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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:

Catch People Doing Things Right: How Ken Blanchard Changed the Way the World Leads by Martha C. Lawrence. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 325 pages. 2025
*** ½

For the past twenty-five years or so, I’ve enjoyed reading Ken Blanchard’s books, and hearing him speak, so I was excited when I heard that Martha Lawrence would be writing a biography of Blanchard. Lawrence first met Blanchard in 2003 when he needed an in-house editor to help with all of the book projects he had undertaken. She tells us that it is her hope that in reading about his life, you will not only be informed and entertained, but also inspired to become a better leader at work, at home, and in your community.
When asked about his greatest influence, Blanchard always credits his parents.
Ken was a leader early on, being elected to top positions in student government in every year of middle and high school. He excelled at basketball and thrived in diverse environments with many Black and Jewish friends.
He would attend Cornell University, where he was elected class president his junior year. He completed his master’s degree at Colgate University and later his PhD. He married Margie in 1962.
At twenty-six years old,  Blanchard was firmly focused on the importance of leadership. He accepted the position of Assistant to the Dean of the School of Business Administration at Ohio University and as assistant professor of management in Paul Hersey’s department. Blanchard and Hersey collaborated on a book, that would eventually become Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources. The main premise of the book was that there is no one best way to manage people. Instead, Ken and Paul recommended that leadership styles be adapted to the maturity level of the person being led. In writing, Blanchard had found a true passion. The book introduced the Situational Leadership model to the world under the name of the Life Cycle Theory of Leadership.
Blanchard would then move to the School of Education at UMass Amherst as an assistant professor. He wanted as many of his students as possible to succeed,  which is why he began passing out his final exams on the first day of each of his classes. He would become famous, or infamous, for not following the rules.
In the early 1970s at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a group came together that would change Ken’s life and he would start his own company that many of them would eventually be a part of. In 1978, Blanchard Training and Development Inc. was incorporated.
Blanchard and Spencer Johnson would write The One Minute Manager, in a parable format. The book would sell more than fifteen million copies and be translated into forty-seven languages.
By 1985, all of the company’s original Situational Leadership products had been revised to align with the new SLII model. SLII quickly became the company’s top-selling management training program.
The book discusses Blanchard’s Christian journey, inspired by his friendship with Phil Hodges (and other spiritual mentors), who he would later write Lead Like Jesus with.
Blanchard would go on to write a number of books. They urged leaders to change their beliefs about how people could and should be managed. In the leadership arena, Jesus became Ken’s role model.
As Ken’s Christian faith matured, his leadership philosophy – which had always been about uplifting people – expanded to emphasize leadership as a sacred responsibility. His speeches began to focus less on productivity and more on serving others. Of all the subjects he’d written about, the topic most dear to Ken’s heart was servant leadership.
The book addresses difficulties such as how Blanchard’s organization struggled when it grew so quickly, and to stay afloat after the 9-11 attacks and the COVID 19 pandemic.
I found this to be an interesting and informative look at a man who helped change how leaders, including myself, lead. The book also includes a helpful Discussion Guide, which allows you to take a closer look at the principles that guided Blanchard, the relationships that sustained him, and the insights that helped him lead with love.

Faith and Work Book Club – Won’t you read along with us?

Creation Regained: Biblical Basis for a Reformational Worldview by Albert Wolters

This book is recommended by the Center for Faith & Work. They write:

“Few contemporary books have been cited as often by those who are writing about taking up callings and vocations faithfully. This serious little book walks us through the key Biblical themes of the goodness of creation, the seriousness of the fall into sin, the decisive redemption gained by Christ, and the implications of working out the promised hope for a creation-wide restoration. With the keen eye of a philosopher and the passion of a Bible scholar, Wolter’s offers one of the definitive, concise books about a Christian worldview.  One of the most important books for those of us in CFW and highly recommended to understand a uniquely Christian view of cultural and vocational engagement.”

As we read this this book we look at the first half of Chapter 5: Discerning Structure and Direction. Here are a few helpful quotes from this section of the chapter:

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