Johnson years to write them, he told USA Today in 2003. “He was interested in writing his books and having an impact without saying much beyond them.”Īlthough his books were short, it took Mr. Johnson’s book “The Precious Present” (1984) for Doubleday. “He was not very interested in the spotlight,” said Adrian Zackheim, the president and publisher of Penguin Portfolio, who edited Mr. He refused to have his photograph on his book jackets and rarely did interviews. Using his medical background and a simple writing style, he wrote short books to help customers understand complicated technical information.Ī best-selling author for more than 30 years, Mr. He went on to work in Minnesota for Medtronic, a medical device manufacturer, as its director of communications. “He felt a lot of diseases were people lacking something in their soul,” she said. But while working in a hospital, he grew frustrated at seeing the same patients return with the same ailments, as if they were not trying to better their lives, Ms. With medical clerkships at the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School, he seemed assured of a physician’s career. He grew up in Los Angeles, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Southern California, then graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. His father, Jerauld Johnson, was a builder, and his mother, the former Madeline Sankey, was a teacher. So we decided to do a story about a man looking for an effective manager.” “I was already telling a story about a manager who wouldn’t make decisions, and talking about goals. Blanchard said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “He wrote children’s stories, and I made a point of telling stories while doing leadership training,” Mr. Johnson was writing children’s books with his first wife, Ann Donegan, about historical figures like Winston Churchill, Jackie Robinson, Christopher Columbus and Confucius. The story of a young man searching for an effective manager to work for (and emulate), the book lays out the goals, secrets, praisings and reprimands that defined effective management. He and Ken Blanchard, a business consultant, collaborated on “The One Minute Manager” (1982). In an interview, he confirmed its sales figures and said it had been translated into 44 languages. “Spencer built a fable that helps people deal with change in a really accessible way,” said Ivan Held, president of G.

Those who are wedded to the past and lag behind, like the intransigent Hem, will not survive. The book became a publishing phenomenon and a workplace manual that preached how flexibility in the face of changing times will reward people.

Who wrote who moved my cheese