I never read Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson’s bestselling The One Minute Manager when it came out in 1982. As a journalist and then an academic, the self-help motivational books that defined corporate organization and the ethos of the ’80s were not part of my world. So I can’t say how their recently-published The New One Minute Manager compares. Of the new version, I can say this:

• I was expecting something more in heft: a total of 92 pages, most of which consist of 12 lines of print in a font that seems several sizes above the publishing standard, ten or twelve point. Is this a record for the slimmest volume with a $23.99 pricetag?
• I was also expecting something more in terms of the writing. The ubiquitous young man seeking wisdom which he finds in the person of the ubiquitous older man who shares his three secrets of effective leadership. It’s your basic male questing fable which is, yes, universal (at least to your basic males) but could really do with a tad more in the way of imagination.
• What I was not expecting was to find that Blanchard and Johnson have, in this slim unadorned volume, encapsulated so much of what our country (our world!) needs to hear, to learn, to practice if we are to survive past the midpoint of the twentyfirst century.

If the first One Minute Manager promulgated the top-down leadership style that has come to epitomize American Business As Usual, the new One Minute Manager is singing a totally different tune. He has come to recognize that the worker of today is not the drone serving only the queen of commerce, but is a full-fledged member of the hive, without whom the success of the entire colony would suffer. Excuse me while I go tripping off on that metaphor…is this perhaps the cause of the great decline in agricultural bees, that they’ve been exploited for financial gain without much consideration for their bee needs? But I digress….  As Blanchard & Johnson write:

“Today, people look for more fulfillment in their work and their lives. They want to feel engaged and make a meaningful contribution. They’re less willing to trade time on the job to satisfy needs outside of work….The New One Minute Manager realizes that attracting and keeping talent is a top priority.”

How does he do that? With One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Re-Directs. Gone are the authoritarian Reprimands, because (Blanchard and Johnson are masters at coming up with slogans that encapsulate their philosophy)

• People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Good Results.
• Help People Reach Their Full Potential. Catch Them Doing Something Right.
• We Are Not Just Our Behavior. We Are The Person Managing Our Behavior.

Imagine if this New One Minute Manager were to move into the mainstream consciousness as the original did. How might that control our incessant urge to view the world, both large and small, personal and political, as a power struggle in which we must prevail, no matter the costs. I hope we’ll find out.

The publishers, William Morrow, sent me a copy of The New One Minute Manager for the purposes of reviewing it. I received no other remuneration and the opinions are all mine.