Whale Done!

My brother-in-law gifted me the book "Whale Done" when he visited us for a day this June. I had been planning to read it ever since but other higher priority tasks prevented me from doing so. Finally, I got this opportunity last weekend and finished the book in just 4 hours..a record for me..:)
This book talks about the strategy applied by the trainers at "Sea World" to get the huge killer whales, among the most feared predators in the ocean, to perform amazing acrobatic leaps and dives. Their techniques of building trust, accentuating the positive, and redirecting the negative behavior make these extraordinary performances possible. The same techniques can be applied in the field of "Human Management" for the same results.

Here are the 3 important learnings from this book:

a) Accentuate The Positive - This is something that we have been learning since our school days... but how many of us really implement it in our daily lives? We have a tendency to step back, when the need arises to appreciate the good deeds done by people around us. Sometimes we even ignore them unknowingly, especially when the person is closely related to us.
However small those good acts be, they should not be taken for granted. Even a couple of words of praise can make someone's day and motivate him/her to keep doing better!

b) Ignore and Redirect the Negative-This is the tricky one! How can one ignore the negative? How can one ignore his son when he gets a bad grade in school? How can the manager ignore his team member who is always late in submitting his reports?
Going back to the "Sea World" - The killer whales were not applauded when they didn't do the act right during their training session i.e. no rubs on the stomach or food treats! They were just asked to repeat the task. If they still could not perform as per the trainer's expectation, they were assigned another task which they loved doing (Redirection). They were never punished!
So, we should try to ignore the negatives and give people another chance to improve instead of pouncing on them whenever they are wrong. If the situation still doesn't improve, redirect them to another task which they love doing or which matches their skill set.

c) Forget "GOTcha" and Implement "Whale Done"- This summarizes the above 2 points. We need to change our habit of "GOTcha" i.e. continuously finding faults in others. Instead of waiting to catch people doing things wrong we should try to catch them doing the things right! Note: "Right" does not mean that we need to wait for the task to get over and appreciate only when the deliverable is out. "Whale Done" should be applied at each right step and positive effort during the activitiy's lifetime.
(I know it's easier said than done!)

As per the author, these principles can increase one's productivity and supercharge one's effectiveness at both work and home. They could also enhance trust between entities and strengthen personal and professional relationships.
So, let's change our accusatory management style to "Whale Done" for a better managed and happier life!