Rating: 
Summary: Bravo! Or, Whale Done!
Review: To you if you've picked up a copy of Ken Blanchard's book. It could be the first step toward improving your relationships both at work and at home.Ken demonstrates how the concepts used by trainers at Sea World-build trust, accentuate the positive and, when mistakes occur, redirect the energy-can be utilized to improve our relationships-both personal and professional-and become more productive while doing it. When Wes Kingsley opted for a trip to Sea World rather than one of the other activities offered during his business conference, he had no idea how educated he'd become. He sat in awe as he witnessed such incredible performances by these killer whales. He was so intrigued that, following the show he sought out the chief trainer, Dave Yardley, to find out exactly how he got these animals to do such amazing performances. Dave told him how they have to build trust with the whales-you don't want to get in the water with these killers! You have to be sincere and honest, and your motives may be questioned initially depending on the relationship you're trying to repair or improve. This will take some time. Be patient! Next, he told him how and why they pay a lot of attention to what the whale does correctly. Progress is constantly being noticed, acknowledged and rewarded. The more you pay attention to what people are doing right, the more that behavior will be repeated. Even if things aren't exactly right, praise progress, set them up for success and build from there, or accentuate the positive. And, when the whale doesn't perform his task correctly, they immediately redirect his behavior elsewhere. You have to focus on the behavior and not the person. When a good performance is followed by something positive, naturally people want to continue that behavior. In Whale Done! Ken does an incredible job in showing how simplistic his concepts are, and how readily they can be applied both at work and at home.
Rating: 
Summary: Another parable blunder - Needs tools and resources to help
Review: Whale Done is another parable style (story telling) book that has (1) a singular theme, (2) is very easy to read and (3) is overpriced. If you buy this book you will find yourself delighted by the easy read and may think you have found a gem but most parables are simply overpriced information. Let me elaborate further. This book, like other parables, are a great read for the following reasons.
• It is a quick read. I read it in about 2 - 3 hours and I am a fairly slow reader.
• The book is able to illustrate one point extremely effectively. For example, in this book they show how we tend to associate negative or positive feelings to individuals or situations and it affects our quality of life due to the way that we interact with people.
• These are the kinds of books that employees will read (great for training programs) as they are 100-200 pages in length and easy to read so a massive investment of time and energy isn't required by employees. The simple theme illustrated in this book is that both whales and people perform better when you accentuate the positive. It is tougher to actually implement such behavior but it can be done and it can have a substantial impact on your life if you learn the tools and key behaviors to look for and modify in your life. The problem with this parable is that they give the reader very few tools to work with and actual exercises to implement. As a result, it is difficult for 95% of the people who read this to actually integrate this into their lives for the long-term. Psychologists have been talking about this for decades in what they term "neurolinguistic programming." People are attracted to what they have positive experiences with and try to avoid painful or uncomfortable situations. Pain=bad, pleasure = good. My concluding thoughts: If you read this book try and seek out some other resource that will help you form the concepts into habits. Most experts say that it takes 21 days of continual implementation for something to begin forming a habit amongst people. [....]
Rating:
Summary: Ken Blanchard is definitely a big whale among many fish.
Review: Whale Done! is a must read for management at all companies. It breaks down how accentuating the positive things in business and personal life can only help positively affect the bottom line.
Rating: 
Summary: EVERY PARENT SHOULD OWN THIS BOOK!!!!!
Review: What a wonderful book. As a busy parent it is too easy to only take notice when my children are doing something wrong instead of taking the time to praise them when they are doing something right. Every parent and teacher should read this book..... Then go tell your children how wonderful they are.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Blanchard
Review: Whenever Ken Blanchard (one of my favorite authors) comes
out with a new book, I usually rush to read it . . . so when I
saw that WHALE DONE! THE POWER OF POSITIVE
RELATIONSHIPS had just been released, I got hold of
a copy and devoured it in one sitting. You'll be able to do so, too, in that it is real short . . . but
don't be fooled into thinking that there's not a lot of "meat"
contained in its 128 pages . . . Blanchard, along with
coauthors Thad Lacinak, Chuck Tompkins and Jim Ballard, takes a simple tale and uses it to get you
thinking about how both whales and people perform
better when you accentuate the positive . . . that information
may sound basic, but it is far too often never used.
The story revolves around a gruff manager who visits
SeaWorld and is impressed with how animal trainers
of killer whales can get them to perform amazing
acrobatic leaps and dives . . . he begins to see how
these same techniques could be applied to his
business life, as well as his situation at home . . . in
addition, he learns the difference between "GOTcha"
(catching people doing things wrong) and "Whale
Done!" (catching people doing things right). I particularly liked the many examples that were used,
and the fact that these could be applied to countless
work and home situations. There were many memorable passages; among them:
"The point here is that progress--doing something better--is
constantly being noticed, acknowledged, and rewarded.
We need to do the same thing with people--catch them
doing things better, if not exactly right, and praise
progress. That way, you set them up for success and
build from there." "Killer whales can 'take out' any other animal in the
ocean. We sometimes use that information when we're
working with dog trainers. Some of them scold and yell
at their animals. They use choke chains and sometimes
hit them. When they talk about that kind of treatment, I
ask them, 'If your dog weighed eleven thousand pounds
like Shamu, the whale, how would you treat him? Would
you use a choke collar or smack him around?' I don't
think so." If you don't hire people on a performance review curve,
why grade them on one? My only criticism is that some of the material seems
recycled from Blanchard's first bestseller, THE
ONE MINUTE MANAGER . . . but maybe that's not
such a bad thing, in that I still consider this his best
work . . . and a "must" read for anybody who has not
yet had the pleasure of experiencing it.
Rating: 
Summary: Simplistic book that should be no more than an article
Review: Written as a fictional story with unnatural dialogue, very simplistic message, does not even scratch the surface of human motivation. Nothing new here, this would not even be noticed as an article by a popular magazine. A typical example of low content book that is no more than a streched and pumped-up 4-page article. Nuff said. Leave on the shelves.
| 
