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. Even
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 account collected).
2) Value Goals : (Statements that set out the impact we wanted to have on
the lives of our team members, 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 Accountable

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 accountable 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 accountable 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 contact 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, supporting 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 support 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 support 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 terms. 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
supportive, 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.
• 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 support system. Who or what can provide you with encouragement,
advice, healthy feedback or a willing ear.

7) Reward Yourself. Don't wait until you achieve your goal, especially if it's a long-
term 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 passive
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 members 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 members 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.
• Make good decisions. You quickly know what are good choices for you and
what are not.
• Find compatible people, places, and things that support your way of living.
• 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 members 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 support 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 passive 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 company’s dinner then the management want to express their
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

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