Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97602 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Gallwey meets corporate America
Most modern business coaches know of Tim Gallwey and his development of 'inner game' principles.

If you've followed his work applied to tennis, golf etc, you'll be familar with the approach of reducing interference, promoting focus and quietening the internal chatter between our two selves.

This book tracks the adoption if these principles by big business and sets out how Gallweys ideas, though founded in sport, can bring massive benefits in promoting better work performance.

Simple but profound insights about learning
In 1976 the author Timothy Gallwey, gained a remarkable insight when trying to coach tennis. He pondered whether he was aiding or preventing the learning experience. This revolutionary thought process was provoked when he discovered that by asking the learner to focus on the ball & not the shot - by stating out aloud what the ball was doing - immediately improved the person's ability to play the ball.

In fact he found that the generally accepted method of providing advice as a coach on how to improve the shot was having the converse effect viz preventing the shot from being played correctly. This insight calls into question the role of the coach in the learning process.

From this profound insight arose the concepts of Self 1 & Self 2 where Self 2 was the non judgmental & intuitive part of oneself whereas Self 1 was the judgmental part which was invoked or provoked by traditional methods.

Typical training invoked the Self 1 which hindered the learning process. Evolving from this is the concept that in most situations the person had the innate ability to perform the task themselves. To prevent the Self 1 from automatically kicking-in, the role of the coach would instead focus on invoking Self 2.

Gallwey then expands this concept & demonstrates into applicability in the world of work. His first assignment involves the improvement in the tedious job of call centre operator.

Gallwey discusses how one can maximize one's enjoyment of even mundane tasks. By enjoying a task one is in a "state of flow" or "in the zone".

Other concepts are also introduced viz STOP when "renewal" is required. This relates to STEP BACK, THINK, ORGANISE YOUR THOUGHTS & then PROCEED. This is also a powerful concept to employ when floundering under pressure.

However what resulted in a score of a meager 3 is the attempt to philosophize. Maybe it's Mr. Gallwey's attempt to shed light on the application of these concepts, but instead I found them tedious & repetitive.

The concept of Self 1 & 2 undoubted has wide applicability & will no doubt gain greater acceptance with quality of work life issues on the ascendancy in the Western world. This is useful book for the collection as one needs to "dip in" every now & then. Overall there are some powerful & appropriate concepts which can be learnt but it could have been covered in half the number of pages.