Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment by William C. Byham

     Zapp! is about a fictional company in a fictional town. The Normal Company in Normalburg, USA manufactures Normalators. Things aren't looking great for the Normal Company. Profit and performance are poor and employee morale is at an all time low. Ralph Rosco, a particularly disgruntled employee in department N, has a brilliant idea for a new product. Ralph uses parts from old Normalators to build his invention, the Ralpholator. The Ralpholator transports users to the 12th dimension where they can see the physical manifestation of a person's energy and feelings. In the 12th dimension you are able to see if people are getting zapped with positive energy or if their energy is being sapped out of them.
     Right away Ralph notices the energy sapping decay that the Normal Company is in. As Ralph is wandering the 12th dimension he sees all kinds of unspoken flaws of the Normal Company. There is only one place that is operating effectively, department Z. Ralph studies department Z and notices that the department supervisor, Lucy Storm, practices 5 key principals to energize her employees. These five key principals used in Zapp! are:

1. Maintain or enhance self-esteem
2. Listen and respond with empathy
3. Share thoughts, feelings, and rationale
4. Ask for help and encourage involvement
5. Provide support without removing responsibility for action

     Ralph brings this discovery to the attention of his supervisor, Joe Mode, who learns to use the key principals over time. Lucy Storm, Joe Mode, and Ralph Rosco then team up to transform the whole company using the successes of departments N and Z as models.

     Although Zapp! is an abstract and humorous story, its application to everyday life is fantastically obvious thanks to characters Joe Mode and Lucy Storm. Lucy is the star supervisor who sets the example for other departments. Joe is a distrusting supervisor who usually does not consider his employees when making decisions. Joe tries to implement the key principals lazily and hastily at first which ends up sapping employees more than if they had not been implemented at all.

     Zapp! is a fun short read that would probably take most readers 3 hours or less, but the key principals mentioned in the book are deep in value. It will be fun and challenging implementing them in my next design project.