Customer Reviews

Winning Ways: 4 Secrets for Getting Results by Working Well With People

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A friend who knew about my "challenging" work situation recently gave me a copy of Winning Ways. This engaging and extremely practical book is already helping my work group. After taking the "short" one hour to read it, I immediately purchased copies for my coworkers. The author, Dick Lyles, explained some complex concepts in a very easy to understand business parable. But, the story hit close to home. Very close to home. I have two "Alberts" in my work group. The 4 secrets in the book were discussion items that helped move us out of "interpersonal" squabbles and refocus our energies toward our work. People who avoided each other before reading the book are now working together collaborately. The book helped us all realize that we needed to solve problems for the future instead of for the past or the present. It also helped us realize we all had different strengths and needed to share what we were doing with each other. The secret about Camels are OK was particularly helpful, because it allowed us to move on without having to have everything perfect all of the time. It's still early but my group's negative performance trend has definitely been reversed. Surprisingly, not everyone at work was taught these four fundamental secrets in school or earlier in their careers. But, with Winning Ways, those who needed to, learned them quickly. And the rest enjoyed the helpful reminders. All will reflect upon what they are doing. And be mindful going forward in the future. Winning Ways will motivate anyone who reads it. It's that good!

This book truly sparkles from beginning to end. The lessons it teaches (most notably the four secrets for getting great results working well with others), are priceless.

I've created quite a buzz this past week by giving copies of the book to everyone on my team. All of them absolutely rave about how much they enjoyed the story and how useful they feel the lessons are. We've decided to establish the four secrets as norms in our group that we will all try to follow. It's been awhile since we've had something create this much collective energy.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who works with other people, which I guess is everyone. Simple stated, it's a great book with a powerful set of messages that are easy to absorb and retain.

At my work, we read this book to enhance our skills as a company and as individuals. I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it to others. What this book said to me, was that in order to work efficiently, one needs to work well with others. Positions do not necessarily matter, as long as everyone feels that he or she is contributing all he or she can into the project. People need to be on the same wavelength as far as the goal for the project, because everyone can have different ideas on what the goal is. Another thing is to work together, not compete. If two people have different ideas in mind, they would both more likely succeed if they combined efforts. Lastly, if you boost each other's self esteem you will feel more comfortable working together.

This little book packs more punch on Human Relations than any other big,heavy book on the subject that I've ever read.It's a great story with a valuable lesson that anyone can benefit from.It is the kind of book you will want to read more than once to absorb it's excellant message.

WINNING WAYS is a superb parable that will give you more power -- more power to influence others, more power to get your ideas accepted, more power to produce better short and long term results with people, and the power you need to boost your personal and career effectiveness. All of this without being manipulative or phony, while enhancing the dignity of others and fostering a climate of personal respect for everyone around you, including you. If it were possible to award this book more than five stars, I would without hesitation give it the highest rating possible. Two other books that are in this same league, while addressing complementary subject matter, are FISH and HIGH FIVE. All three books come out of the Ken Blanchard consortium of best selling authors, and all three are more than worth the money. FISH shows how to have fun at work, and HIGH FIVE gives insights into effective teamwork. Combine that with the strategies for interpersonal effectiveness that are presented in WINNING WAYS and you have the most powerful winning trilogy available today.

The brilliant Albert graduated early from the University of Michigan. United Global Advance Technologies quickly hires the genius. However, though his mind may match is namesake, his personality leaves much to be desired. Albert is very efficient, but is ineffective as he fails to work well with peers or in a group because he feels intellectually superior and rejects the notion that others might have excellent ideas. Instead he runs over his colleagues who resent his narrow focus that often times ignores part of the process.

Albert's boss knows that her superstar is not achieving what he is capable of doing because of his anti-social behavior. Albert needs to be more than just the lone ranger. He needs to be a team player and ultimately leader who appreciates diversity and varying opinions to attain a win-win environment. His boss sends Albert back to his alma mater to spend time with the highly regarded football team that has sent many stars to the NFL. There he learns from the coach about the WINNING WAYS of the Wolverines through 4 SECRETS FOR GETTING BETTER RESULTS BY WORKING WELL WITH PEOPLE.

Although this book is written as a fiction, it actually is an entertaining self-help guide to improve relational skills. The book focuses on helping loners work with their teammates in a more cooperative environment. Author Dick Lyles keeps his advice simple while explaining how to escape the paradigm of the lone wolf. WINNING WAYS is a winner filled with a common sense approach to better organizational effectiveness.

Harriet Klausner

Winning Ways is one of those truly unique books that grabs you and won't let you go. It's one of the few books I've ever read where I actually remembered the lessons the next day.

In this case the lessons are four incredibly powerful "secrets" anyone can use to be more effective in their dealings with other people. The lessons are presented in the form of a very entertaining parable with characters we can all relate to. The simplicity, combined with the power, of this book's message make it one everyone should read.

After reading it, I put it down for a moment, and said "Wow." Not only can I use these ideas, but if I do and others do as well, the world will be a much better place. Then I immediately thought of three friends I couldn't wait to share it with. Thanks, Dick Lyles, for giving us such a powerful message in such an entertaining way.

This book told me that being an independant person isn't always the way to get a job done. By taking the time to work with others,your coming up with different and new ideas on how to accomplish a project. Your not only going to get the job done quicker and more accurately but you'll have fun doing it to!Your actually getting an opportunity of a lifetime, working with people that truly appreciates your input and having others back you up. Working as a team makes your job more simple and fun!! On a personal note I always used to think that my ideas were the right way and that I knew the way to go about doing things, and whenever someone would question my actions I would find myself getting defensive. After reading this book, it showed me that stepping back and actually listening to other peoples input that yes my idea was alright but, hey putting my ideas with theres will just make things come out in the end bigger & better. By talking things out first with others rather than jumping into something your getting feed back and that truly feels rewarding and refreshing. This book taught me alot and I would definately recommend that companies sit down and read this together and learn that team work is the way to go and everyones opinions truly matter!!!

This is a nice, quick (about an hour, tops) read, with a surprisingly deep message. This book emphasizes how in today's world, to achieve anything of value, people, even superstars, need to be able to work effectively with others. Towards that end, this book, in allegory form, presents four "winning ways" of working with others:

1. Make people stronger rather than weaker as a result of your interactions with them. In other words, treat people with respect.

2. Camels (aka horses built by committee, aka compromises) are okay.

3. Avoid two-valued (win-lose) thinking traps. Few decisions are really that simple - usually there are many alternatives with competing pros and cons.

4. Influence for the future, rather than the present or past. Focus on solving problems preventing success, rather than ascribing blame to past or present failures.

It is ironic that I read this right after "Instant Turnaround" by Harry Paul and Ross Reck. In that book (which is slightly longer), the authors cover a fraction of the material (claiming that that is all there is) and say that only management needs to learn and practice it. This book is far superior.

A simple, easy to follow book about building teamwork and advancing your career through `soft' skills. However, I thought the book fell far short of the quality and rigor Blanchard's more popular works on management and team building. While Lyles' ideas work on some level, they seem to fall short when looked at analytically through tested and effective management models.

For example, "Make people feel good about themselves" sounds good on the surface. But what if someone is engaging in unacceptable behavior at work? The assertion "Make people feel good about themselves" is a weakened version of the very effective advice offered in the `One Minute Manager:' "Be tough on the problem, easy on the people."

What about the advice to `build camels,' with consensus ideas being better than individual ideas? In my experience, a team's ideas are often better than an individual's. But, think of pork-barreled legislation, and camels seem less appealing; there is a little known clause in the Homeland Security Act that absolves drug companies currently producing the MMR vaccines, linked to childhood autism, from lawsuits springing from its faulty product. So, to vote against the bill because of this clause would make a senator seem un-American, even if it were a vote against pork-barreled protection for unethical drug companies.

I have loved Blanchard's ideas for years, and this one a rare exception to the team's typical excellence. For a better treatment of teamwork, pick up"Gung-Ho,"another book from the Blanchard management training mill.