Acknowledgments

There are so many people to thank and acknowledge for the learnings that led to this book. Inevitably, we will leave out some people, but we will do our best to be as complete as possible. To cover as many bases as possible (without writing another book), we offer thank-you’s to a special group of people who have been most helpful in the formulation of our ideas. We also offer acknowledgments to a much wider list of people and companies we have learned from as they reacted to earlier drafts of our book. To all, we wish to express our sincerest appreciation. We know they will recognize their contributions throughout the book.

Thank you to the following companies and people in them who have been courageous in their pioneering efforts to empower people and organizations:

Mary Andrulewicz, Jack Kent, and all the business unit leaders at Sheppard-Pratt Hospital

George Clifton (retired) and many others in the East Bay Region of Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Ron Floto, Dennis Carter, Lewis Payne, the top management team, and the many district and store managers at Kash ‘N’ Karry Stores

Jeanne Gruner and the Performance Management Task Force at Household International

Tom Jackson, Mike Squilante, Jeff Beck, and a host of others from Advanta Corporation

Stephan Sebastian with Cargill

Sally Heinz at The St. Paul Companies

Mark Robbins and David Heckman at Robbins-Gioia, Inc.

Lanny Julian and the amazing field staff of Ambassador Cards

David Liddle of Circle K Stores (U.K.)

Jim Pantelidas, Ron McIntosh, Gordon Olitch, and Wolfgang Greogry of Petro-Canada

Irv Rule and Matthew Reimann of Seimens Medical Systems, plus John Donnelly, formerly of Siemens Medical Systems

Ralph Stayer of Johnsonville Foods for showing us and many others the way to create real empowerment

Steve Wachter and the managers and employees of General Electric Information Services

George Wilson and many others at Florida Power and Light, plus Jo-Anne Pitera and Barbara Dabney, formerly at Florida Power and Light

Acknowledgments to the following people who read drafts of the book before it was originally published and shared openly of their experiences in giving us feedback on the book:

Barbara Balter with the Robert B. Balter Company

Joe Bode formerly with Black and Decker Corporation

Don J. Carlos and Bill Carlos, brothers emeritus

Arnie Cole with the U.S. Army

John Coleman with CSX Corporation

Bruce Dalgleish with General Mills Restaurants

Mike Gill with Americom Cellular (now Solectron)

Charles J. Loew with Motorola University

Mike Louden with Louden Associates

Rick Miller with the Boys and Girls Club of Phoenix

Mike Perry with the E. I. Du Pont Company

Al Price with the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel

Joe Raymond with the Georgia Academy

Lou Reymann formerly with Shimadzu Scientific Instruments

Al Schneider with the Federal Communications Commission

Julie Seeherman with Venture Stores

Tom Walczykowski with the FBI

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Carlita Anthony-Mines, Valerie Hall, Michele Jansen, Harry Paul, and Eleanor Terndrup, for producing the original version of this book in a most efficient manner and to Bob Nelson for his helpful feedback and editing.

We would also like to thank Margret McBride, our agent, and Steven Piersanti, editor at Berrett-Koehler, for their encouragement and energy in publishing this book.

In addition, we owe an intellectual debt to many of our colleagues at The Ken Blanchard Companies, especially Eunice Parisi-Carew and Don Carew for sharing their knowledge about team development; Jesse Stoner and Drea Zigarmi for their thinking about creating a compelling vision; Pat Zigarmi for new insights on Situational Leadership II; and Dev Ogle for sharing his knowledge of continuous improvement and strategic thinking.

Most important, we would like to thank our wives—Marjorie Blanchard, Lynne Carlos, and Ruth Anne Randolph—whose support and challenging questions helped us refine this book to a high level of value for our readers.

Ken Blanchard would also like to acknowledge the impact a visit with C. O. Woody, Rita Craig, and some of the good folks from the Power Generation Business Unit of Florida Power and Light had on his thinking about self-directed teams. In particular, a big One Minute Praising goes to Rick Beil, Eddie Childs, Mary Polk, and Debra Shultz-Robinson, who have been involved in self-directed teams at the Turkey Point Fossil and Cutler Plants. Their experience has been heartwarming and successful.

John Carlos would also like to praise the following people:

Mike Vance—my phantom mentor for over twenty years

Rick and Ester Miller—for standing by me when many didn’t

Lino and Kelly Antunes, Andee and Todd Oleno— my children, who have always been an inspiration

Gordon Dolan—a good friend and colleague

First Sergeant Harold J. Merton—who first taught me about leadership

Alan Randolph would also like to praise these fine folks:

Barry Posner and Jackie Schmidt-Posner for their constant friendship and colleagueship

Dan Costello for his support and encouragement

John Hatfield for his support and friendship

Father Vincent Dwyer for his early inspiration

My children—Ashley, Shannon, and Liza, who inspire me to be empowered and to empower them