The Napkin, The Melon and The Monkey

About The Book

As unanswered emails, days-old voicemails, and scribbled sticky notes pile up, so has the weight of life’s stresses on the shoulders of America’s workforce. Nearly half of all workers say they feel stressed according to the Families and Work Institute.

With the recent unemployment rate surpassing 10 percent, there is a tectonic shift going on in the workplace. The workload of an entire department is now carried by a handful of employees. THE NAPKIN, THE MELON & THE MONKEY: How to Be Happy and Successful at Work and in Life by Simply Changing Your Mind (Hay House, February 1, 2010, $19.95) is a modern-day fable by internationally acclaimed workplace training expert Barbara Burke that will help transform the way you handle the frantic chaos of the workday. You may even crack a smile on your morning commute!

The secret to sanity when the pressure builds is being able to stop long enough to have a SODA – Stop, Observe, Decide and Act – Burke’s simple four-step method for tackling stressful, emotionally-charged situations. “When we are forced to deal with a difficult, irate person at work, someone whom we feel is attacking us, our natural response is to become defensive,” says Burke. “You need to realize that the person is angry about the situation. It isn’t personal.” Remove the mind from that buzzing phone or dizzying computer screen – it’s as easy as sitting quietly with eyes shut, taking a walk, or listening to relaxing music. Burke can teach any exhausted professional how to take a mental vacation once a day, which makes it effortless to apply SODA at a moment’s notice.

Burke provides the framework for an improved attitude with 22 thought-provoking Aha!s, such as:

• Problems can be gifts in disguise.
• Just sit there. Do nothing.
• The nicer I am to myself, the nicer I am to others.
• People harmonize when they are tuned to the same frequency.
• Real freedom comes from letting go of the outcome.

The powerful, easily applied guidance makes managing even the most challenging interactions satisfying. Learning to effectively communicate will open the possibilities to meaningful and happy relationships.

About the Author

Barbara Burke has spent the last 24 years as a customer service consultant, workshop leader and keynote speaker. Known as an international expert and thought leader in employee engagement, Barbara is passionate about helping customer-facing employees discover and use their personal power.

Barbara lives in Northfield Minnesota, a small college town, located just outside Minneapolis. In her free time she enjoys gardening, writing, traveling, supporting local arts organizations, skiing and fly-fishing.

Her extensive client list includes: Honeywell, Target, Microsoft, Estee’ Lauder, Proctor & Gamble, State of Minnesota, State of Pennsylvania, Cox Communications, Verizon, Progress Energy, Alltel, Vertex, Carlson Companies, City of Austin Texas, Georgia Power and Time Warner.

My Take On The Book

Being a person that uses motivational and leadership literature on a daily basis I was excited to read this book. There have been many times where I have had the opportunity to read many books of many sizes that claim to have good ideas about how to be effective and how to live your life the right way.

The book is set up as a story, and one that was both a very quick read and very easy to follow and relate to. I found myself reading through it in one sitting, anticipating more and more of the story as I read more. I wanted to see what would happen with the character and how she would either succeed or fail.

I enjoyed meeting the character of Isabel, the mentor of the story. After reading this book, I can only say that I could only wish for such a mentor that knows me well enough to help me to find my own success as Isabel worked to help Olivia find hers.

This book, while short, had a lot to say within its pages. It is a story that I think, at least for myself, will be one that I will read more than once to pull all of the concepts out of it.

One of the major concepts was the idea of unplugging oneself from the cares of the everyday world. I loved the idea of being able to be present with oneself and turn off the excess noise. Too often we get consumed by the things that don’t go right that we fixate on them and get somewhat consumed by them. The idea in this concept is that we must turn away from this consumption and turn inward toward silence and peace.

The other nugget of information that I appreciated as mentioned above was the SODA principle. Too many times I forget to take the time to follow the steps of: Stop, Observe, Decide and Act. There have been many times in my own life when I acted to rashly or judged too quickly. It was in these times (and after reading this book in all instances) where I now see that I need to do a better job at considering all aspects of SODA.

All-in-all this book was a great one, and one that I would recommend to all that have an interest in making themselves stronger individuals, both personally and professionally!

This post was written for Front Wheel Learning who provided the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.