Zapp! the Lightning of Empowerment

Rating:
Summary: Communicate Better!
Review: Many people fail to focus on whether or not their message is received. More effective people focus on whether the message is received as they attempt to improve communications so their company can be more successful. ZAPP! also focuses on WHAT message is received. As the book shows, a perceived message can be dispiriting or empowering.

I liked the fact that the book spent as much time on explaining about bad communications as it did on good ones. That is a great way to help people improve.

The only thing I did not like about the book was that the end led into a sales pitch for consulting rather than tips for how to pursue this on your own. It seemed out of keeping in a book about empowerment. Skip the last 2 pages, and you will be left with a better taste in your mouth.

Buy, read, think about, apply, and share this book and the lessons above with your colleagues. That will help you get heart-warming results to go with the heart-warming feeling that reading this book provides. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: OVERCOME COMMUNICATIONS STALLS FOR MORE SUCCESS
Review: Many people focus on whether the message is received as they attempt to improve communications so their company can be more successful. ZAPP! also focuses on WHAT message is received. As the book shows, a message can be dispiriting or empowering. I liked the fact that the book spent as much time on explaining about bad communications as it did on good ones. That is a great way to help people improve.

The only thing I did not like about the book was that the end led into a sales pitch for consulting rather than tips for how to pursue this on your own. It seemed out of keeping in a book about empowerment. Skip the last 2 pages, and you will be left with a better taste in your mouth. In the ZAPP! fable, you will also encounter the Tradition, Bureaucracy, Misconception, Disbelief, Procrastination, and Ugly Duckling stalls -- the primary bad thinking habits that stall progress in organizations. You will have to look more closely to find these.

The ZAPP theme of empowerment will work even better if combined with a work process to help each person become more effective. The one I suggest involves (1) learn the value of measurements (nothing improves unless you measure it) (2) measure everything you can about your most important organizational processes (3) identify the current best practices outside your industry and in, and extrapolate where these levels of performance will be in 5 years (4)combine best practices together that no one has ever used in the same organization before to exceed the future best practice (5) think about where people do something similar now almost perfectly, and conceive the ideal practice (6) using the analogy of the current perfection, apply those principles to your process to vastly exceed the future best practice (7) put the right people, support, and incentives in place to implement really well and (8) most importantly, keep repeating steps 1-7 because you will get a lot better every time you do. Begin to spread this process through your organization by teaching one person each month, and having them teach one person each month as well after they finish learning the first time. Within 18 months, everyone in your organization will be 20 times more effective and much happier.

Buy, read, think about, apply, and share this book and the lessons above with your colleagues. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Has Zapped me since 96 (when I first read it I think)
Review: Read this book sometime around 1996. I know it changed my way of dealing with people not just at the workplace but also with my wife at home on the sports field and it continues to influence the way I even deal with my 8 month old baby.

I have since quit my job and moved to the US to pursue a PhD in INdustrial Relations & Human Resources (after working for 15 years). And this continues to influence my choice of research.

Rating:
Summary: Avoid "Stallled Thinking" with Zapp!
Review: Zapp! is fun and easy to read. It is a good basic reminder of the things that good managers and leaders should know but do not always practice. The cute story discribes the benefits of listening and sharing. Too many organizations are hindered by what I call the "Communications Stall". An additonal and very uccessful approach to this problem is to use many ways of communicating (print, videos, speeches, discussions,..) and to do so often. Part 4 accurately shows that in the larger company setting, the ways that people have always done things continuously get in the way of progress. We have found that these "Traditions Stalls" and "Bureaucratic Stalls" must be questioned if they are to be avoided, and new ways found to accomplish more. For example, take the seats out of the meeting rooms to make the meeting shorter. Zapp! begins to do this by saying "There must be another way". The key to finding 2,000 percent solutions and to making much faster progress, is to ask the right questions. I look forward to Byham's next book to learn how he recommends a manager or leader get started.