Revved! is
a business
parable. Harry Paul and Ross Reck tell the story of
Katie, a woman hurt by personal betrayal whose career suffers from her attempts
to protect herself for additional injury.
She turns things around with the help and advice of an old friend and a
radio psychologist.
In the context of a simple story,
Paul and Reck describe a system intended motivate employees to perform at a new
level, get engaged in their work and go above and beyond what is required in
their job description. It makes the
supervisors and managers feel good, too.
The secret to getting the
best out of people is this: care about them.
Honestly, demonstrably care.
People care about the people who care about them. The care a supervisor shows for her employees
will be reflected back in enthusiasm, performance, improvements and ideas.
The authors offer a note of
warning. Real caring can’t be
faked. If you jerk people around, it
will backfire.
Paul and Reck offer a way to
mitigate this potential problem. Real
caring can’t be faked. Katie doesn’t
want to risk getting hurt again by opening herself to genuine caring for
others, so her counselors tell her to go through the motions even if she
doesn’t really mean it. It is a trick to
get over the impediment of her self-preservation. After a few weeks, she finds she genuinely
cares for her employees. The authors
agree with William
James that emotions follow actions, and if you act as if you care for
someone, you soon will.
By stages, Katie is
introduced to the few simple steps to demonstrate caring for others in the
workplace. The intent is to help her
build new habits in manageable pieces and to prevent too much shock from her
embattled and suspicious employees.
The authors give their
system a name, Looking Out for Number Two.
Each step is named as well: Winning Them Over, Blowing Them Away, and
Keeping Them Revved. In spite of the
fancy marketing language, program is straightforward. The authors summarize it in three pages at
the end of the book, and that could be shorter.
The titles are big, but the actions are small.
As you might expect, Katie
sees amazing results in just two months.
Katie is a fictional character.
Real life might proceed a little slower an more messily.
Even so, the advice presented
is sound. It has the advantage of being
simple and actionable. It’s not about
trying to stir up a feeling of caring.
It’s about specific actions that show caring in practical, meaningful
ways, knowing that the response in our emotions and in others will come
naturally.
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