 | Discipline Without Punishment: The Proven Strategy That Turns Problem Employees Into Superior Performers By Dick Grote
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Product Description
More than 30 years ago, Dick Grote developed a powerful, non-punitive discipline system that turned a troubled Frito-Lay plant from a hotbed of employee sabotage and toxic relations into a productive, respectful environment-one where employees took personal responsibility for their behavior, and managers helped problem employees become productive players. Grote's method spread to other companies, and gained national recognition with the 1995 release of the first edition of Discipline Without Punishment. The book has become a management classic, helping thousands of companies and managers move to a responsibility-based approach for handling unacceptable performance, problem behaviors, and excessive absenteeism. But, despite the effectiveness of the DWP method, many supervisors and workplaces continue to cling to their long-established system of verbal warnings, written reprimands, suspensions without pay, and probationary periods-all fear-based approaches that instill lots of resentment, with little or no payback in improved performance. This new edition of the bestselling Discipline Without Punishment has been updated to help a new generation of managers and HR professionals adopt a positive, proven method for getting problem employees back on track. Packed with real-life examples, sample dialogues, helpful worksheets, and a no-nonsense sensibility that busy readers will sorely appreciate, the book remains an eye-opening, forward-looking, practical guide to making your disciplinary system equitable and effective. Dick Grote is Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corp., in Dallas, Texas. He is the developer of the GROTEAPPROACH (SM) Web-based performance management system, and the author of The Complete Guide to Performance Appraisal, The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book, and Forced Ranking: Making Performance Management Work. His articles and essays have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Across the Board, and many other publications.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #14538 in Books
- Published on: 2006-03-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .77" h x 5.92" w x 9.00" l, .88 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
Review
"Discipline Without Punishment can guide managers to a better performance management system, based on encouraging employee responsibility, developing ongoing performance improvement discussions, and generally not treating employees as criminals in need of punishment….As soon as the welts from our last employee review heal, we'll be presenting a copy to our boss."
-Accounting Today
"As soon as the welts from our last employee review heal, we'll be presenting a copy to our boss."
-Accounting Today
Review
"Praise for the First Edition of Discipline Without Punishment
""Unique strategies for handling employees who are not willing to shape up. Grote outlines a complete program for coaching, building superior performance, and disciplining employees that is useful in handling absenteeism, bad attitudes, and poor performance. He also provides tips on solving people problems before they require disciplinary action."" -- HRMagazine
""There is an important difference between Discipline Without Punishment and most other management tomes: The positive discipline system espoused here actually works. It's simple, it's tested, it's proven, it's easy to implement, and it makes good sense. Readers will wonder why their organizations haven't been applying this approach to performance improvement all along."" -- Ron Zemke, coauthor, the Knock Your Socks Off Service series"
From the Back Cover
More than 30 years ago, Dick Grote developed a powerful, nonpunitive discipline system that turned a troubled Frito-Lay plant from a hotbed of employee sabotage and toxic relations into a productive, respectful environment—one where employees took personal responsibility for their behavior, and managers helped problem employees become productive players.
Grote's method spread to other companies, and gained national recognition with the 1995 release of the first edition of Discipline Without Punishment. The book has become a management classic, helping thousands of companies and managers move to a responsibility-based approach for handling unacceptable performance, problem behaviors, and excessive absenteeism. But, despite the effectiveness of the DWP method, many supervisors and workplaces continue to cling to their long-established system of verbal warnings, written reprimands, suspensions without pay, and probationary periods—all fear-based approaches that instill lots of resentment, with little or no payback in improved performance.
This new edition of the bestselling Discipline Without Punishment has been updated to help a new generation of managers and HR professionals adopt a positive, proven method for getting problem employees back on track. Packed with real-life examples, sample dialogues, helpful worksheets, and a no-nonsense sensibility that busy readers will sorely appreciate, the book remains an eye-opening, forward-looking, practical guide to making your disciplinary system equitable and effective.
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Dick Grote is Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corp., in Dallas, Texas. He is the developer of the GROTEAPPROACH (SM) Web-based performance management system, and the author of The Complete Guide to Performance Appraisal, The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book, and Forced Ranking: Making Performance Management Work. His articles and essays have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Across the Board, and many other publications.
Praise for the First Edition of Discipline Without Punishment
"Unique strategies for handling employees who are not willing to shape up. Grote outlines a complete program for coaching, building superior performance, and disciplining employees that is useful in handling absenteeism, bad attitudes, and poor performance. He also provides tips on solving people problems before they require disciplinary action." —HRMagazine
"There is an important difference between Discipline Without Punishment and most other management tomes: The positive discipline system espoused here actually works. It's simple, it's tested, it's proven, it's easy to implement, and it makes good sense. Readers will wonder why their organizations haven't been applying this approach to performance improvement all along." —Ron Zemke, coauthor, the Knock Your Socks Off Service series
Most helpful customer reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
By Robert Morris
This is the second edition of a book which was initially published in 1995 and I have the same question now that I did then: How can any one strategy turn all "problem employees into superior performers"? That said, years ago Grote recognized sooner than many others did that the command-and-control management style was often the cause of serious discipline problems. He cites as an example what he once experienced as Frito-Lay's manager of training and development. He was directed to visit a plant at which 58 of its employees had been fired during the previous year for various breaches of discipline. Angry customers reported finding obscene messages written on potato chips, all of which had been produced at the plant at which the climate had become "toxic." What to do? Supervisors had been using the traditional "progressive-discipline" system for all violations of company policy, serious or trivial, and there had been no improvement in workers' behavior. If anything, as the recent "public relations nightmare" caused by the obscene messages indicated, the behavior had become even worse. What to do?
At this point, it may helpful to cite the differences between the "Traditional Approach to Discipline" and what Grote advocates:
Traditional Approach
Step 1: Oral Warning
Step 2: Written Warning
Step 3: Suspension Without Pay/Final Warning/Probation
Step 4: Termination
"Discipline without Punishment" (DWP) Approach
Informal Transactions
Positive Contacts (i.e. recognition of what is done well)
Performance Improvement Discussions
Formal Disciplinary Transactions
First: Reminder 1
Second: Reminder 2
Final: Decision Making Leave (a one-day suspension with pay)
Termination
According to Grote, there were (and are) significant benefits to the "Decision Making Leave" policy which was introduced at the Frito-Lay plant:
"It allows us to demonstrate good faith."
"It transforms anger into guilt."
"It eliminates the need to `save face.'"
"It makes it easier for the supervisor"
"It reduces hostility and the risk of workplace violence."
"It increases defensibility if the employee is later terminated."
"It removes money as an issue."
"It's consistent with our values."
As I understand it, the "Decision Making Leave" (please see pages 18-21) allows everyone involved to take a "Time Out" in order to calm down, re-examine the given issues, perhaps seek opinions from (preferably open-minded) third-parties, and thus be better prepared to resolve (if possible) the given issues.
In no sense does Grote question the importance of personal accountability. On the contrary, he vigorously and eloquently argues that DWP strengthens it. Think of it not as a policy or two but rather as a cohesive and comprehensive system by which to improve overall organizational performance. The best way to encourage such improvement is to provide a positive consequence - recognition -- whenever (a) an individual performs "above and beyond the call of duty" (what Napoleon Hill characterizes as "going the extra mile"), (b) an individual achieves significant improvement under direct supervision, after a disciplinary transaction such as a "Decision Making Leave," or (c) an individual has consistently met all of an organization's expectations over an extended period of time.
In the final paragraph, Grote observes "The final test of the effectiveness and success of Discipline Without Punishment is when it stops being a program...a project...a policy. Discipline Without Punishment is finally and fully implemented when it has been incorporated into the grain of organizational life that everyone considers it `just the way we do business here.'" Of course, Grote realizes that not all employees can become "superior performers," nor are all "problem employees" willing and/or able to produce acceptable (much less superior) performance, even within an organization in which DWP "has been incorporated into [its] grain." Nonetheless, these are worthy goals to seek.
To me, one of Grote's most important points is that the DWP approach to unacceptable performance and inappropriate behavior will succeed only if it is viewed, indeed embraced as an active and on-going partnership between a supervisor and each of those those for whom she or he is directly responsible. Expectations must be made crystal clear. Criteria for measurement of performance must be clearly understood and consistently applied. Presumably Grote agrees with me that recognition of outstanding performance must be immediately recognized, preferably within a public domain, and that constructive criticism should also be offered in a timely manner but only in private and it should be specific. Of course, mutual trust is the "glue" which holds any organization together and it must be earned.
This second edition takes into account most of the major changes which have occurred in the workplace during the past eleven years, notably the substantially greater emphasis on increasing and improving communication, cooperation, collaboration, between and among all areas within an organization's structure. My guess (only a guess) is that many of the same DWP principles can - and should - be effectively applied to an organization's external relationships, notably with its customers and, when appropriate, with its competitors. Each year, those companies which Fortune magazine identifies as the most profitable tend to be among those it also identifies as the most highly admired. A coincidence? I don't think so.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out two of Grote's other books, Forced Ranking and The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book, as well as Bruce Bodaken and Robert Fritz's The Managerial Moment of Truth, David Maister's Practice What You Preach, Frederick Reichheld's The Loyalty Effect and Loyalty Rules!, and Primal Leadership co-authored by Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
By Travis L. Mccaughey
I think this book is a good concept and some should be implemented in all business, however the book tends to drag on. The book is build around 4 main principles and could realisticly be 1/3 as short. Good book I would buy again.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
By Rodger Dean Duncan, Author of "Change-Friendly Leadership: How to Transform Good Intentions Into Great Performance"
First, some clarity on the book title. The word "discipline" has the same linguistic root as the word "disciple," which denotes allegiance to certain principles. Nobody every associates discipleship with punishment, yet somehow the notion of discipline has taken on a lot of negative baggage. It needn't be so.
This book provides a positive approach to improving employee performance, and shows why a positive approach produces consistently superior results.
Many old school approaches to "progressive discipline" evolve around deciding to fire an employee and then building a case for doing so. (There's a lawyer in there somewhere!) A better approach is to correct undesired behaviors. Discipline Without Punishment (DWP) shows the way.
http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/081447330X
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