Gung Ho 5a1ls

GUNG HO! Introduction Gung Ho! is a motivational story about how Andy Longclaw a Native American descent helps his new boss (Peggy Sinclair) save the failing manufacturing plant by turning the employees into “raving fans” of their company. Andy accomplishes this by introducing 3 concepts to his boss, who implements them in the workplace: The Spirit of the Squirrel, The Way of the Beaver, and The Gift of the Goose and that was the way of Gung Ho!. By definition, Gung Ho! was Chinese translation of “Working Together” and it describe boundless enthusiasm, energy and dedication applied to some task. The Gung Ho! Story The story all begin when Peggy Sinclair, the head-office rising star which always been in staff position and never trained to run a plant was appointed as General Manager of Walton Works #2. Every one knows that it was the worst plant from 32 plants owned by the company. Peggy realized that the appointment is actually a bless and a curse at the same time because the plant was in major problem. Peggy got almost a year and if there were no improvement in the performance, the boss Old Man Morris would have to close the plant down and hundreds of workers would become jobless and she will be gone as well. Peggy’s new day as a General Manager at Walton Works #2 started in September 4, and right at the beginning, she noticed that the productivity issues is the highlight of the plant. This also the day when she meet Andy Longclaw a Native American and MBA graduate who work as Operation Manager at finishing department which is the department that had the highest productivity and level of enthusiasm. The day when Peggy Sinclair meet Andy Longclaw, she was already inspired by the idea of ending the last day of working with head held high and the enthusiasm to achieve the highest day record for efficiency and productivity. The great excitement continues on when Peggy Sinclair and Andy Longclaw strategized their plan to save Walton Works #2. Their plan is to implement the spirit of Gung Ho! to the work place, the whole plant. Its was the spirit of working together

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whose Andy’s father had taught him in how to motivate and engage people. During the process, Andy and Peggy established a routine of heading out to the country to observe the animals that inspired Andy’s grandfather and his Gung Ho! philosophy. From that moment and then they become “Gung Ho!,Friend”. Gung Ho! is the Spirit of the Squirrel, The Way of the Beaver, and The Gift of the Goose. If squirrels don’t do their part to collect nuts, they will die. They have purpose to work and working with shared goals and values. As for the way of Beavers, they are in control of achieving their goals. The Beavers don’t have bosses. And finally The Geese, they are constantly honking to cheer each other on.

Peggy had to align the whole plants, as well as her own, personal values. Peggy was inspiring a shared vision for the whole factory with the Spirit of the Squirrel. None of the workers or the managers wanted the plant to be closed down, so Peggy enlisted the whole factory in the shared aspiration to save the plant through a huge leap in productivity. Finally, Peggy managed to convince herself and the factory that real change could happen and Walton Works #2 could not only be saved, but also become the most productive factory in the system. The next lesson Andy taught Peggy was the Way of the Beaver. Once again Andy took Peggy to look into nature for inspiration. Andy showed her a group of Beavers after a strong rain put holes in their dam. The entire time the beavers were working on the dam and it was impossible to tell who was leading them in their work, and none seemed to be giving any orders. The way of the Beaver is a way to give the power back to the workers.

Spirit of the Squirrel provided the boundaries,

framework, and ultimate goal, but only when empowered enough to work can the factory workers really make the change happen.

At this point, Peggy was challenging the process with the Way of the Beaver. The traditional system had workers being told how and what to do by Division Managers. Peggy challenged that process by telling the Division Managers to let their workers come up with how they need to accomplish the goals set by Spirit of the Squirrel.

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With the help of the Way of the Beaver, Peggy enabled every Walton Works employee to act for the benefit of the factory. Spirit of the Squirrel sets the playing field and values to the society/factory can agree on, and then The Way of the Beaver enables each individual to contribute to the society. Like the beavers at the broken dam, individuals in a Gung Ho! organization never bicker and fight, because each beaver knows the other beavers are doing the work needed to accomplish the shared goals. Workers and managers at Walton Works #2 were finally starting to work as a team, because everyone was encouraged to supply the needed effort to keep the factory alive. Only with the third and final aspect of Gung Ho could spare Walton Works #2 and Peggy need to turn the corner and make the factory the pride of the company. To do that, Andy took Peggy this time to a huge lake where geese were migrating. The observations made were auditory this time and not visual. Whatever the geese were doing, they were loudly cheering each other on the whole time.

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something as asinine as a new goose becoming the front of the V, was accomplished with a roar of cheers from the rest of the group. This final missing piece of Gung Ho fit in perfectly. The factory received the values and goals from Spirit of the Squirrel, then came the individual’s contribution from Way of the Beaver, and now came the fuel for the already burning fire, The Gift of the Goose. There was not just one goose giving praise and congratulations; consequently, all the geese honked when something good happened, and this is what Walton Works #2 needed. The Gift of the Goose is how Peggy encouraged the heart of the whole factory. It was tough for the whole factory to reach the level of Gung Ho as what the finishing department achieved, but with the proper encouragement and congratulations through Gift of the Goose, eventually the whole factory gave in. TRUE congratulation is the only kind that work for the Gift of the Goose and TRUE means Timely, Responsive, Unconditional, and Enthusiastic. Like any football game, the fans cheer for big runs, tackles, first touch downs and interceptions, the football fans just cheering when the team score or when the players not motivated enough to fight to win. Walton Works #2 congratulated, over the loud speakers when individuals met goals, departments met goals, or when anything good happened. Each individual and

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individual process is cheered on with equal vigour, because one missing piece of the puzzle or one division lagging behind meant Walton Works #2 would not survive. The success of Gung Ho’ing the plant reflected by the outstanding achievement by Walton Works #2. By February, 5 months after leading the plant, the productivity level was increased and Old Man Morris taking full credit for the wisdom in appointing Peggy Sinclair to run the plant. Their first-half performance also good where the performance is on a par with average plant from the whole company. Somehow, it took full three years for Peggy Sinclair to achieve the level where finally Andy certified as Gung Ho!. Much interesting to the plant success is being awarded by White House Award and perhaps the most famous business turnaround story in America. The Gung Ho!’s Wisdom The spirit of the Squirrel : the value of Worthwhile Work. Observing and understanding the squirrel, Peggy noticed that the squirrel really working hard because they are motivated and they are motivated because they have a goal. She realized that the squirrel working hard towards the goal of storing away food for the winter otherwise they will not survive. They are motivated because the work is important and its goes beyond important and it’s “Worthwhile”. To reveals the wisdom in a Nutshell from The Spirit of The Squirrel, it should be understand that Worthwhile covers more subject than important. There are three wisdom to be assimilated: 1. The work has to be understood as important 2. It has to lead to a well understood and shared goal 3. Values have to guide all plans, decisions and actions “Work to be understood as Important” this is where people have to understand how and what they can do to contributes to the humankind. Almost every man in this world need to work or finding a job in order to get something out of it, and most of the time is money. We all can agree that most any job is important and makes the world a better place to live.

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“It has to lead to a well understood and shared goal” this the second wisdom of the spirit of the squirrel. In Gung Ho! there is two types of goals :

1) Result Goals : (Statement that set out where we wanted to be, whether it was units worked on, finished, or shipped or collected).

2) Value Goals : (Statements that set out the impact we wanted to have on the lives of our team , our customer, our supplier and our community. According to Andy, we can’t have worthwhile work unless everyone is working towards a well understood, shared goals and must be guided by values. In any organization commitment to making the goal a reality that has to be shared seems to be the challenge for manager. They may share but sometimes the team doesn’t commit and it isn’t a shared goal anymore. The reason sharing goals with others is so effective because when you share your goals 2 things may happen : 1. You Become able If you choose to share your goals with someone you trust, such as a close friend or family member, then this person can help you by regularly checking up on your progress. In effect, you become able to this person. This may be some kind of formal arrangement, where you specifically ask another person to check your progress (eg you may want them to ask you how much you weigh on a certain date). It can also be informal, in the sense that if you share certain goals (eg to spend more time with the kids or to start learning a language) these will naturally come up later in conversation. Even more powerful, though, is the way in which sharing your goals with another person makes you truly able to yourself. I have found that although writing down my goals is effective, it does not necessarily make me truly commit to them. When I share a goal with someone else, though, I feel I am making a promise to myself that I will take action and make it happen.

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2. You May Receive Help I have often found that when I shared a goal with someone else, they have found a way to help me. In particular, my family and friends love to give me books on subjects or hobbies I express an interest on and they introduce me to a of theirs who may be able to assist (this has been happening a lot lately with career advice). I should note here that I never directly ask for such help. I think it is just that most people love to help other people. It makes us feel good about ourselves. The third wisdom in spirit of the squirrel is “Values have to guide all plans, decisions and actions”. In Gung Ho! organization, value are the real boss. The value are to guide your behaviour not for you to guide others. A true value in dignity of work is that, we have to respect everyone’s right to work as long a person working to their level of ability. Importance and goals get people going but values sustain the effort. When your goals and values are not in line it is as if you have two horses pulling you in different directions. Most people agree that goals can basically be described as what you are striving for and making plans to achieve. They are our objectives, our aim and often they seem to be more easily measurable than values. While values are what is important or significant to you: What you value. Ideally you want your top 5 or so goals to be in line with your top 5 or so values. Values will change as you go through life. For instance as a teen you may find that a spouse, variety or travel are not in your top 10 values. But friends, status and independence are. Ask the same person when they are 35 years old, happily married with children and you will likely find two of their top ten values will include their marriage and children. You will also find your values can easily change based on the circumstances. For example, if you are not feeling physically well, how much you value your health can’t help but increase. Or if your job is in jeopardy, you might find how much you value money and security moves up the ladder.

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As you can see when your goals and values are not in line they cause mixed emotions. And these conflicts can create difficulties in making the best choices as well as exhaustion. Yet if your goals and values are in line, ing each other, positive emotions are triggered. This simplifies and clarifies things at the very least. The Way of The Beaver: In Control of Achieving Goal The beavers don’t achieve engineering marvel because some other beaver is ordering them around. The beaver do what they do because they decide to do so not because they have been order to do. At some point, managers need to let employees who actually do the work feel free and empowered enough to do the job. Nobody knows their job like the people who have to actually do it, and doing the right work the right way is actually the real secret of successful management. Discovering what people do naturally and then figuring out how to adapt the organization to take advantage of natural behaviour. The way of the beaver is actually discovering the individual relationship to the organization.

The Beaver respect each other and you can’t be in control if

everything you do sets ripped apart and other beaver doesn’t hide a good tree from other beaver. They all have access to what available to get the job done and that includes full, accurate and up to date information on everything and there is no secret. The organization has to you if you’re going to take control of your own work. People who are truly in control work for organization that value them as person, their thought, feeling, needs, dreams are respected, listened to and act upon. There is two way of relationship. The first side was individual taking charge and being in control of achieving goal. The other side is, organization that allowed to encourage individual to do so. When it happen , their thought, feeling, needs and dreams were respected, listened to and act upon. The beaver have work they can do and requires work’s that possible. In control of achieving goal, the person should know a playing field with clearly marked territory. Goals and values defines the playing field and rules of the game and a leader should decide what position team member play then have to get off the field and let the player move the ball. The freedom to take charge comes from

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knowing exactly what territory is yours. The leader can’t be in control unless the rest of the organization you and does’t rip you, or your work apart as the golden rule of management “Value individual as Person”. Information is the gate keeper to power. Everbody needs full open access to information and manager must willing to give up the levers of control they worked a life time to get hold of. Production expectation should be within capacity and skills. There is nothing drains self esteem faster than knowing your ripping off the system, not contributing. Work that demand people’s best and allows to learn and move ahead into uncharted territory. Leaders of all industries know the importance of setting achievable and effective goals for themselves. These goals are termed SMART goals. Goals are one of the most underutilised yet important tools that businesses have. Once the main outline of your project has been set, your attention needs to be turned towards developing certain goals that can help make your project a success. Setting goals is easy but achieving them isn't. That's why setting "SMART" goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely - is the first step in making your goal a reality. Make your goal as specific as possible and express it in positive . Do you want to stop losing money or do you want to start making money? How much money do you want to make? How do you Measure success? You'll need a way to evaluate your progress and determine if you're moving towards your goal. For example, if you want to improve your finances, then you should have a way of keeping track of income and expenses. Is your goal Achievable? Consider whether you have the resources necessary to achieve your goal. If not, you need to determine if you can assemble everything required to streamline your process. Remove any obstacles before you get started!

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Realistic goals are achievable goals, unrealistic goals are just dreams. It's not necessary to be negative but take time to honestly evaluate whether you're being realistic. Losing 30 pounds in 2 weeks is not impossible but it's not very likely and certainly not healthy. Make your goal Timely by stating a due date for your goal and the action steps involved in achieving it. 1) Align your goals with your values. If your goal doesn't reflect your beliefs and character then you'll have difficulty achieving it. And even if you do manage to get what you want, you won't be very happy. Set a goal which is meaningful to you and be clear about the consequences of your outcome.

2) Share your goals with three to five key people. Not everyone needs this strategy with every goal but almost everyone can benefit from it at some point. Finding ive, positive people is key because you certainly don't need anyone sabotaging your progress.

3) Assemble everything you need before you need it. This prep work is vital in eliminating the frustrating and time consuming "running around" which can derail your progress later on.

4) Minimise potential challenges. There are 3 key ways to prevent overconfidence and poor planning from creating obstacles down the line: •

Create a complete, measurable, action plan which includes all the steps necessary to achieve your goal. Don't forget due dates for each step.

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Incorporate all your actions into your schedule. Add them to your calendar with anywhere from 10-20% flexible time to help you control any unexpected delays.

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Regularly evaluate your progress. You may need to make changes or adjustments as your project takes shape. Anticipate them so you won't get blind-sided.

5) Complete at least one action per day. Consistent actions will propel you towards your goal. Even choosing a small task will make a dent in your to-do list and may motivate you to do even more.

6) Establish a system. Who or what can provide you with encouragement, advice, healthy or a willing ear.

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Reward Yourself. Don't wait until you achieve your goal, especially if it's a longterm one. Reward yourself as you reach certain milestones. Something as simple as scheduling time for yourself or perhaps a special treat that you've felt guilty about indulging in can keep you motivated to keep going.

The final wisdom in Gung Ho! is The Gift of Goose : Cheering Each Other On The gift of the goose bring enthusiasm to the spirit of the squirrel and the way of the beaver. The gift of the goose is actually requires us to honking each others, cheering each other. Cheering is actually the uttering or making of sounds encouraging, stimulating or exciting to action, indicating approval or acclaiming or welcoming persons, announcements of events or in organization congratulating someone is one of the way to cheers someone. Congratulating someone will bring enthusiasm in person life, somehow this is following the theory by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow hypothesized that within every human being, there exist a hierarchy of needs. The need to be appreciated, congratulated, need for recognition, attention reflected on Maslow’s need of esteem theory.

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Congratulation are simply an affirmation that who people are and what they do matter and they are making a valuable contribution towards achieving the shared mission. When congratulating someone, it has to be genuinely expressed we have to understand the principle and the application of active congratulation and ive congratulation. It can’t be overdo and it must be TRUE congratulation which is : Timely, Responsive, Unconditional and Enthusiastic. Congratulating someone is more effective when it is spontaneous, individual, specific and unique. Congratulation not only cheering the outcome or result of any achievement but it also can be along the process.

Gung Ho! At My Workplace Understanding the spirit of the squirrel : Worthwhile work, which is knowing we make the world a better place allows me to utilize the application on the principle of making any job to be understood important. Relating this to my organization, my department is actually responsible in the production of clonal palm (Ramet) and functioned together with different section with different task to produce clonal palm. My experience in handling with most my subordinates made my conclusion on their performance is actually has a positive correlation between what kind of task or work they assign to do and not much on the important of their work. However, reading through this book I realized that the understanding of how important the work is actually the missing link in their performance. In Gung Ho!, no worthwhile work unless everyone is working together toward a well understood and shared goals. Somehow, the biggest challenge for me to perform my duty as an assistant manager is to realizing and bringing all member of the department to give their full commitment in achieving

the organization’s goal.

However, the effort taken by the top management by introducing balance scorecard to all of the organization somehow helping the department to achieve the organization goal even though the full commitment is not what as the management expecting for.

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From my point of view, for work to be worthwhile it has to do two things: contribute to society and make the most of their talents. Effective communication within the organization also the key for a worthwhile place to work. Employees cite two main factors that would make a job in organization feel more worthwhile: understanding its ultimate purpose (that a drug company protects our health, that a food business feeds us, that a telephone company keeps us all in touch) and knowing that it does a lot of good work for the community. The important of work and goals get all of the organization moving, but I believe the values are actually sustaining the effort. Almost in every management gathering, the top management emphasis on the moral value and work ethic such as working hard, working smart, trust, honesty and telling every employee as company’s asset. Values, personal values, and core values all refer to the same thing. They are desirable qualities, standards, or principles. Values are a person's driving force and influence their actions and reactions. Saying, "He's a courageous man" or "She's a generous woman" reflects a person's deepest priorities in life. A brave man speaks out, even when it's dangerous to do so. A generous woman selflessly gives money or her time to help others. Besides bravery and generosity, other common values are acceptance, beauty, commitment, excellence, family, fun, harmony, health, leadership, love, prestige, respect, service, spirituality, and wealth. Everyone has personal values, even if they don't realize it. We inherit some of your values. You learn some values from your parents, teachers, and other influential people in your life. You also take on values from reading and watching TV and from school. Our values also reflect the values of the place where you live - your town or city, region, and country. And they reflect your generation, i.e., the group of people born around the same year as you.

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Values also last a lifetime. While they may undergo some change through the years, they're fairly stable. It important to know what your values are. People who don't know their values tend to wander around, bouncing from one thing to another, trying to find themselves. They're like puppets, pulled along without any clear direction. Knowing our values helps us: •

Follow a clear set of rules and guidelines for your actions. You’re less likely to take the easy way out or chase after short-term gains at the expense of your long-term goals.

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Make good decisions. You quickly know what are good choices for you and what are not.

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Find compatible people, places, and things that your way of living.

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Live with integrity. Integrity here doesn't mean honesty or honor. Integrity means wholeness or completeness - being a whole person. Nothing left out. Being true to yourself

The values that set and demonstrated by the top management and also the acceptance and understanding from all of the organization somehow bring our organization to the level as one of the profitable government linked company in Sabah. The way of the Beaver for my organization is in control of achieving the organization goal. Its all about the individual relationship with the management. Most of the time I have noticed in my organization, one of the problem is related to the worker’s productivity and their bad performance. Conducting various kind of performance training seems to be no major improvement on their productivity and performance. In Gung Ho! it is important for the management team to understand that the workers to do their job not because they ordered to but they decide to do it. They must have the feeling of sense of belonging which realizing the place where they working at as part of their life. As for the manager, the understanding on what people do naturally and figuring out how to adapt the organization in suit with their natural behaviour is actually one of the way for the worker to do their job effectively and increase their productivity.

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Its often happen that some worker perform better and some not perform better even though they are doing the same routine kind of work. This is because the understanding of worker’s capability and skills is not fully understand and utilized by the manager resulting bad performance. The management to the workers also important for the manager to take control in their workplace. Its is important for the organization to value workers as person and respecting their thought, feeling, dreams and listened to their needs. Cases like quitting job and working to other company is actually one of the of consequences when the workers didn’t treat well by the management. Finally, The gift of the Goose in my organization is cheering on each other. Cheering can be in form on active and ive congratulation which boost enthusiasm and bring positive vibe to the person. Cheering person not only by word but sometimes can be materialized. There are individual delighted when given money or cash as a form of appreciation and some not interested in money at all but more interested on the food of the spirit, which is the congratulation itself. The application of e = mc2 (Enthusiasm equals mission times cash and congratulations) is the best applicable formula to bring cheers to any organization. Looking at how the management convey their message of appreciation, usually it only happen when the organization decided to have yearly company’s dinner where the management can give award to anybody that lead good example and shown good performance to the company. Looking at this, it not necessarily only during the annual

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congratulation, it can be done at any time when the individual need most. The way of the management to express their appreciation to their workers also something the management have to look into. Sometime to congratulate someone is not for the outcome of the work only but the process of doing the work should cheered on. The congratulation also can be a word of encouragement, which mean the management have a faith on their ability and contribution in any form to the success of the organization.

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Survey after survey has shown a disconnection between what employees want at work and what employers think they want. Employees are looking for intangibles from their jobs, like appreciation, recognition and a sense of purpose, while employers often think that all it takes is more money to make their employees happy. Employers should understand that, there are workers that loved their job and didn’t necessarily required to be paid high. Genuine congratulation from the management is very important for the workers to feel really appreciated. Most of the time, the management prefer to congratulate individual by sending congratulation statement such as internal memo, newsletter and other printed material but rarely doing it by meeting the individual personally to congratulate the individual and this is something that the management have to look into so that true appreciation can serve the purpose.

The spirit of the Squirrel : the value of Worthwhile Work.

The Way of The Beaver: In Control of Achieving Goal

Gift of the Goose : Che ering Each Other On 15