Moments With Joe – The Monkey Manager
In this ‘Moment with Joe’, I would like to take a look at a book I read early this year that has had tremendous impact in my leadership ability. The book is funnily titled “the One Minute Manager meets the Monkey” and is written by Kenneth Blanchard with William Oncken Jr. and Hal Burrows.
The scene is set around a manager who was continually overwhelmed by problems created by his staff; he delegates work to his staff, but the delegated work somehow seem to end up right back at his desk for him to deal with.
He works overtime, all the time, whilst his staff are daily out of the door at the strike of the clock; he was typically always running out of time whilst his staff were typically always running out of work. Wherever he saw his staff – in the hallways, elevators, parking lots, cafeteria lines – there was always something they needed from him before they could proceed with their work.
Somehow he liked the thought that he was in so much demand and this means he was indispensable. He was however made to realise that indispensable managers don’t get promoted as their indispensability in their current position means that they have not been able to train a successor capable enough to handle their role.
At the height of his frustration a friend told him that his problem was “MONKEYS!”; “Monkeys!” he laughed “what has my job stress got to do with Monkeys?” then he thought to himself “that sounds like right; with piles of papers lying around all over the place and the endless badgering he regularly gets from his staff – my office usually looks like a zoo”
The manager was forced to attend a unique training called managing management time, where he was trained to deal with the “Monkeys in his office”
Below is a summary of the “Monkey Management” principles
Are you someone who continually feels overwhelmed with problems created by other people? You may need a Monkey Management Training.
Monkey Management
Definition of Monkey: The monkey represents the “next move” on a project or in solving a problem. For example; let’s say you are walking down the hall and your staff calls you aside to inform you about difficulties they are having to execute a task you had assigned to them – pressed for time, you look at your watch and say to them “that is a good point, let me think about this and get back to you”. before the two met, the monkey (the next move) was on the back of the staff; while they spoke, it was a joint consideration, so the monkey had one leg each on both your back and that of your staff – but the moment you said “Let me think about it and get back to you” the monkey planted both legs on your back and you have just taken back responsibility for a task you delegated earlier.
Commandments for Dealing with Monkeys
Commandment 1 – Description: Always specify the “next moves”
A manager and a member of staff shall not part company until appropriate “next moves” have been described. For every problem that your staff brings to you, get them to bring some suggestions for their resolution – (recommendations for the next move)
Benefits of Commandment 1
- This will ensure that whatever issue your staff bring to you, is biased towards action by them. Many situations are biased towards paralysis and no progress can be made until someone makes the next move.
- When a problem or opportunity first arises, often the best solution is not immediately apparent and often the potential hazards of the situation are not obvious. In those cases (especially if there is a lot at stake) it’s so tempting for a boss to protect himself by grabbing the monkey….”let me think about it and I will get back to you”. This leaves the staff member and the entire project on hold until the boss takes action. The person’s initiative has been taken away by the boss. You can for example ask the staff to give the matter some thoughts and make some recommendations on the basis of what is known to date
- Specifying the next moves can provide a quadruple boost in motivation for the owner of the monkey. The more clearly one understands what must be done, the greater the energy and motivation that exists for doing it.
It helps break down the project into bite-size – It helps to set out the first steps in a project which is very critical. Please note that the person that has to make the next move can be different from the owner of the project
Instead of having your staff send you lengthy emails that could take too much of your time to read, (in the process passing their monkeys to you), you can ask them to bring you hard copies of their mail to you and get them to read it for you …. So it does not end up being your own monkey..
Commandment 2 – Owners: The monkey must be assigned to a person
People take better care of things they own than things they don’t. If ownership of the monkey is not specified, nobody assumes personal responsibility for it and nobody can be held accountable for it
All monkeys must be handled at the lowest organisational level consistent with their welfare. In assigning monkeys, the Boss should take on only those monkeys that only he can handle; the rest should be passed down to his staff. Experience has proved that your staff can do more than they think they can.
Commandment 3 – Insurance Policies: Cover the Risk
All Dialogues between Boss and Staff member shall not end until all monkeys have been insured. This rule provides a systematic way of balancing your staff’s need for freedom to handle their monkeys with your responsibility for the outcome
Giving your staff the authority and freedom to handle their own monkeys benefits you with more discretionary time and benefits the staff with more satisfaction, energy, high morale etc.. It however comes with an increased risk that they will make mistakes. Monkey insurance is designed to make sure that they only make affordable mistakes.
All monkeys must be insured by one of the following policies:
Level 1 insurance: Recommend and then act:
This provides insurance where there is a reasonable risk that a staff might make an unaffordable mistake if left to their own devices. Where there is a risk that a staff’s action might “burn the building down” you want a chance to blow out the match before hand – you want a chance to preview and if necessary veto their proposed actions; you require the staff to formulate recommendations that must be approved before they can proceed any further. This provides protection but at the cost of more of my time and some of my people’s freedom.
Level 2 Insurance – Act, Then advice:
This is for monkeys you are pretty sure that your people can handle successfully on their own. The aim here is to practice hands off management as much as possible and hands on management as much as necessary; use level 2 insurance as much as possible and use level 1 insurance as much as necessary
Commandment 4 – Monkey feeding and check-up appointments:
The dialogue between Boss and Staff shall not end until the monkey has a confirmed check-up appointment specifying the date, time and place for follow up meeting.
The success of a company is a function of the health of its monkeys (next moves). Because monkey health is so vital, monkeys must have periodic check-ups to maintain their well-being.
The purpose of the check-up is twofold: one is to catch people doing something right and praise them for it and two to spot problems and take action before the problems become crises. The process of discovering and correcting problems tends to lower the boss’s anxieties and develop people’s competence through coaching
No monkey should leave your office until the date for the next check-up has been set; however if anything happens in the interim that makes the staff/boss nervous about the health of a monkey, the check-up date can be moved forward.
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