads to fewer personnel issues and less absenteeism.

Good managers ask brief, important questions, keep things simple, and speak truth. They also enjoy the journey.

The more we understand why something works, the more likely we’ll do it.

When someone has learned how to do something, but they choose not to. You have to decide whether you can afford to keep them on your team. You usually can’t.

The One Minute Manager Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   The One Minute Manager gives managers three simple tools that each take 60 seconds or less to use but can tremendously improve their efficiency in getting people to stay motivated, happy, and ready to deliver great work.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

Video Summary

The one minute manager review, audio summary, who would i recommend the one minute manager summary to.

Ken Blanchard  and Spencer Johnson are legends on their own already. Blanchard is known for ‘Raving Fans’ and Johnson has found mega-success with Who Moved My Cheese?  So when the two of them teamed up to publish  The One Minute Manager in 1982, great things were to be expected.

The book has sold a staggering 13 million copies and was translated into 37 languages, maybe not in spite, but precisely because it’s just over 100 pages.

It holds three tools, 60 seconds each, which, if applied correctly, can change your management style for the better – forever. So let’s get right to it!

• Set three goals for each of your employees, which you can review in one minute or less.
• Use one minute praise to give your employees positive feedback.
• A one minute reprimand is more than enough to express your dissatisfaction.

Ready to become a one minute manager? 60 seconds…go!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: Set three goals for each of your employees, which you can review in one minute or less.

All struggles a company could ever possibly face will go back to one simple thing: communication . 99% of all problems are preventable, as long as you communicate well, honestly, openly and early.

If you’ve ever started a new job, chances are, it went like this. You arrive, you’re shown around, shake a lot of hands and try to remember at least half the names of all the new people you meet. You sit down, your new boss gives you a bunch of tasks and as soon as your email account works, it’s go time.

But   nobody ever told you what you’re actually responsible for.

Imagine someone had sat down with you, right at the beginning, and together you had made a list. That’s exactly what a one minute manager does. Sit down any new co-worker, and tell them: “These are your responsibilities, and these are your goals for your first year.”

The goal is to have targets, which are so specific, that you can review them in 60 seconds or less. Keeping the 80/20 principle in mind, define three goals for them, and write each of them down in 250 words or less . For example: “I will contact at least 100 new potential vendors in the next 3 months.”

Note: The book says three to six goals, but I always vote in favor of less. Less is more.

Then let them know that you’ll be reviewing their work, for which you’ll use the following two tools.

Lesson 2: Right after an employee does a good job, take 60 seconds to praise their work.

Managers are by definition super busy. They often manage people on top of all their other work, even though it’s technically their primary job. This makes it easy for them to forget to tell people when they’ve done good work. Especially when responsibilities are unclear, employees tend to focus on what they haven’t yet done and can thus mostly expect negative feedback.

A good manager always makes time to tell her employees when they’ve done well, especially because it only takes 60 seconds.

Right after someone did a great job, tell them that they did well in that specific instance . For example: “Tom, you did a fantastic job fixing that broken code this morning, I can always rely on you when stuff breaks!”

If you feel it’s the right thing to do, and the employee would appreciate it, you can combine this with a physical gesture, like a thumbs up or a pat on the back.

Getting positive feedback for small wins is extra important for new hires, so they’ll settle well in their new environment.

Lesson 3: If you’re dissatisfied with someone’s work, let them know with a one minute reprimand.

Just like giving positive feedback doesn’t take long, expressing your dissatisfaction with someone’s performance doesn’t have to be a big deal either. Once people are familiar with your management style, have their one minute goals and you’ve praised them a couple times, you can use what Blanchard and Johnson call the one minute reprimand.

Similar to the one minute praise, you should use it right after the mistake was made and be very specific . To show there are no hard feelings, include a note of appreciation in your criticism.

For example: “I’m sorry Shirley, but that company presentation was below par and didn’t present us in the right light. Promise me you’ll do better next time, okay? I know you can do better, you’re doing so well on organizing that workshop for our clients, keep up the good work there.”

This form of criticism works well for three reasons:

• Your employees feel that their mistakes are being treated fairly and not with injustice.
• You both clear the air instantly and avoid dwelling on bad feelings.
• You remind your employee of their own worth and the valuable part they play in the organization.

I haven’t read the full book yet, but since it’s really short, I think there’s not much more to it than I’ve described here. What makes the book more powerful than the mere facts, though, is that it tells a story, in which a manager slowly finds out about the power of one minute management. It might help you remember what you read better .

The book’s just been updated and expanded last year and is now called ‘The New One Minute Manager’. I’m convinced  The One Minute Manager  is worth the hour or so it takes to read.

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account:

The 25 year old, who’s about to start her first job and to be managed for the first time, the 39 year old manager, who has a tough time giving positive feedback to his employees, and anyone who wants to be a better friend.

Last Updated on January 27, 2023

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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Book Review: The New One Minute Manager

What kobo.com says:

The New One Minute Manager offers a way for you to succeed sooner with less stress in changing times—both at work and at home. Based on the original book The One Minute Manager which helped millions of people around the world in organizations large and small, this new version of the classic story deals with a new world. The book will help you find meaning in your work and inspire you to discover new ways to help your organization adapt and prosper.

The New One Minute Manager is a concise, easily read story that reveals three very practical secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Re-Directs, the new third secret. The story is based on studies in the behavioural sciences and medicine that support why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people. And by the book’s end, you will know how to apply what you discover to your own situation and enjoy the benefits.

What I say:

I actually “read” the book on the app OverDrive . It allows you to borrow eBooks & audiobooks from your public library. I have a Toronto Public Library card from before I started working at Kobo. Our parent company Rakuten purchased OverDrive earlier this year so I was excited to start using the platform. I’m driving more to work so I’ve lost my reading time on the subway. I thought this was the perfect way to get my “reading” in with an audiobook.

I had put the book on hold, when it became available I downloaded it to the app so I wasn’t using data to listen to it and returned it to the library after I finished listening to it this morning. Part One was supposed to be 48 minutes and part two was around 39 minutes. I listened to the book at 1.25 speed so I finished the book in one hour during my drive to the office. I’m over the moon happy I listened to a book on my way to work and can start applying what I learned immediately. This is the stuff to geek out on at work. My direct report is off getting married for the next two weeks but I can’t wait to share the book with him and my immediate co-workers. I truly can’t believe I haven’t discovered this book yet.

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The One Minute Manager: The quickest way to increase your own prosperity

Summary of “ The One Minute Manager: the quickest way to increase your own prosperity ” by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson : This book reveals, in the form of a story featuring the One Minute Manager , three secrets to becoming an effective manager, capable of increasing his productivity and the profits of his company while contributing to the fulfilment of his employees .

By Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson , Eyrolles Publishing, 2015, 130 pages

Chronicle and summary of “ The One Minute Manager: The quickest way to increase your own prosperity ” by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson:

Part 1. a short update from the authors before starting the story, 1.1 – who are the authors of the “the one minute manager”, ken blanchard.

Ken Blanchard is known as one of the world’s most influential specialists in leadership and management.

In fact, Ken Blanchard:

• Is the author and co-author of 60 other books with total sales of more than 21 million copies, including the mythical bestseller “The One Minute Manager” . His books have been translated into more than 42 languages. In 2005, Amazon officially inducted him as one of the 25 best-selling authors of all time.
• Is the co-founder of the international consulting and training firm “ The Ken Blanchard Companies ®” and of Lead Like Jesus , an international organization that helps leaders become “servant leaders”.
• Has received numerous awards and honours for his contributions in the areas of management, leadership and speaking.

Spencer Johnson

Spencer Johnson is considered one of the most widely read authors in the world. Nicknamed “the king of the parable” by the newspaper USA Today, Spencer Johnson is known as a master in the art of presenting simple and effective solutions to the most complex subjects.

His books, always short, share practical ideas and tools that millions of people around the world use (more than 50 million copies sold, translated into 47 languages) to be happier and to succeed without stress. Many are bestsellers, including “ Who’ s been stealing my cheese? How to adapt to change” and “ The One Minute Manager” , which he wrote with Ken Blanchard.

1.2 – The new approach of The One Minute Manager

The One Minute Manager is a book that was written in 1987. However, over the last few decades and now in the digital age, the world has changed a lot! And so has The One Minute Manager!

In fact, today’s management approach is much more collaborative and motivating. Vertical, hierarchical leadership, which was once the rule in all companies, has now given way to leadership that is more akin to a relationship where one works alongside the other.

Furthermore:

People are now looking for more fulfilment in their professional and personal lives. They want to feel committed and make a meaningful contribution. They are reluctant to spend long hours at work at the expense of their personal needs.

From then on, The One Minute Manager described by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson had to take all these upheavals into consideration over time. The One Minute Manager:

• Understands that individuals are now the main architects of a company’s success.
• Recognizes that attracting and retaining the best is the top priority.
• Treats its employees accordingly.

Part 2. The story of The One Minute Manager

The three secrets that The One Minute Manager reveals in the story that follows can be implemented in our workplace, with our colleagues and partners, but also with our family and friends.

2.1 – In search of a brilliant manager…

“Once upon a time there was a bright young man who was looking for a remarkable manager…”

And so begins the fabulous story of The One Minute Manager.

Indeed, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson tell us the story of a young man who sets out in search of a brilliant manager. In fact, this young man is looking for a manager who is capable, all at the same time:

• To be effective,
• To increase the productivity and profits of his company,
• And to contribute to the development of the members of his team.

In the course of his quest, the young man will eventually meet The One Minute Manager. The latter will tell him three secrets to succeed quickly and better and to become an excellent manager in our changing world.

2.2 – An obsolete system that limits innovation

Two types of managers.

At the beginning of his quest, the young man is quickly disillusioned: he always encounters the same management methods which, in his eyes, no longer work. There are always two types of managers:

• Those who are interested in results, often referred to as “autocrats”,
• Those who are interested in men, often referred to as “democrats.”

In short, he realizes that most managers around the world continue to manage their teams along the same lines: they focus exclusively on results or on people, never on both at the same time.

Uninspiring management

Moreover, since speed is now inseparable from success, it is much more efficient to collaborate than to give orders and verify their application, as in the old hierarchical system.

Indeed, for the young man, it could work before, in a hierarchical company. But today this kind of structure is much too slow. According to him, “it doesn’t inspire people and it stifles innovation.”

2.3 – Results or people? Both!

Helping people feel good increases productivity tenfold.

According to Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, in order to succeed faster and better, managers must focus as much on results as on people.

In the story, this is one of the keys to the success of the central character, the “ One Minute Manager” . He insists on this:

How do you want to achieve results other than through men? I see them as inseparable and I care as much about each other.

Then he adds:

When do you work best? When you feel good about yourself or when you’re not?

In short, you are much more efficient when you feel good, you get good results. Therefore, helping people feel good increases their productivity tenfold.

Quality as much as quality

On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that productivity is not only a question of the quantity of work provided but also a question of quality. Indeed, if we do not offer customers a quality product and the service they expect, we are likely to close down. The best way to achieve these good results is with people.

2.4 – Who is The One Minute Manager?

After multiple disappointments (Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson finally mention everything they think should not/no longer be done), the young man in the story ends up meeting the new Manager Minute.

But who is he? First of all, The One Minute Manager explains being called that because he and his team have found new ways to achieve great results in a very short period of time.

How is that possible? Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson reveal the three secrets that make this possible.

Part 3. First secret of The One Minute Manager: The Minute Goals

Setting Minute Goals is the first secret to success as a manager.

In fact, Quick Goals are objectives that meet the points below.

3.1- Objectives established with the manager

In most companies, when you ask people what they do and then ask their manager the same question, you often get different answers. This does not happen with The One Minute Manager because he takes the trouble to clearly specify with each of his employees the tasks and responsibilities they must assume:

Instead of setting goals for us, he first listens to us and then we develop them together. When we agree on the most important ones, each one is described in one page.

3.2 – An objective that can be read in just 1 minute

Once the objective and the corresponding performance standard (i.e. what is to be done and by what date) are defined together (manager and employee), it is written in a concise manner.

Each objective should be written in only one or two paragraphs. The idea, in fact, is to be able to read or review the objective in about a minute. It should be easy to consult the objectives on a regular basis and focus on the real priorities.

In this way, the superior can periodically check where the employee is in his or her goals without it taking time. On the other hand, the employee can also check whether what he or she is doing is in line with his or her objectives. And if it does not, he or she will be able to correct the situation. In the story of the “ The One Minute Manager” , an employee testifies to this:

It helps us to succeed faster. We manage ourselves.

3.3 – Between three and five objectives maximum according to the 80/20 rule

The 80/20 rule can be summarized as follows: 80% of our truly significant results come from 20% of our objectives. It is then a matter of only setting Minute Objectives on these 20%, i.e. on the main responsibilities.

The idea is to write between three and five objectives maximum, and possibly, in case of exceptional project, to define special Minute Objectives.

To achieve these objectives, it is finally essential that the manager shows his employee what to do until he has understood and can do it himself. In this way, he or she will not need to be very involved afterwards.

3.4 – Summary of Minute Objectives

In order for the Quick Goals to work well, it is necessary to:

• Plan them together and describe them briefly and clearly, showing what a good performance looks like.
• Ask employees to write down each of their objectives, with the expected date of achievement, on a single page.
• Also ask them to reread the main objectives every day, which takes only a few minutes.
• Encourage them to take another minute to observe what they are doing and see if it is in line with their goals. If not, encourage them to make corrections so that they can achieve their goals as soon as possible.

Part 4: Second secret of The One Minute Manager: The Praise Minute

4.1- Surprise your collaborator doing something well and congratulate him/her

Help people reach their full potential. Surprise them doing something right.

The Praise Minute consist, for the manager, in surprising, as soon as possible, his employee doing something right. Then, to congratulate him.

In the story of Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, this is how The One Minute Manager acts:

When he [The One Minute Manager] sees that you’ve done something right, he tells you exactly why it was right, and how much he enjoys it. He stops for a moment to give you time to savour the compliment, and then he reinforces the message by encouraging you to continue on this good path.

It usually takes less than a minute.

4.2 – It’s good for morale

After a while, you start surprising yourself to do something right. You congratulate yourself.

This method is very effective for employee morale because The One Minute Manager:

• Congratulates them right away, without waiting for the annual professional assessment;
• Specifies precisely what the employee has done right: the employee infers from this that his or her superior really knows what the employee is doing and is sincere.
• Is consistent: he praises them even if he has personal or work problems, i.e., he reacts to the employee’s personal situation here and now, not his own.

4.3 – It gives self-confidence

Praise Minutes are very useful when the employee starts working with a manager. Afterwards, the employee normally knows that his manager has confidence in him.

There are then other ways of knowing whether the employee’s performance deserves praise: for example, by consulting data and statistics (turnover, expenditure, production planning, etc.).

When he [the manager] gives me a compliment, I know I’ve earned it. …] It gives you confidence. …The self-confidence you’ve earned helps you manage all the changes. What he wants is for each of us to be confident enough to innovate, which will keep us ahead of the pack.

4.4 – Summary of Praise Minute

In order for the Minute Praise to work properly, you have to…:

• Congratulate people straight away, as soon as possible.
• Tell them very specifically what they did right.
• Tell them how much we appreciate it and how it will help the company.
• Take a break to give them time to savour, to be proud of what they’ve done.
• Encourage them to continue.
• To show them that you have confidence in them and a strong belief in their success.

Part 5. Third secret of The One Minute Manager: The Re-direct Minute

5.1 – the reprimand minute re-direct minute has adapted to the evolution of businesses.

In the days of hierarchical business, the third secret was called the Minute Reprimand. And it was remarkably effective for its time.

However, the context has changed a lot and The One Minute Manager has adapted it. Today, we need to do more, faster, with fewer resources.

5.2 – Minute Reframing, only if the objective was initially clear

When an employee makes a mistake, the first thing The One Minute Manager has to do is to check that the objective set together was clear and explicitly expressed:

• If this is not the case, he assumes responsibility for it and therefore describes the objective more clearly.
• If this is the case, it is recommended to perform a Minute Re-direct.

5.3 – The Re-direct Minute is divided into two parts

The first part: it deals with the employee’s error.

The One Minute Manager performs this reframing on the spot, i.e. as soon as it realizes that there is a problem. He must then:

• Tell the employee what he thinks about the mistake;
• Talk to him about the impact it can have on the company’s results;
• Keep silent for a few seconds to give the employee time to take the measure of his mistake and to worry about the consequences that it could have for him and the whole company.

The second part is about the employee as a person.

During the second part of the reframing, The One Minute Manager reminds the employee that:

• This one’s better than that;
• Let him continue to have confidence in himself;
• That he believes that this mistake will not happen again and that he looks forward to continuing to work with him.

In the story told by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, this is what one employee had to say about Minute Reframing:

Reframing only takes a minute or two, and when it’s done, it’s done. But it scores, and as it ends on a positive note, we really want to correct the shot.

In fact, the goal is to help people to have confidence in themselves, so that they in turn help the manager to achieve better results.

5.4 – The errors of The One Minute Manager

The manager can obviously make mistakes himself.

It is then advised:

• If that happens, to be the first to recognize them;
• Ask employees themselves to tell him if they notice that he is wrong about something;
• Practicing humour and self-mockery: it helps a lot to relax the atmosphere when we make a mistake.

Thus, the third secret completes perfectly the method of The One Minute Manager:

• The objectives indicate precisely on which priorities efforts should be focused;
• Praise boost the self-confidence of employees, thus promoting success;
• Reframing helps to combat possible errors.

These three components work together to make people feel better and, as a result, achieve good results.

5.5 – Summary of The Re-direct Minute

For The Re-direct Minute to work, first check that the objective was clear, then:

• Act straight away, as fast as possible.
• Start by confirming the facts, then analyse the error together, going into detail.
• Tell how the mistake annoys us personally and what impact it can have on the results.
• Take a break.
• Keep silent for a moment to give our interlocutor time to become aware of the seriousness of his mistake.
• Don’t forget to tell him that he is better than his mistake would lead you to believe and that we think a lot of him as a person.
• Remind him that we trust him, believe in his success and support him.
• When the cropping is complete, it is finished. We don’t talk about it anymore.

Part 6. Why do the three secrets of The One Minute Manager work?

In reality, the three secrets account for only about 20% of the company’s business, but they help achieve 80% of the expected results. This is the famous 80/20 law.

6.1- Why does it work to set Quick Targets?

For The One Minute Manager, there are three reasons for this:

Results are the main source of motivation

How many people would watch two teams play each other if there was no way to keep score?

The first thing that motivates people is to know the results. They want to know what they’re worth. Minute Goals are a good way to measure results on a regular basis.

The Minute Objectives serve as feedback in the evolution of his work. And for Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson:

Feedback is the breakfast of champions. It’s the feedback that keeps you going.

An effective tool for winners (or potential winners)

Everybody’s a potential winner. Some of them are dressed as losers. Don’t be fooled by their appearance.

According to Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, when recruiting for an employee job, as a manager, you have three options:

• The first is to choose only the best: but those are hard to find and expensive;
• The second, if no “winner” has been found, is to recruit a person who has the potential to become one, and then systematically help him or her to become one;
• If neither the first nor the second option is to be applied, only the third possibility remains: prayer!

Minute Objectives are an essential tool for the “winner” or “potential winner”. They generally create productive behavior simply by suggesting that they regularly review the alignment between their current work and their goals:

Take a minute to look at your goals. Then look at what you’re doing and see if it fits.

6.2 – Why do Praise Minutes work so well?

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson invite us to imagine parents teaching their children to walk:

Let’s start with parents struggling to teach their toddler to walk. You can imagine them standing up and telling him, “Walk!”. And when he falls down, they lift him up and spank him, saying, “I told you to walk! “? That’s not how you do it. You put the child on his feet, the first day, he takes a step, staggering a little, and everyone, very excited, exclaims: “He took a step, he took a step!” We take him in our arms, we kiss him, we celebrate. The next day he takes maybe two or three steps, and his parents’ enthusiasm is unleashed again. Finally, the toddler realizes that it’s a good deal and gets up more and more often, until one day he ends up really walking. The same thing happens when he learns to talk.

This example shows that the most natural and effective strategy to help people become “winners” is to catch them doing something pretty well in the beginning. Then, you gradually get closer to the desired result.

At work, as in life, it is, in fact, useless to repeat this step very often, because the good ones realize by themselves that they are doing the right thing. Nevertheless, at the learning stage, praise and encouragement are very helpful.

As for the punishment, it doesn’t work according to Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson:

It doesn’t work in the classroom. Instead of punishing inexperienced people who are still learning their trade, they need to be re-directd.

6.3 – Why are Re-direct Minutes effective?

By spotting what is wrong very quickly, feedback is given in small doses..

Many managers give delayed feedback : in fact, they accumulate negative observations, and when it finally comes time for the evaluation interview, “they are usually angry because the cup overflows”:

Accumulating negative feelings about the weaknesses of one’s employees in this way is neither fair nor effective.

This is why Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson find it much more sensible that performance evaluation be done continuously and not just once a year.

You want to eliminate the behaviour (which is bad), but you want to keep the person (which is good).

When people are on the defensive, they don’t learn anything.

Obviously, the goal is not to demolish people, but to help them build themselves up.

For this, it is essential to separate their behaviour from their personal value.

When you lead men, it is very important to never forget that behaviour and value are not the same thing.

Specifically, for Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson:

It’s more than just our behaviour. We are the person who behaves this way or that way.

Therefore, reaffirming the self-worth of one’s collaborator after dealing with the problem allows one to focus on behaviour without attacking the person. After this clarification, the employee should assess the seriousness of what he or she has done and be concerned about it, rather than turning to a colleague to complain or tell him or her how badly he or she feels about you. Without this awareness, the person does not take responsibility for his or her mistake and the manager becomes the bad guy.

A “tough and nice” manager, not “nice and tough.”

Some people, when I think about it, say I’m a nice, tough manager. But, to be more specific, I’m actually tough and nice.

Through the words of The One Minute Manager character in their story, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson stress that being “hard then nice” is quite different from being “nice then hard”.

To illustrate this idea, they tell us a tale of ancient China. This is the story of an emperor who decides to share his tasks with his Prime Minister in the following way: the Prime Minister would punish, the emperor would reward.

Over time, however, the emperor noticed that when he asked someone to do something, sometimes the person sometimes did it or sometimes not. With the Prime Minister, on the other hand, everyone obeys. With this in mind, the emperor decides to exchange roles with his prime minister: thus, the emperor punishes and the prime minister rewards. But barely a month after changing functions, a revolt broke out…

Why? The One Minute Manager explains very easily what happened:

The emperor had been a nice man, handing out rewards, being kind to everyone and suddenly he began to punish. “But what’s wrong with that old fool?” people thought. And they got rid of him without much ado. When they looked for a replacement, they thought the Prime Minister had made great progress. So they took him as emperor.

In conclusion, the moral of the story is this:

If you start by treating the behaviour severely and then show that you support the person, it works better.

A Concrete Example of a Re-direct Minute

Outside the business world, according to Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, Minute Reframing is used by many sports coaches who are looking to improve their athletes’ performance.

As an example, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson tell us the story of a basketball coach who used The Re-direct Minute effectively:

In an extremely important match, the best player in the team plays so badly that the team risks defeat and elimination without even making it to the championship.

The coach then makes a crucial and difficult decision: despite the stakes of the match, he takes the player out.

Once the player is out of the field, the coach says to the player:

“ You’re missing easy shots, you’re not catching any rebounds, and you’re dragging on defence. I’m mad at you, it’s like you don’t even try!” He waited a moment and then added, “You are better than that. Stay on the bench until you’re ready to play the way you can.” After what seemed like an eternity, the player got up, went to the coach and told him he was ready to start again. “So get back on the field and show me what you can do. ”

When he resumes the match, the basketball player starts playing in such an incredible way that the team ends up winning the match hands down!

In fact, all the coach did was apply the simple method of the Re-direct Minute: explain to the player what is wrong, tell him what he thinks about it and finally remind him that it is better than that. In other words, his performance is bad, but the person is not. We continue to trust him.

• What if the employee has learned, but refuses to work properly?

For The One Minute Manager, the purpose of a Re-direct Minute is to help people learn. However, when a person has learned something and shown that he or she is capable of doing it, but refuses to do it, then you have to look at the cost to the company and ask yourself if you can afford to keep them on the team.

• A quote to summarize the effectiveness of the Re-direct Minute

Sometimes you have to like people enough to be tough on them – I mean, tough on a disappointing performance, not on the person. As I’m sure you know, it’s not about making mistakes. But not learning from them is what creates the real problems.

Part 7. The end of the story of The One Minute Manager: the brilliant manager has been found!

Coming to the end of the story of Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, we now know:

• Who is this “famous” new One Minute Manager?
• What are the three secrets he holds to succeed quickly and well in his management role,
• Why these three rules are effective.

As for the young man in the story, in search of his brilliant manager, we can see him happy to have finally found, in the character of the new One Manager Minute, the efficient manager he was looking for, concerned about both results and people.

Finally, at the end of his quest, the young man draws two conclusions from all he has learned:

• The employees of The One Minute Manager work with him and not for him
• The effective way he has to lead his department and manage his people is very simple and can be summarized in a few lines:

He would keep things simple, set Minute Goals, award Praise Minutes, do Re-direct Minutes. He asked short but important questions; told the simple truth; laughed, worked, loved what he did. And, perhaps most importantly, not only did he manage, but he encouraged people to be creative and to do new things.

Part 8. Becoming a One Minute Manager

8.1 – roadmap to become a one minute manager.

At the end of the story of Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, the young man in search of an effective manager creates a “roadmap” to help transform an ordinary manager into a One Minute Manager.

Here’s the roadmap:

8.2 – The joy of being a One Minute Manager

According to Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, to become a new Minute Manager is to have:

• Time to think, organize and give your business the kind of help it really needs;
• Availability to devote time to family and other interests;
• Time to relax and less stress than most;
• Fewer costly personnel problems, less sick leave and absenteeism.

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson advise not to wait until you feel you are ready to do it perfectly before you start using Minute Management.

The most important thing is to be honest with your team members and to recognise that you are not always sure you are doing the right thing: when people understand from the outset that their manager is genuinely on their side, it makes all the difference.

The minute I invest in people is the minute I invest in people.

Book critique of “ The One Minute Manager” by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson:

The three secrets summarized.

To sum up, the ideas that can be found in The One Minute Manager are the following, according to the authors:

• You and your team set Minute Goals together to make sure everyone knows what they will be held accountable for and what you consider good performance.
• Then, when you catch someone doing something right, you give them a Praise Minute.
• And, when you realize that a mistake has been made, its author benefits from a Re-direct Minute.

The essentials of management in a short and accessible book

Thus, at the end of this book, one cannot help but find these three rules extremely basic. But in the end, isn’t it better to know how to apply three simple management tips rather than none at all, for want of ever being able to put in place another method that is denser but too complex and tedious?

The new Manager Minute is a book that is accessible to everyone, fast and easy to read. The authors go straight to the point. Using a story helps the reader to better remember the advice given. It also helps to visualize, in a pleasant way, how to implement them in a situation.

Perfect for beginning managers!

Even if these three secrets are basic, they are relevant. They can therefore be very useful for managers and entrepreneurs who are just starting out. As Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson tell us, these three essential rules meet the 80/20 principle: they correspond to 20% of the manager’s activities but provide 80% of the results.

However, for those who are looking for training beyond that, it seems to me that it is really necessary to continue with other readings that address all the other dimensions of management (human resources policy, conflict management, organisation and coordination of services, digital management, business plan, etc.).

Strong Points :

• A quick, easy and enjoyable read that brings together the essentials for beginning managers and entrepreneurs;
• The story, in the form of a short story, is an excellent method to retain the stated management rules and to see how they can be put into practice in the reality of the company.
• The prospect of already being able to considerably improve its management with these three easy to implement keys.

Weak Points:

• Simplicity of tone and content can sometimes give a utopian view of the complexity that is, in reality, leading people.

Have you read “The One Minute Manager”? How do you rate it?

Read more reviews on Amazon about “The One Minute Manager”

Buy on Amazon “The One Minute Manager”

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A flawed software update sent out by a little-known cybersecurity company caused chaos and disruption around the world on Friday. The company, CrowdStrike , based in Austin, Texas, makes software used by multinational corporations, government agencies and scores of other organizations to protect against hackers and online intruders.

But when CrowdStrike sent its update on Thursday to its customers that run Microsoft Windows software, computers began to crash.

The fallout, which was immediate and inescapable, highlighted the brittleness of global technology infrastructure. The world has become reliant on Microsoft and a handful of cybersecurity firms like CrowdStrike. So when a single flawed piece of software is released over the internet, it can almost instantly damage countless companies and organizations that depend on the technology as part of everyday business.

“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of Britain’s National Cyber Security Center and a professor at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.

A cyberattack did not cause the widespread outage, but the effects on Friday showed how devastating the damage can be when a main artery of the global technology system is disrupted. It raised broader questions about CrowdStrike’s testing processes and what repercussions such software firms should face when flaws in their code cause major disruptions.

How a Software Update Crashed Computers Around the World

Here’s a visual explanation for how a faulty software update crippled machines.

How the airline cancellations rippled around the world (and across time zones)

Share of canceled flights at 25 airports on Friday

50% of flights

Ai r po r t

Bengalu r u K empeg o wda

Dhaka Shahjalal

Minneapolis-Saint P aul

Stuttga r t

Melbou r ne

Be r lin B r anden b urg

London City

Amsterdam Schiphol

Chicago O'Hare

Raleigh−Durham

B r adl e y

Cha r lotte

Reagan National

Philadelphia

1:20 a.m. ET

CrowdStrike’s stock price so far this year

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