Review of " TURNAROUND: A Six-Month Plan for Change"

TURNAROUND: A Six-Month Plan for Change

Charles S. Ricks

Seagull Publishers

ISBN: 978-0-9835883-5-1

98 Pages (Includes front and back matter)

Thomas Jefferson once opined, "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." In an era where the need for change is often invoked as a panacea to return to a foregone era, few set out to actually make significant change.  Rather, many are happy to pay mere lip service to the idea of change but invariably settle numbingly into their routine.  Life becomes drudgery through the slough of despond where ideologues lament the status quo and are powerless to do anything about it.

Dr. Charles S. Ricks has written a compelling short work to help people pull themselves up out of the miry clay and actually change their lives for the better.  His TURNAROUND: A Six-Month Plan for Change is not filled with gooey epithets intended to be quoted, or even merely hung from ones mirror. Rather, his objective is to help his readership transform its focus and prove the adage of Mahatma Gandhi: You must be the change you want to see in the world.

Imagine being hired as the chief executive officer of a fledging hospital in a rural area where market share belonged to one of your competitors.  Employing his six-month turnaround ideology, Dr. Ricks was able to help a lesser competing hospital make up ground and, within a year, actually overtake the hospital holding the number one position.  Such a move not only affords a community the benefit of healthy competition—it also helps employees realize job security for the long haul.

The writing style is witty and authentic, lending itself to the conversational tone you would expect when meeting a mentor for a cup of coffee. No irrational judgments, rather elderly acceptance… each page is filled with sage tutelage—the kind only birthed from wisdom.  Pie-in-the-sky platitudes will not suffice when actionable advice is needed. Those who find this well will discover it runs deep with wisdom…not just information for information’s sake.

As you scrutinize the essence of this work, you will discover the reason for its brilliance. A natural order guides us, much like Adam Smith’s invocation of an “invisible hand” guiding the marketplace of economics. Immutable laws, such as the Law of Increase, should be self-evident: What we put the energy of our thoughts into will increase.  If an individual remains negatively focused, then he will surely continue to reap negativity. Is it any wonder that such advice sounds biblical? It is simplistic but not simple; amazingly profound—yet, easily attainable. Perhaps it is the small fox that nips at the vine and derails most from achieving success.

Some of the information presented will hit a manager squarely between the eyes: such as, Ricks’ development of the Law of Non-Completion.  This law states: There is never a point of completion. We are always expanding our concepts and re-inventing ways to do things. Even after scouring myriads of business-related works during graduate training, this reviewer never ran across the simple eloquence of this idea as developed in Turnaround.  If a company would always seek to re-invent the way it does things, it would never be outmoded. The myth of longevity culls the complacent to lethargy and rewards initiative as novelty. Why not keep ahead of the game? Flow like living water, constantly shifting and adapting, instead of stagnating due to mediocrity.

It seems that Turnaround is best suited for those who find themselves in awkward business situations.  Feasibly this work should be in business curriculums and passed out to college students on the first day of class.  More to the point, every employee in America potentially will find themselves in an awkward business situation.  Dr. Ricks has provided answers…now it is up to you to process change.

The zeitgeist proves that the only constant will be change…aren’t you ready for actionable advice?