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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Whale Done!: The Power of Positive Relationships by Kenneth Blanchard Ph.D., Thad Lacinak, Chuck Tompkins and Jim Ballard

Whale-Done-The-Power-of-Positive-Relationships-by-Kenneth-Blanchard-Thad-Lacinak-Chuck-Tompkins-Jim-Ballard
The Blurb:
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.

What I Felt About The Book

I saw this book on my manager's desk and as usual was curious to know what he was reading. Honestly, when I first had a look on the cover, title and back page; I had the impression of another blabbering self help book. But still, I read the first few pages and was glad to find that the author(s) have chosen to teach the lessons through story telling.

ABC Of Performance
ABC Of Performance


What I Liked About The Book:
1. Short Book and thus short chapters having big font: Yes, the really like the books with font big enough to be read with naked eyes without much concentration. Full marks to the publishers for it.
2. Failure Scenarios: Generally, book like this skip the hardships people face while applying the underlying strategies or techniques. I really liked the part where Wes had trouble applying Whale Done Principles in his office. The detailing could have been better though.

What I Did Not Like About The Book:
Though it is a very very short book, I got the jest of all in less than half of pages. After that, everything was just the repetition of all excellent principles and it did get a bit boring.

In a very short book too, there were instances when I found myself nodding sharply and smiling at others. Picture below lines from the book:

Catching people doing things wrong is easy.

The very basic example is how we help and groom our kids with basic activities like walking. They never ever succeed in first attempt.

Good thing I didn't spank the kids when they didn't stand and walk perfectly the first time. We'd have had teenagers crawling around the house.

Another set of lines were around common gossip we all do when we see a person yelling for no reason - "must have got into a fight with the spouse", "must have got a good hearing from the manager"and many more.

Ripple effect of GOTcha. The boss yells at one of his managers, that manager yells at one of his associates, who goes home and yells at his spouse, who yells at the kid, who kicks the cat.

And there were more:

When you're dealing with an eleven-thousand-pound animal who doesn't speak English, you do a lot of learning.

The more attention you pay to a behavior, the more it will be repeated.

You got to ac-cen-tuate the positive, e-lim-inate the negative, Latch on to the affirmative...

The one thing your competition can never steal from you is the relationship you have with your people, and the relationship they have with your customers.

And the final and most liked ones - i think;







Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Book Review - The Killing of Aarushi and The Murder of Justice by Rajesh Talwar

The very gruesome and mysterious murder of teenager Aarushi Talwar and her house help Hemraj is not new to the whole India and is even widely known all over the world because of vast media coverage. After a number of courtroom sessions, various hypothetical stories, long debates, candle marches, media highlights of all forms, the judiciary system held parents of the teenage victim responsible of her murder and sentenced them to life time imprisonment.

I must mention that I have zero knowledge on the procedures of any legal charges, but still, the fact that two people are a sentenced to 'rigours imprisonment for life' just on the basis of fictitious facts derived on the basis of different theories is still indigestible to me. Of course there are reasons and some conclusion drawn on the basis of various evidences (many of which were not even collected from the crime scene or were lost due to delay in collection), medical reports (which were again questionable and the judge himself agrees that they cannot be relied upon as the doctor 'lacks expertise and his evidence cannot be accepted'), statements recorded by various witnesses etc. .


The clear picture is yet to surface and I doubt it would ever float over.

The book gives a very minute and interesting examination on the verdict given by "the Court of Additional Sessions Judge/Special Judge, Anti-Corruption, C.B.I., Ghaziabad" led by CBI judge Shyam Lal. Divided in four parts, the author has tried his very best to probe all possible sides of the case.

There are 4 parts in the book:
Part one - Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar murdered Aarushi and Hemraj
Part two - The servant's associated committed the two murders
Part three - Someone else killed Aarushi and Hemraj
Part four - The murder of Justice

The imaginary sarcastic conversation with regard to lawyers statement derived from his own marriage when he tries to prove that the old servant had physical relations with the teenage girl was hilarious. I cannot stop smiling with surprise every-time the concept comes to my mind...

Even when as a reader, I knew all details and findings, specially after the movie, it was interesting to get a through peek at all plausible angles. I even had a look at the 210 page verdict out of curiosity. Almost all of it except the details of evidence, witnesses etc is discussed in the book.