Chuck Tompkins

"How is it they can get the most feared predator in the ocean to urinate on cue, and we can't get our son to stand up and pee into the toilet?" Amy Sheldrake's new job at Aqua World, a fictitious marine park in Key West, is one of learning the ropes to become a trainer of killer whales. As the working mother of two-year-old Josh, she is likewise challenged on the home front. Readers of Amy's story share her discovery of how the philosophy of Whale Done animal training can be put into practice in her job as a parent. Once Amy and her husband Matt get the hang of the Whale Done principles, they're able to bring them to bear on bedtime routines, dealing with tantrums, introducing new foods, teaching Josh to share, avoiding overuse of the word No, learning to care for a pet, and instituting time-outs. Whale Done is much more than a set of techniques; it is a way of looking at people and seeing the best that is in them. Great leaders, saints and sages have developed this skill. Since most of us parents are less advanced than those paragons, we need a primer for how to bring out the best in our children.

A compendium of straightforward techniques on how to accentuate the positive and redirect the negative, increasing productivity at work and at home. What do your people at work and your spouse and kids at home have in common with a five-ton killer whale? Probably a whole lot more than you think, according to top business consultant and mega-bestselling author Ken Blanchard and his coauthors from SeaWorld. In this moving and inspirational new book, Blanchard explains that both whales and people perform better when you accentuate the positive. He shows how using the techniques of animal trainers -- specifically those responsible for the killer whales of SeaWorld -- can supercharge your effectiveness at work and at home. When gruff business manager and family man Wes Kingsley visited SeaWorld, he marveled at the ability of the trainers to get these huge killer whales, among the most feared predators in the ocean, to perform amazing acrobatic leaps and dives. Later, talking to the chief trainer, he learned their techniques of building trust, accentuating the positive, and redirecting negative behavior -- all of which make these extraordinary performances possible. Kingsley took a hard look at his own often accusatory management style and recognized how some of his shortcomings as a manager, spouse, and father actually diminish trust and damage relationships. He began to see the difference between "GOTcha" (catching people doing things wrong) and "Whale Done " (catching people doing things right). In Whale Done , Ken Blanchard shows how to make accentuating the positive and redirecting the negative the best tools to increase productivity, instead of creating situations that demoralize people. These techniques are remarkably easy to master and can be applied equally well at home, allowing readers to become better parents and more committed spouses in their happier and more successful personal lives.