Monkey Management

Being a primate isn't easy. Especially since, as one myself, I find other primates so unpredictable and silly. Not to mention, sneaky and overly scatological.

Brad Farris of Anchor Advisors in the Chicagoland area, sent us a link to serve as a helpful guide for those primates who have to manage the time and energy of their fellow simians: The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Kenneth Blanchard, William, Jr. Oncken, Hal Burrows.

(photo: Digger Digger Dogstar)

The scientific community has also begun to realize that primates really -- I know it's hard to believe -- can not be "managed". In the light-heartedly titled paper, Animal Behavior Research Findings Facilitate Comprehensive Captive Animal Care: The Birth of Behavioral Management, the authors describe the startling discovery:

It is clear that the major focus of current environmental enhancement programs is more than just providing supplemental toys for animals to manipulate. This is true regardless of whether animals are housed in a research laboratory or zoological collection. The concept of behavioral management addresses questions about animal behavior as a critical and integral component of the overall health and well-being of these animals.

So, is your work environment more like a research laboratory or a zoological collection? Has management (including yourself) tried to make the beasts more manageable by implementing "environmental enhancement programs" such as casual Fridays, office birthday parties, wacky furniture or (on the high-end of the enhancement program spectrum) a Foosball table? At corporate off-sites, are your breakout tables strewn with "supplemental toys for animals to manipulate"?

If so, beware! They may be making a stab at morphing your unwieldy, monkey-like tendancies into more malleable behavior that fits nicely into their matrixed structure.

From About-Goal-Setting.com:

So, effective management means 'monkey management'!

But just how can a manager be helpful to others while at the same time keeping the monkeys where they belong, fairly and squarely on the backs of the persons responsible for them?

The whole scenario just described and the way to manage monkeys is explained in "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey".

This paperback is brilliant!

By using the Four Rules of Monkey Management, managers learn to become effective supervisors of time, energy, and talent - especially their own.

Achieve a balance between supervision and delegation.

Make sure your personal library has a copy of "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey".