The following contains excerpts from the book, The One Minute Manager meets the Monkey (Kenneth Blanchard, William Oncken, Jr.)
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. In dealing with the subject of relationships, the subject of Leadership becomes important.
The thesis of this book is that ‘next moves on a project’ (or monkeys) should be properly assigned and delegated to the right people. Bottlenecks happen in organizations when subordinates give their managers ‘monkeys’ that they themselves should be handling. When the manager naively accepts their ‘monkeys,’ assuming responsibility for them, he becomes overworked, while the staff is under-utilized and unchallenged in their own personal growth. Many of the concepts in this book originated from Bill Oncken’s seminar and book, ‘Managing Management Time.’
Written in a quasi-testimonial style, the author explains the dilemma in which he once found himself, trying to take care of everyone else’s monkeys, doing the best he could. He eventually discovered, “Things not worth doing are not worth doing well…how easily we needlessly pick up other people’s monkeys in all arenas of life. In the process, we neglect our own monkeys and make other people dependent upon us and deprive them of opportunities to learn to solve their own problems…every time one of my people came to me and shared a problem and I took the monkey away from that person, what I was saying, in essence, was ‘you’re not capable of handling this problem so I had better take care of it myself.’”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we help students identify their unique strengths to identify those in others, as well. When this happens, people can work synergistically with one another. A leader’s goal should not be to do everything himself but to identify and utilize the combined strengths of others, working toward a common goal.
Asserting that this kind of lifestyle is like a disease, there was consideration of starting an organization called, “‘Rescuers Anonymous’ for people who were compulsive monkey-picker-uppers. It would be a gathering of ‘do-gooders’ – very loving people who were running around trying to help others but who were crippling those they were trying to help by making them dependent…we have almost institutionalized rescuing in our government and throughout our society.”
“As parents we have taken all the ‘next moves’ away from our kids. As a result, all the monkeys are on our backs, and the kids don’t learn responsibility. In our well-intentioned desire to give them the good things we didn’t have, we sometimes neglect to give them the good things we did have. Often kids today don’t know what to do if nothing is planned.”
“The more I take care of everything for other people, the more dependent they become. In the process, their self-esteem and confidence are eroded and I am prevented from dealing effectively with my own monkeys.”
“The more you get rid of your people’s monkeys, the more time you have for your people.”
Our goal at our music school in Odessa, Texas is to bring each student to a place of autonomy, where they can function independently and make successful decisions without the aid of a teacher.
“Indispensable bosses are dangerous to organizations; thus they tend to get replaced. But bosses who are not impediments to their people can die and not even be missed, and bosses who can die and not be missed are so rare they are virtually irreplaceable. Why? As a manager, to the extent that you can get people to care for and feed their own monkeys, they are really managing the work themselves. That frees up your discretionary time to do planning, coordinating, innovating, staffing, and other key managerial tasks that will keep your unit functioning well into the future.”
Oncken’s Rules of Monkey Management
The dialogue between a boss and one of his or her people must not end until all monkeys have:
Rule 1. Description
The ‘next moves’ are specified. The dialogue must not end until appropriate ‘next moves’ have been identified and specified.
Rule 2. Owners:
The monkey is assigned to a person. All monkeys shall be owned and handled at the lowest organizational level consistent with their welfare.
Rule 3. Insurance Policies:
The risk is covered. Every monkey leaving your presence on the back of one of your people must be covered by one of two insurance policies:
- Recommend, Then Act
- Act, Then Advise
Rule 4. Monkey Feeding and Checkup Appointments:
The time and place for follow-up is specified. Proper follow-up means healthier monkeys. Every monkey should have a checkup appointment.
“The purpose of the rules of monkey management is to help ensure that the right things get done the right way at the right time by the right people.”
The problem with some meetings is that, “if no one know what the ‘next move’ is, it can’t be made. Also, if no one has been assigned responsibility for it, then it becomes everybody’s responsibility (or rather, nobody’s responsibility), which raises the odds nothing will be done. And even if a ‘next move’ is specified and assigned to someone, if there is no deadline attached, the odds of procrastination are increased because we are all too busy with urgent matters to spend time on matters that can be put off.”
“Remember, the monkey is not a project or a problem; the monkey is whatever the ‘next move’ is on a project or problem. Rule 1 means that a boss and a staff members shall not part company until appropriate ‘next moves’ have been described.”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we help students identify what the next goals are, and provide them with the information that gives them the capacity to meet them.
There are three benefits to Rule 1: 1) “if my people know in advance that the dialogue between them and me will not end until appropriate ‘next moves’ have been described, they will tend to do more careful planning before our dialogue begins.” 2) “it biases any situation toward action by your people. Many situations are biased toward paralysis, and no progress can be made until someone makes a ‘next move.’ 3) “specifying ‘next moves’ can provide a quadruple boost in motivation for the owner of the monkey” because it clarifies the ‘next move,’ helps them take the first step on a project, breaks the project into bite-size pieces, and increases motivation by allowing one to switch his focus back and forth from goals to ‘next moves.’”
“Rule 2…is based on several thousand years of human experience that teach us that people take better care of things they own than things they don’t. Also, if ownership of the monkey is not specified, nobody assumes personal responsibility for it and it follows that nobody can be held accountable for it.”
We give students at our music school in Odessa, Texas the opportunity to become responsible for their own progress. As they learn to ‘own’ the successes as well as the failures, they begin to learn the life-lesson of personal responsibility.
“All monkeys must be handled at the lowest organizational level consistent with their welfare…The best way to develop responsibility in people is to give them responsibility.”
Rule 3…provides a systematic way to balance your staff’s need for freedom in handling their monkeys with, simultaneously, your responsibility for the outcome…When people have freedom, they will make mistakes. Monkey insurance is designed to make sure they make only affordable mistakes!”
At our music school in Odessa, Texas we try to help students see their failures or mis-steps in a positive light, as the means to growth. When failures are used to gain insight and knowledge for future endeavors, they are simply stepping-stones to greatness.