Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #369483 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
"Tim Gallwey is one of the great teachers of our time. His aspiration is the realization of genuine potential, not miracles, but the gap between that potential and our current performance is often so great that the results are nothing short of miraculous. In this day, when many talk of accelerating learning in organizations but few have actually done it, the words of a master are timely indeed."
--Peter M. Senge, author of "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization

Synopsis
Explains how to overcome the inner obstacles that prevent readers from accomplishing excellence, success, and fulfillment in the workplace and describes how such tools as Focus, Awareness, Mobility, and Coaching can offer a radical new approach to business performance.

Customer Reviews

Unleash the Natural Learner Within By Using A Changed Focus
This book deserves more than five stars, because it explains how you can be most effective in learning, gaining experience, and achieving higher performance. The principles are based on Mr. Gallwey's earlier successful coaching experiences and books about the inner games of tennis and golf. That may sound like an unlikely way to approach becoming more effective at work, but it is unusually effective for those who have ever played tennis or golf by providing a visceral point of reference.

I could immediately relate to the book's ideas, because both my tennis and golf performances are hindered by the critical stream of commentary that flows in my head as I play these sports. Occasionally, I quiet the criticism and I play much better.

To me, the explanation of how to help someone improve their tennis or golf games, or do their work better was a real eye opener. If you encourage someone to simply notice what is going on during the performance of the act (where they strike the ball relative to their feet in tennis, the lie of the ball in golf, or the important circumstances of the work environment), the person will quickly and easily find their own solutions to becoming more effective. That made sense to me because I have been operating without taking golf lessons for about a year and a half now, and many parts of the game have improved in major ways. I have taken charge of making my own diagnoses of what I need to do differently, and have learned a lot that I did not grasp from taking lessons. That experience validated the author's approach for me.

The other reason it made sense is that in my own coaching activities with business executives about their work, I always find that people know the answer to their own issues if you can give them a more helpful focus to open their minds and help them recall information that they have observed in other contexts. That is exactly the coaching method that Mr. Gallwey describes in this book.

The model here is that our conscious minds tend to focus on harmful criticism that provides limited useful information about what we should be doing. On the other hand, our subconscious minds are very good at directing us when we let loose of the chatter from our conscious minds.

Mr. Gallway takes that observation and builds methods to help you set inspiring, authentic, and meaningful goals for learning, gaining experience, and becoming more productive. He gives you tools to shift you focus away from the concerns of the conscious mind, and how to coach others to do the same in their learning. He then links all of this to creating conscious choices to change your direction and behavior in ways that serve you better. To make this last step easier, he provides several alternative perceptual analogies to encourage you. The book has a series of effective exercises you can do to pursue those analogies. The book also provides many examples drawn from the author's consulting experiences to help bring the points home. I am sure that many of these will strike a familiar bell with you.

I plan to cite this book in my future writing, because it is an important contribution to how we can reestablish the wonderful learning capability we all had as children, in a way that is appropriate for adults.

Be sure to share this book with others you care about so you can learn to coach each other, as a way to reinforce your progress toward nonjudgmental learning. That will be a 2,000 percent solution for you both!

I also suggest that you reread this book from time to time . . . especially if you find that you are not accomplishing things as easily and as joyfully as you would like.