The Fun Minute Manager [Hardcover]

Bob Pike (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2009

Meet Bob Workman. Bob likes his job. Bob likes his employees. Bob considers himself a good manager but senses low morale among his immediate staff members.

In this easy-to-read business fable, a chance encounter transforms Bob s work life as he sets out to discover how fun can revolutionize a worksite and pay big dividends both in morale and return on investment.

Bob discovers that a fun work environment one which lifts people s spirits and reminds them of their value to their managers, their organization, and to each other is a primary need among employees. He sets off on a quest to find ways to create a fun environment and develops a method to produce convincing evidence that creating a fun work environment is worth the time and effort for the company.

Along the way, Bob discovers that fun at work: * reduces stress
* energizes employees and lowers turnover
* improves both employee attitudes and customer satisfaction
* lowers absenteeism and increases productivity
* creates employee loyalty and group cohesiveness

While fun has not been viewed as a traditional responsibility of the manager, managers that care about their employees and their bottom line will find The Fun Minute Manager a great tool for actively engaging their employees and positively transforming their workplace. This book is concise, timely, and a rich resource of practical ideas.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I have lived by the motto, Find something you love to do, and you will never have to work a day in your life. The Fun Minute Manager takes that concept to a whole new level in showing the boss how to help employees love what they do and enjoy going to work. If you do not have a fun epiphany reading this book, go back and read it again! --Harvey Mackay, author of New York Times bestseller How to Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive

Successful organizations have a clear vision of where they are headed. They understand what business they are really in. And, most importantly, they develop a culture that supports the vision and business, just as Southwest Airlines did. We hired attitudes that contained a humor and fun component and developed their skills. The Fun Minute Manager endorses that concept and gives you a flight plan on how to build a fun, productive and profitable culture. --Howard Putnam, former CEO of Southwest Airlines, author, speaker

Rare indeed is a book a perfect fit for the time it is birthed. The authors have managed such a glove-to-hand fit with their thoughtful, penetrating, relevant invitation for every manager to fold in fun when work environments so need to find fun. --Bob Danzig, former CEO of Hearst newspapers, author

About the Author

Bob Pike CSP, CPAE Speakers Hall of Fame is chairman and CEO of The Bob Pike Group and has consulted on training and performance improvement since 1969 with organizations like IBM, AT&T, Hallmark Cards, the USMC, the Joint Military Agency, Microsoft and Pfizer. He is author or co-author of 29 books, including the best-selling Creative Training Techniques Handbook and Dealing with Difficult Participants. More than 125,000 trainers on five continents have attended his multi-day train-the-trainer workshops.

Robert C. Ford, Ph.D., is a professor of management at the University of Central Florida. His widely used text, Managing the Guest Experience in Hospitality, is a pioneering resource for enabling organizations to adapt Disney-based practices to create a fun and satisfying guest experience. Along with his coauthors (including John Newstrom), he conducted a major research study on fun at work for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and has published numerous articles and papers on the subject.

John W. Newstrom, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus of management at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and a self-styled funologist. He is coauthor of more than a dozen books including the popular Games Trainers Play. He coauthored numerous articles on fun work environments, including Making Workplace Fun More Functional and Making Work Fun: An Important Role for Managers. He and Bob Ford published the popular book Leading With A Laugh: 101 Funny Stories with 300 Serious Lessons for Managers, Trainers, and Speakers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 107 pages
• Publisher: Creative Training Techniques Press; First edition (May 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935291041
• ISBN-13: 978-1935291046
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,638,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. John W. Newstrom is a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of Management at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is the coauthor of successful trade books such as the popular Games Trainers Play series for trainers, Transfer of Training, and The Fun Minute Manager. He has jointly prepared The Manager's Bookshelf, Supervision: Managing for Results, Organizational Behavior, and Leaders and the Leadership Process. He and Bob Ford published the popular book, Leading With A Laugh: 101 Funny Stories with 300 Serious Lessons for Managers, Trainers, and Speakers. In total, Newstrom's books have sold over one million copies.

Dr. Newstrom splits his time between his primary home in The Villages, Florida and summer homes in northern Minnesota. For recreation, he enjoys pickleball, golfing, playing cribbage, hunting, genealogy projects, practical jokes, and playing with his granddaughter, Ruth Lillian. He practices the art of neoteny (joyful living), and is an active funologist--someone who studies the nature and effects of fun work environments and personally advocates and uses various forms of humor at work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Put These ideas In place and you too can have FUN at work !, June 30, 2009

By 

Irvin Goodman (U.S.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fun Minute Manager (Hardcover)

This 107 page book can be a real help in making your work environment a FUN place ! It's an easy read, but can do wonders in improving your workplace, and lifting everyone's spirits. It can even help make the manager's job easier. A fete in itself. It is written by those in the know, and have succeeded in making work pleasant for both staff AND managers. This book can help by reducing stress, energizing staff, cutting down on absenteeism and more. Try it. It can only help !!

5.0 out of 5 stars A Modest Dose of Humor at Work, June 22, 2009

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fun Minute Manager (Hardcover)

Bob Pike thinks your workers should have more fun on the job. Not that they should throw a party in their cubicles every day, but just that they should enjoy the workplace enough to want to come in every day. He wants you to know why they should be having fun, and he wants you to learn how to help make it happen. And he tells you about it in a book so succinct that you could read it at your desk over lunch.

Fun, for Pike and his co-authors, consists of the little things that build community. Occasional games, humor, simple celebrations, and shared food will bring your workers together. It will also strengthen the company, he suggests, as you reduce absenteeism and turnover. And it's good for workers, since it lowers stress and its related illnesses, which also brings down your insurance premiums.

The authors present the concept of fun in the story of Bob Workman. Bob, a middle manager, realizes company morale is in the cellar and wants to breathe more life into his office. As he researches what he can do to bring spirit back to his office, he uncovers nine easy insights, several handy shortcuts, and a few lists of simple principles you can use to build high spirits in your own workplace.

But Pike is under no illusions. He knows some company cultures won't admit playful attitudes. Some kinds of jobs are unlikely to be fun per se, and some workers come from backgrounds that separate work from fun altogether. So they also give you clues and pointers to evaluate whether your workplace is suited for a fresh dose of fun.

This book is written so that its ideas apply to many different businesses. It preaches its message of fun while helping you keep an eye on the bottom line. Its principles are general enough to be adaptable, but specific enough that using them isn't a guessing game. If you hope to inject a modest dose of fun into your work, or if you're just shopping for options to build morale, this is the book you want to start.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun at work, June 26, 2009

By 

B. Davis "crazy about books" (Beautiful Northwest USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fun Minute Manager (Hardcover)

When is the last time you really had fun a work? Do you wake up in the morning, dreading going to your job? Do you go home in the evening feeling drained and unappreciated? If you are an employer, when is the last time you put a smile on the face of your employees?

Since companies usually want the maximum energy and productivity out of their workers, truly happy work places are rare. Every moment may be spent in an atmosphere of dull monotony or fierce competition.

There is now a movement afloat to eliminate job related stress and boredom. Ways to implement this can be found in "The Fun Minute Manager."

The book is loaded with inspiration. Chapters include:
*Having fun in a serious business
*The payoff from fun at work
*Spreading the joy
*When fun is done
*Becoming a fun minute manager

The reader will also find: Assessing Your Overall Fun Work Environment; 100 Illustrations of Fun at Work Activities; Fun and Humor Websites; and much more.

This is a small book with big ideas. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in establishing a more relaxed, fun-filled atmosphere while increasing productivity. Many of the ideas can also be used in the home.