Zapp was a very different kind of book than The Goal. Whereas The Goal was realistic fiction, Zapp was almost surreal. It was written in a rather tongue-in-cheek style, with abundant whimsy and irony, and it was short, but full of practical information. It’s the story of a worker named Ralph (the name of my dog at the time) and a boss named Joe, and their discovery of this mysterious psychological energy called empowerment - or, as I coined it, Zapp.
For the record, I believe empowerment really works; it is not a gimmick. It is a concept and a technique that every manager should understand and practice, and that most will not. It is mildly manipulative, but in a way that is beneficial to all parties.
Bill Byham, the president of Development Dimensions International (DDI), and I had a very productive relationship. We produced the manuscript for Zapp in about a year’s time, start to finish. As I recall, there were no deadlines imposed. Bill gave me clear direction on what he wanted to accomplish, and excellent descriptions of what empowerment was, the steps for invoking it, and so on. He then left me alone, often for months at a time, and let me do it. The result was a huge hit - though not immediately. DDI published the book privately and distributed it themselves for the first few years, before a New York publisher became involved. Ultimately, it sold millions of copies, and was translated into many languages worldwide.