Instant Turnaround!: Getting People Excited about Coming to Work and Working Hard

by Ross Reck and Harry Paul

Transform Your Workplace Imagine a company where people are excited about coming to work and giving their best efforts every day. In this innovative and engrossing business parable, Harry Paul and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061730424
• ISBN13: 9780061730429
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Instant Turnaround! Getting People Excited About Coming To Work And Working Hard

Instant Turnaround! by Harry Paul and Ross Reck is a compelling and dynamic business parable that shows managers at any level how they can immediately increase productivity and profits by tapping into the discretionary effort of their employees--getting them excited about coming to work and giving everything they all to performing their jobs. Paul and Reck point out the most basic aspect of business reality that many, if not most, managers choose to ignore: people intentionally regulate the amount of effort they put into their jobs based upon how they feel they're being treated. If they feel they're being treated well, they'll become excited about giving their absolute best efforts which means they'll work way beyond their job descriptions. If they feel their efforts are unappreciated they'll pull back and do only what they have to do to keep their jobs. And, if they feel they're being abused, they'll either find some clever and costly way to get even with their boss or they'll look for a job somewhere else. The lesson here is: the better you treat people, the harder they'll work! At the book's center is the story of a human resources director at a flailing magazine who takes on her CEO by openly disagreeing with his notion that performance numbers and the bottom line are more important than employees. He then challenges her to find a better way tasked to manage people that will provide significant improvement immediately. With the help of a successful airline executive, she learns about a surprisingly practical management system that can be used by team leaders, supervisors, managers and executives in any industry to send productivity and profits through the roof. The basic components of this system include: * Focus on people as well as performance numbers * Motivate with trust instead of fear * Turn work into fun * Senior management must become directly involved with front line employees According to the authors, the beauty of this system is that you won't have to wait a month, six weeks or a year to see results; you'll notice significant improvement the very first day. What's more, it's easy to execute, cost nothing, drives productivity and profits through the room and, on top of that, everybody wins. This is especially important during the challenging economic times that we're currently experiencing.

This book should be in every manager's bookcase.

'Instant Turnaround!' is a must-read for everyone in any kind of business. One of the more important lessons from this book is that employees are the most valuable resource available to a business and they need to be treated as such. When people feel they're being treated well, they work much harder and do a higher quality of work. On the other hand, when employees feel they're not being treated well, they quickly lose their motivation to work hard, which means productivity suffers, turnover and absenteeism go up as do employee theft and accidents. 'Instant Turnaround!' shows the reader exactly what he or she needs to do to quickly turn a negative work environment to a positive one. After you read this book, you'll know exactly what you need to do to get people excited about coming to work and working hard every single day.

Must read for management

I just finished reading Instant Turnaround--it's great. It moves along, just as the title suggests, and cleanly and swiftly presents a formula for effective management in nugget form. It's timely and holds great appeal for those managing a work force. I especially liked the insight about employees coming to work to satisfy their own needs, not the needs of the employers. Gail Fisher, Freelance Writer & Author, Tempe, Arizona

Instant Turnaround is a GREAT read!

I just finished reading Instant Turnaround. Once I got started, I just couldn't stop reading. This book is SO-O-O-O-O GOOD! The weaving of the story along with the points of what makes a company succeed is awesome! Every executive, no matter if the company is small or large, should read this book. If this book was read and followed by all those in charge of employees, we would have many happy people going to work each day and trying to do their very best at what they do. The 4 Be's that Ross Reck and Harry Paul have laid out are so simple, but yet could do so much to turn the businesses of this country around.

instant turnaround

Instant Turnaround: Getting People Excited about Coming to Work and Working Hard By Harry Paul and Ross Reck. William Morrow, $22.99 If you're looking for a revolutionary, enlightening, or fanciful solution to the age-old challenge of getting people to do what they were hired to do--especially in our current economy--it's not here. But, what is here is golden: a simple, effective way for every manager to create a work environment of genuine care, where people willfully choose and act toward getting desired results. For the new supervisor or manager, this superbly written parable provides a good foundation from which to lead others. For the experienced middle manager and executive leader, a 90-minute investment of reading time is enough to remember and acknowledge that the key to inspiring others to do their best lies in satisfying their needs first. Authors Paul and Reck use the challenges faced by an HR director at a struggling publishing company to present their four principles to turning around any organization. Helped by an entrepreneur, the director applies the principles to get immediate and remarkably positive results, to the amazement of her numbers-driven CEO. Key points and examples are interspersed through out the story to reinforce learning and encourage application. Could practicing the four principles really lead to an instant turnaround in a struggling, disillusioned organization? Could it get people to reenergize and commit to their job, their goals, their manager and the company? Will it work in any industry? If managers, especially executive leaders, genuinely tried to work with others using these four principles--then an instant turnaround is likely. There's nothing fancy about it. It's not new, and it's not complicated. But, it's presented in a way that most people will understand and attempt to use.