THE-ONE-MINUTE-MANAGER-MEETS-THE-MONKEY

THE ONE MINUTEMANAGER MEETSTHE MONKEY

ITS TOUGH TO WORK FORA NERVOUS BOSS,ESPECIALLYIF YOU ARE THE ONEWHO IS MAKINGYOUR BOSS NERVOUS !

WHY IS IT THAT SOMEMANAGERS ARE TYPICALLYRUNNING OUT OF TIMEWHILE THEIR STAFFS ARETYPICALLY RUNNINGOUT OF WORK ?

The indispensable Managers can be harmful, notvaluable, especially when they impede the work ofothers

A MONKEYISTHE NEXT MOVE

FOR EVERY MONKEYTHERE ARE TWO PARTIESINVOLVED:ONE TO WORK ITANDONE TO SUPERVISE IT

So, when you take monkeys of yoursubordinates, then you acquire the workerrole and the subordinate acquires thesupervisory role. The more often you say, “I will look into itand get back to you”, the more monkeys youare taking from your subordinates

When you pick up monkeys of your subordinateswhich they can handle, they get the message thatyou want them. So, the more you pick up, the more they would giveyou

Every time one of your people come to you andshare a problem and you take the monkey awayfrom that person, what you mean to him is “You arenot capable of handling this problem so I wouldbetter take care of it myself”

“As parents we have taken all the “next moves”away from our kids. As a result, all the monkeys areon our backs, and the kids don’t learn responsibility. In our well intentioned desire to give them the goodthings we didn’t have, sometimes neglect to givethem the good things we did have.”

THINGS NOT WORTH DOINGARENOT DOING WORTH WELL

We neglect our own monkeys and make otherpeople dependent upon us and deprive them ofopportunities to learn to solve their own problems General George C Marshall said, “If you wantsomeone to be for you, never let him feel he isdependent on you. Make him feel that you are insome way dependent on him.”

EXPERIENCE IS NOT WHATHAPPENS TO YOU;ITS WHAT YOU DOWITH WHATHAPPENS TO YOU.

THE MORE YOU GET RID OFYOUR PEOPLE’S MONKEYS,THE MORE TIME YOU HAVEFOR YOUR PEOPLE.

You would develop the reputation among the staffas the most accessible manager. They could see you as often as they wish and for aslong as they wish

Oncken’s Rules of MonkeyManagement Rule 1: Descriptions: The ‘next moves’ are specified Rule 2: Owners: The monkey is assigned to a person Rule 3: Insurance Policies- The risk is covered Rule 4: Monkey Feeding and CheckupAppointments: The time and place for follow- up isspecified.

The purpose of the rules of monkeymanagement is to help ensure that theright things get done the right way at theright time by the right people

Rule 1 means that a boss and a staff member shallnot part company until appropriate “next moves”have been described. E.g of monkey descriptions are “Prepare a Sales Proposal”, “Obtain final costfigures from accounting”, “Get the contract signed”

Benefits of adhering to Rule 1 The first benefit of Rule 1 is that the subordinateswill tend to do more careful planning before thediscussion begins The second benefit is that it biases any situationtoward action by your people‣ Many situations are biased toward paralysis, andno progress can be made until someone makes a“next move”

Specifying “next moves” can provide a quadrupleboost in motivation for the owner of the monkey‣ First, describing the monkey clarifies the “nextmove” and the more clearly one understands whatmust be done, the greater the energy andmotivation that exists for doing it.‣ Second, it increases motivation by helping one takethe all-important first step on a project, which isoften the most difficult one to make.

‣ Third, it breaks the project into bit-size pieces, andit is much less daunting to think about making asingle “next move” on a project than to worry aboutall the effort required to complete the entireproject.‣ Fourth, increases motivation by allowing one toswitch his focus back and forth from goals to “nextmoves”

Rule 2 of monkey management states that thedialogue between boss and staff member must notend until ownership of each monkey is assigned to aperson.‣ This is based on the fact that people take bettercare 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 itfollows that nobody can be held accountable for it

ALL MONKEYS MUST BEHANDLED AT THELOWEST ORGANIZATIONALLEVELCONSISTENT WITH THEIRWELFARE!!

There are legitimate reasons for keeping themonkeys at lowest possible level‣ The staff has more collective time, energy, and moreknowledge for handling monkeys than the managersdo.‣ The staff members are closer to their work than themanager is and are thus in a better position tohandle their monkeys‣ Keeping the staff’s monkeys out of your office is theonly way to preserve some of your owndiscretionary time

There are powerful forces pushing and pulling themonkeys upwards. There are so many reasons‣ The principal reason is that a manager enjoyhandling their staff’s work far more than they enjoymanagement‣ Sometimes organizational policies also do it

THE ONLY WAYTO DEVELOP RESPONSIBILITYIN PEOPLEIS TO GIVE THEMRESPONSIBILITY.

Rule 3 of monkey management states that thedialogue between boss and staff member shall notend until all monkeys have been insured‣ This rule provides a systematic way to balance yourstaff’s need for freedom in handling their monkeyswith, simultaneously, your responsibility for theoutcome

‣ Giving your people authority and freedom benefitsboth you and them‣ The benefit to you is discretionary time‣ Freedom allows your people to enjoy the manybenefits of self management (more satisfaction,more energy, higher morale etc.)‣ But every benefit has its cost. The cost of givingyour people more freedom is the increased risk thatfreedom entails

Monkey insurance is designed to make sure theymake only affordable mistakes! That is why all monkeys must be insured by one ofthe following policies

MONKEY INSURANCE POLICIES 1. RECOMMEND, THEN ACT 2. ACT, THEN ADVISE

Recommend, Then Act Provides insurance in situations where you feel thereis a reasonable risk that one of your people mightmake an unaffordable mistake if left to his or herown devices On these matters you would require your people toformulate recommendations that you must approvebefore they could proceed any further This provides protection, but at the cost of more ofyour time and some of your people’s freedom

Act, Then Advice Is for monkeys you are pretty sure your people canhandle successfully on their own They should be free to resolve the matters andinform you afterward at whatever time they think isappropriate This gives them a lot of operating room and savesyou a lot of supervisory time

PRACTICEHANDS-OFF MANAGEMENTAS MUCH AS POSSIBLEANDHANDS-ON MANAGEMENTAS MUCH AS NECESSARY

You could do this by encouraging yourpeople to utilize level 2 insurance as muchas possible and requiring them to uselevel 1 insurance as much as necessary

NEVER LET THECOMPANY GO DOWN THEDRAINSIMPLY FOR THE SAKE OFPRACTICINGGOOD MANAGEMENT.

The success of a company is a function of the healthof its monkeys Because monkey health is so vital, monkeys mustperiodic check ups to maintain their well being

Rule 4 of monkey management states that thedialogue between boss and staff member shall notend until the monkey has a checkup appointment The purpose of monkey check up is two fold‣ To catch people doing something right and praisethem for it‣ To spot problems and take corrective action beforethe problems become crises.

The process of discovering and correcting problemstends to‣ Lower the boss’s anxieties‣ Develop people’s competence through coaching‣ The coaching increases the odds that the boss willeventually be able to delegate to that person

ASSIGNING INVOLVESA SINGLE MONKEY;DELEGATION INVOLVESA FAMILY OF MONKEYS

In delegation, your people would identify monkeys,insure them, assume ownership of them, andperform their own checkups on the monkeys. Your involvement is limited to checking on theoverall project from time to time, which means youdon’t have to get involved with the scores ofindividual monkeys that constitute the project, and aproject checkup requires far less time than checkingon each of the monkeys

As you achieve delegation on more and moreprojects, more and more discretionary time isreleased to spend with your boss, peers, customersand yourself

THE PURPOSE OFCOACHINGISTO GET INTOPOSITION TO DELEGATE!

Managers cannot delegate until they arereasonably confident that‣ The project is on the right track‣ Their people can successfully handle the project ontheir own Managers who give their people full projectresponsibility without such confidence are notdelegating- they are abdicating responsibility

Three kinds of Organizational TimeBOSS IMPOSED TIMESYSTEM IMPOSED TIMESELF IMPOSED TIME

Boss Imposed Time Keeping bosses satisfied takes time, but dealingwith dissatisfied ones takes even more time Always do what your Boss wants. If you don’t like what your boss wants, change whatyour boss wants, but always do what your bosswants This is not to say that you should always agree withyour bosses. On the contrary:

IF YOU ALWAYSAGREE WITHYOUR BOSS,ONEOF YOUIS NOTNECESSARY

SYSTEM IMPOSED TIME It is time we spend on the administrative andrelated demands from people (peers/ associates)other than our bosses and our own staffs, demandsthat are part of every organization

SELF IMPOSED TIME It is time spent doing the things we decide to do, notthings done strictly in response to the initiatives ofour bosses, peers and the people who report to us Self imposed time is the most important of the threetypes of time because that’s the only time in whichwe have discretion to express our own individualitywithin an organization

Self imposed time comes in two varieties, good andbad: discretionary and subordinate imposed time‣ Discretionary time is time in which we do the thingsthat make our work truly rewarding over andabove financial compensation- things such ascreating, innovating, leading, planning andorganizing‣ Subordinate imposed time is the time spent workingon your staff’s monkeys.

If we don’t comply with our bosses’ wishes we willbe guilty of insubordination If we don’t conform to the system’s requirements, wewill be guilty of noncooperation If we don’t do what we promised our staff, we willbe guilty of procrastination We are very reluctant to be guilty of suchorganizational sins because

SWIFT AND OBVIOUSPENALTIES PURSUE THOSEWHO TREAT OTHER PEOPLE’SREQUIREMENTS IN ALIGHTHEARTED, CAVALIER FASHION!

Neglecting discretionary time might be safe in shortrun, in long run the penalties are severe both to theorganization and to yourself Long term penalty to organization is that it cannotsurvive Long term penalty to you is that organizational lifebecomes a living death in which all you do is reactto problems created by others and you never havetime to create and innovate

It is imperative that we manage all threerelationships concurrently You could start by eliminating subordinate- imposedtime. There are two reasons for starting this way‣ Subordinate- imposed time does not belong in yourschedule‣ Some drastic changes has to be made which wouldmake people nervous and prudence dictate thatthey should be people with least power to retaliate

The newly gained discretionary time will give yousome room to handle the other demands Next, take time to figure out how to do your work ina way to build your boss’s confidence to the pointwhere they begin to allow you more and morediscretion Then, spent some of time in building yourrelationship with people in the system and the morerapport you have, the more they would do for youwith less effort on your part

IT IS BETTERTO STRIKE A STRAIGHT BLOWWITH A CROOKED STICKTHAN SPENDMY WHOLE LIFETRYING TO STRAIGHTENTHE DARN THING OUT

Finally, there are always more monkeys clamoringfor attention than we have time to manage. Unlesswe are extremely careful which ones we acceptresponsibility for, it is very easy to wind up caringfor the wrong monkeys while the really importantones are starving for lack of attention

THE-ONE-MINUTE-MANAGER-MEETS-THE-MONKEY

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