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    Whale Done!: The Power of Positive Relationships
    Whale Done!: The Power of Positive Relationships
    Whale Done!: The Power of Positive Relationships
    Ebook109 pages1 hour

    Whale Done!: The Power of Positive Relationships

    By Kenneth Blanchard, Thad Lacinak, Chuck Tompkins and Jim Ballard

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    About this ebook

    A compendium of straightforward techniques on how to accentuate the positive and redirect the negative, increasing productivity at work and at home.

    What do your people at work and your spouse and kids at home have in common with a five-ton killer whale?

    Probably a whole lot more than you think, according to top business consultant and mega-bestselling author Ken Blanchard and his coauthors from SeaWorld. In this moving and inspirational new book, Blanchard explains that both whales and people perform better when you accentuate the positive. He shows how using the techniques of animal trainers -- specifically those responsible for the killer whales of SeaWorld -- can supercharge your effectiveness at work and at home.

    When gruff business manager and family man Wes Kingsley visited SeaWorld, he marveled at the ability of the trainers to get these huge killer whales, among the most feared predators in the ocean, to perform amazing acrobatic leaps and dives. Later, talking to the chief trainer, he learned their techniques of building trust, accentuating the positive, and redirecting negative behavior -- all of which make these extraordinary performances possible. Kingsley took a hard look at his own often accusatory management style and recognized how some of his shortcomings as a manager, spouse, and father actually diminish trust and damage relationships. He began to see the difference between "GOTcha" (catching people doing things wrong) and "Whale Done!" (catching people doing things right).

    In Whale Done!, Ken Blanchard shows how to make accentuating the positive and redirecting the negative the best tools to increase productivity, instead of creating situations that demoralize people. These techniques are remarkably easy to master and can be applied equally well at home, allowing readers to become better parents and more committed spouses in their happier and more successful personal lives.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFree Press
    Release dateFeb 3, 2003
    ISBN9780743251778
    Author

    Kenneth Blanchard

    Kenneth Hartley Blanchard is an author, business consultant and motivational speaker. His writing career includes 60+ published books, most of which are co-authored books.

    Read more from Kenneth Blanchard

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    Reviews for Whale Done!

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    • 2/5
      I picked this book up at the ITIL seminar in Orlando in January 2003. Ken was one of the speakers and as usual, I got enthused by the speaker and ran out to the lobby to buy everything he had on the table. I think I came away with 5 of his books. I read this book in about an hour, maybe less. I was on a plane at the time, so looking at my watch was not a priority. As per Blanchard's usual parable style, he tells the story of a man trying to figure out how to motivate and manage people. He runs into a friend who puts him in touch with a trainer of the killer whales at SeaWorld. He asks the trainer how they get the whales to perform without getting killed. The typical management techniques of today's business world would most certainly turn a whale into the natural killer it is. The trainer then goes into how whales are trained and how managers should use the same techniques to get good results. The man does and has astounding results, not only at work, but at home. If I have a complaint about Ken Blanchard's books, such as One Minute Manager, it is the style of the story telling. It turns me off. The stories are too trite and contrived for me. There isn't anything wrong with the style, it just doesn't float my boat. The information is good, but I thought it overwhelmed by the story.
    • 4/5
      What a surprise. Another executive allegory written in the writing style of a 4th grader.
    • 3/5
      There's some good suggestions in this book but it could have been written in about 10 pages without all the dramatisation. No reason it had to be so long other than the desire to sell books instead of pamphlets. Not sure how this would be received now after the controversy caused by Blackfish and the death of a trainer leading to a ban on swimming with orcas.

    Book preview

    Whale Done! - Kenneth Blanchard

    Introduction

    by Ken Blanchard

    In 1976, when my family and I came to San Diego on sabbatical from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, one of the first places we visited was SeaWorld. Everyone we talked to urged us to see the Shamu killer-whale show. Since I was aware that killer whales are considered the most feared predators in the ocean, I didn’t know what to expect. Would we just be watching them swim around? What a surprise when we entered Shamu Stadium and the show began! Before a minute had gone by, all of us were raving fans. As I watched these incredible creatures leap and dive, and even carry their trainers on their backs, I found myself fascinated. How had they been trained to perform such feats, and with such evident delight?

    For years I had been talking and writing about the power of positive relationships and the need to catch people doing things right in order to develop productive work and home environments. And yet I’d become discouraged to see that the very opposite was occurring in most organizations and homes: catching people doing things wrong seemed to be the rule. I was firmly convinced that punishment was harmful in human relationships, and I realized instinctively that it wouldn’t be a smart move with killer whales. That belief was borne out when I took a group of our trainers and clients on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Shamu show, and met Chuck Tompkins, head trainer at the Orlando SeaWorld. Chuck and I, recognizing each other as soul mates, made an agreement: he would teach me about whale training and I would teach him about people training. In the process we found we were teaching the same things!

    Yet we also had important concepts to learn from one another. I was particularly fascinated by the ability of SeaWorld trainers to use redirection. Upon encountering any undesirable behaviors on the whales’ part, they would immediately refocus those energies elsewhere. That very simple but powerful strategy permits the trainers to set up new situations to catch the whales doing something right. Everybody knows that accentuating the positive works best. But what do you do when somebody does something that has a negative impact? That’s where Chuck and the SeaWorld trainers opened my eyes. Instead of focusing energy, as most of us do, on what went wrong, they redirect that energy toward a positive outcome. When Chuck and I realized that the combination of redirection and accentuating the positive could make a major difference in work and family relationships, we began talking about writing a book together that would show how to apply these concepts.

    That project remained a dream for several years until Chuck introduced me to his boss, colleague, and friend, Thad Lacinak. Now we had three dreamers determined to make it happen. A little later I invited Jim Ballard, an old friend, colleague, and writing partner, to join forces with us. With that critical mass, WHALE DONE! began to take shape. I am thrilled with this book and think it might be the most important book I have ever written.

    Chapter One

    HOW DO THEY DO THAT?

    A collective gasp rose from a crowd of over three thousand spectators as they thrilled to the amazing performances of leaping killer whales. It was another show in Shamu Stadium at SeaWorld. All eyes in the grandstand were glued to the huge animals and their trainers, so no one noticed the wide range of emotions reflected in the face of a man in khakis and a blue shirt who sat in their midst. Each time the crowd exploded in applause and cheers as the animals performed one of their spectacular feats, the man’s eyes would sparkle with surprise and delight. At other times his face would cloud over and his eyes assume a faraway look.

    Wes Kingsley had come to Orlando to attend a business conference. Since the schedule left room for conferees to relax, play golf, or visit one of the area’s attractions, he had decided that a visit to the world-famous marine zoological park would help him forget his troubles for a time.

    He was glad he had made that decision. Earlier, along with throngs of other people eagerly crowding the huge stadium, he had taken his seat above the blue waters of the large main pool. Following a welcome and a review of safety rules by an animal trainer, a mysterious fog had begun to shroud the surface of the pool. From behind and above them, the crowd heard the scream of a fish eagle. The mighty bird suddenly swooped over their heads, dove toward the pool, and took a lure from the misty waters. As it flew away, huge black dorsal fins broke the surface, and onlookers caught their breath when they saw monstrous black shapes circling deep in the pool. A wet-suit-clad trainer came through the mists paddling a kayak, to be instantly surrounded by the fins of enormous killer whales.

    Following this dramatic opening, the crowd witnessed a series of astonishing acrobatic leaps and dives by a trio of whales—a 10,000-pound male and two 5,000-pound females. These marine mammals, among the most feared predators in the ocean, waved their pectoral fins to the audience, allowed trainers to surf the pool by balancing on their back, and with sweeps of their great tails splashed the first ten rows of spectators with cold water. The roars of laughter, the oohs and aahs, and the thunderous applause attested to the crowd’s enjoyment.

    Wes Kingsley also found himself entranced by the spectacle unfolding before him. By the finale, when the three finny costars hiked their gleaming black-backed and white-bellied bodies up onto a raised section of the pool to take some well-deserved bows, he had scribbled several entries in a small notebook.

    As people exited the stadium, scores of them were still dripping from the soaking they’d happily received sitting in the splash zone of the first ten rows. Despite this—or perhaps because of it—their faces sparkled with smiles. Still in his seat in an upper row of the emptying stands, Wes Kingsley remained staring down into the pool. Its blue depths, recently awash with great waves but now still, seemed to echo his mood.

    After the crowd had left and the place was quiet, an underwater gate opened and a giant black form moved into the pool and began circling it. A trainer came through a door and strolled out onto the lip of the pool, and the huge killer whale immediately swam over to him. Nice going, big guy, he said, stroking its head. Enjoy your playtime. You earned it. As the trainer rose and walked along the pool’s edge, the whale moved with him. It seemed to be trying to stay as close to him as possible.

    The blue-shirted man in the stands shook his head and thought to himself, You’d think that after doing a whole show that whale would hoard its free time. But what does it want to do? Play with the trainer! A question was forming in the man’s mind, a need to know that had been building up in him ever since the start of the show. He had an impulse to go down there and ask the trainer that question, but fear of embarrassment held him back. Then suddenly he got up off the bench and quickly descended the stairs.

    Excuse me, Wes called as he reached the deck of the pool and started toward the trainer.

    The trainer looked up in surprise. Then he gestured toward a door. "Sir, the exit is over

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