Ken Blanchard’s little One Minute Manager books define a genre.
Neither riveting reading nor high-stakes illumination, they simply get a message across effectively to the management reader who is not too concerned with aesthetics. Even the illustrations are garden-variety basic.
Yet these books have sold millions and they work.
The One Minute Manager Balances Work and Life presents the usual contrived encounter between the One Minute Manager and another of the usual subjects, this time the Professor. Somewhat off the beaten path, this time it is the One Minute Manager Himself who is desperately in need. Since we last saw him contentedly setting the organization world right, he has foolishly transformed himself into an overweight, out-of-breath victim of his own success.
Bad One Minute Manager!
This gives him the chance to narrate his own turn-around process, a conversion that I must admit I find rather inspiring.
Along the way one is treated to the usual locked doors when he tries to slip away from responsibility for the situation. This habit of assigning personal responsibility is perhaps one of the keys to the success of this series.
If you need to balance work and life, pick up one of these little books on the cheap.
Canter Bridge 
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