February 10, 2000

It's doubtful that Dick Lyles was voted "the boy most likely to someday write a best-selling book about getting great results by working well with people" during his senior year at East High School back in 1965.

Dick Lyles?

Wasn't he the kid who organized the "Car
Bash" -- a March of Dimes fund-raiser where they charged folks a buck to take a sledgehammer to an old jalopy?

Yep, that was him. Dick and Dorothy's boy. The Eagle Scout, camp counselor and Boys State rep. Whatever happened to him, anyway? Last we heard, he'd graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, married hometown sweetheart Martha Williams, become a consultant and was proceeding with the delightful task of living happily ever after.

Actually, come to think of it, why wouldn't Lyles be a likely candidate to write a best-selling business book? After all, he always was one of those fellows who success seemed limited only by his own imagination.

And who knows? By the time Lyles returns to Pueblo for his 35-year class reunion this summer, his little book of wisdom, "Winning Ways -- 4 Secrets for Getting Great Results by Working Well with People" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $19.95), indeed might be a fixture on the nation's top-10 lists.

It's too early to tell if the book, which was released Monday, will burrow its way into America's workplace consciousness. But the timing seems good, it's easy to read and the message is sound.

Lyle's belief: The concept of collaborative efforts within organizations -- people working with other people to produce positive results -- is no longer a good idea. It's about to be mandatory, especially if one's goals are to achieve business and personal success.

"The days of the Lone Ranger are definitely gone," says Lyles, president and chief operating officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, a California-based consulting and performance improvement company. "If someone wants to either produce results that are meaningful or achieve something significant, it's going to require that they work effectively with other people.

"I think we're going to see a huge shift in that direction, toward working with people in every way. In past eras, there were a log more achievements accomplished by people working alone than there will be in the future. The individual efforts by people like Jonas Salk and (Louis) Pasteur, you're not going to see that in the 21st century."

The book, written in parable form ("easier for people to assimilate the message, remember it and act on it," Lyles says), focuses on Albert, a rising star at his company. He's brilliant, young and much more comfortable interacting with his computer screen than with other people. The latter personality trait serves as a massive impediment, both to Albert's career and to the team-minded organization's ambitions.

Although Albert is fictional, the techno-information generations he represents are quite real, Lyles says. And they're flowing into the work force at warp speed.

"It's easy to get sucked into the computer world, define that as your personal comfort zone and then not be able to work with people when circumstances dictate," he says. "It's everywhere you look. The chief of Naval education and training told me. "We're getting tons of young people in the military for whom interacting with a computer is like breathing. But if they sit down and have to deal with people, it's instant paralysis. They just can't do it,"

"It's a top, top concern and you hear it from industry and business leaders all over the world,"

Further complicating the changing societal landscape is that there seem to be two intersecting, conflicting trends at work, Lyles says: the I-me-mine, selfish individualism that has flourished in the past couple of decades and the burgeoning movement toward collaboration.

"For every trend, there's a countertrend," he says. "That's what we have here."

And that's why Lyles believes the public will embrace his book -- and its four main points, which the character of Albert patiently discovers and adopts through a series of growth experiences in the 92-page tale. The character of Coach, the wisest of wise leaders and a football coach with a remarkable 239 - 3 record, helps guide Albert in the young man's quest for personal growth.

Coach is an amalgam of people Lyles has met throughout his life, including Puebloans Piff Wallace (Lyles scoutmaster) and Walt Clay (the author's junior high coach), and an assortment of teachers, principals and business people.

The secrets of collaborative success, according to Lyles, are fairly simple and straightforward, at least on paper. But integrating those suggestions into one's life can be more difficult, especially for the Alberts of the World. Lyles' tips:

Lyles says the gook has been well-received by fellow authors and business consultants -- "I'm surprised at the number of people who have said, "I'm Albert, did you write this book for me?' " he says with a laugh. "But I think we all have a little Albert in us."

The book's target audience is anybody and everybody, Lyles says, especially people on the way up in their careers and people still looking to accomplish great things in their careers who are "just beginning to realize that's going to come less from personal achievement and more from being able to work well with other people."

If there's anyone who understands the importance of communication -- and the power of working together -- in the corporate world, it's Lyles. He has been a management consultant with an international clientele, including several Fortune 500 companies, for more than 20 years, and has written other books and training programs. He walks the walk, talks the talk and has proven adept at helping others do the same.

Lyles and his wife also founded the Maric College in San Diego, an accredited paramedical school for training nurses and allied health professionals.

But as busy as Lyles's life has been, he's made family a top priority. He says he's learned a lot from his parents, who now live in Scottsdale, Ariz. ("in a little clique of Puebloans"). His dad served as Pueblo's postmaster, and, Lyles says in his book's dedication "No one is better at building winning relationships than Mom."

Dick and Martha, who live in Poway, Calif., near San Diego, have three grown children: Jennifer, a teacher in Santa Barbara; Whitney, a novelist in San Diego; and Chip, a coach-manager with Pacific Bell in San Diego.

"The whole family has been super supportive from day one," Lyles says. "They love the book -- the kids all said, 'Can I show it to my friends?' "

He has plans to write two more books in the series, the so-called Albert trilogy: "Winning Habits" and "Winning Virtues." Undoubtedly, they will follow Lyles' outline for "Winning Way."

"Simple truths," he says, "presented in an interesting way."