The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

When I first started my consulting business in 1989, a good friend gave me a Harvard Business Review reprint of what he described at the time as a classic article on time management: “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?”, by William H. Oncken and Donald L. Wass. I enjoyed the 1974 article’s entertaining style and highly useful content, and it has had an influence on me for lo these many years. Since then, this one article has become HBR’s #1 best selling article reprint ever.

When Bill Catlette and I wrote our latest book, Contented Cows Moove Faster, last year, we assserted that a leader can’t hope to inspire Discretionary Effort (Oomph!) from people until that leader has first gotten himself or herself squared away, including learning to manage the priorities that demand time and attention. To that end, we included a recommendation in the book to get the article (re-released by HBR in 1999), read it, and apply it. Since then, both Bill and I have made that recommendation countless times from the speaking platform and in the training classroom. And I suggest that if you haven’t read it - do so. You can buy it online, from harvardbusinessonline.com for $6.50. From the home page, type “Management Time” in the search block. 

Several months ago, I was booked to speak for an organization called TEC (The Executive Committee) in Dallas. Over the past 10 years, I’ve spoken for dozens of TEC groups, made up of the CEO’s and senior executives of small to medium sized (and some larger) companies. About 2 years ago, TEC changed its name to Vistage, but a few groups (in Dallas, Florida, Wisconsin and other places) have retained the TEC brand. The chair of this particular TEC group in Dallas, I was told, was a fellow named Dr. Don Wass. Dr. Wass’s office made arrangements for the engagement, and yesterday, I flew to Dallas to make today’s presentation.

While I never forgot the classic “Monkey” article, frankly, I did forget the name of the alphabetically second-listed co-author. I always referred to the article, saying “by William H. Oncken.” As the alphabetically second-listed co-author of two books, I know these things happen.

So imagine my surprise this morning when I showed up to speak for this TEC group, met Don Wass, and discovered that this gentle, thoughtful, smart TEC chair, with a PhD in psychology, was half the duo who had penned this classic piece of management literature 34 years ago.

This evening, I had dinner with Don Wass and his wife Helen. I learned that, sadly, William Oncken died several years ago. But his friend and co-author, Don Wass is very much alive and well, and he and Helen, with whom he’s traveled to all 7 continents, are enjoying their adult children, their grandchildren, and Don’s life as a TEC chair in Dallas.

Who knew?

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.