WHALE DONE “Rules of the Road”

1. Build trust
2. Accentuate the positive
3. Don’t ignore negative, but pay more attention to the behavior you want
repeated
4. Relationship building
5. When mistakes occur redirect the negative; re-channel the energy
6. ABC’s of performance
a. A=Activator—whatever gets performance going (establish clear goals,
objectives, standards)
b. B=Behavior—the performance that occurs (how did they measure up to
the expectation?)
c. C=Consequence—YOUR response to the performance—4 kinds of
responses
i. No response—self explanatory
ii. Negative response—self explanatory
iii. Redirecting
1. Describe the error
2. SHOW IT”S NEGATIVE IMPACT
3. Maybe you should take the blame…was the objective
clear?
4. Go over task/objective in detail again
5. Express your continuing TRUST and CONFIDENCE in
that person!
6. Praise progress!!!
iv. Positive response—WHALE DONE response
1. Praise people immediately
2. Be specific
3. Share your feelings about them (it only works if you are
honest and sincere)
4. Encourage them to keep it up!
5. Avoid GOTCHA!
6. Focus on WHALE DONE!
7. Know what motivates your people—never assume you know, sometimes just ask!
8. Use this in your personal lives too!!!
9. Do your employees, students, family members understand the expectations? Do
you?
10. Commentary…

*Based on book Whale done!: the power of positive relationships

By Kenneth H. Blanchard, Chuck Tompkins, Jim Ballard