Who's Got The Monkey??

I changed offices this week to accommodate some construction on our wing of the building and as I was cleaning out my closet, I found a box of little plastic monkeys, hundreds of them in a variety of primary colors.
  

Now you might be thinking that I'm running a little Tiki Bar out back of the hospital or maybe taking that 3-for-1 boat drink special at Happy Hour alittle too seriously, but in reality I bought those monkeys on purpose, to illustrate a very important management concept.

Back in 1974 (yeah, I've been around that long...), William Oncken and Don Wass wrote a classic article for the Harvard Business Review called "Who's Got The Monkey." Their notion was simple:  As a business manager, every time someone comes in your office, it is because they have a "monkey on their back", a problem that they need to solve and their goal is to get that monkey off their back by giving it to you.  

"Hey, Bob, I was wondering if you could help me finish my budget for 2013.  It's due on Friday and I've got so many priorities right now that I could really use your help!"  

"Sure, Dave.  I've already got mine done...it wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be...so I'd be glad to give you a hand."

Now as I watch Dave leave my office, I notice a curious thing:  He no longer has a monkey on his back.  Why?  Because he left his monkey with me and now its on my back.  

I've seen this happen thousands of times, particularly to new managers.  And especially in healthcare, because we pride ourselves on being "helpful" (hey, why else did you go into hospital work??) and so we're suckers when it comes to letting people leave their monkeys with us. 

Want to be helpful? Look at it this way:  If you successfully hand off your monkey, then your problem becomes my problem.  Then you don't have a problem anymore, do you?  And I can't help someone who doesn't have a problem.  So in order to be the most helpful to the most people I have to make sure they all have their monkeys.

Making sure everyone keeps their monkeys is just good management.  It is good personnel management because you hired that manager to do a particular job.  If you do their job for them, what are you paying them for?  It is their job to identify problems in their departments and to solve them.  And it is good time management.  If you do their job, who is doing yours?  Nobody.  So you get more and more behind in your own duties...not what you get paid for.  

So I bought my box of monkeys to illustrate the point to my Management Team.  We discuss the Oncken & Wass article, talk about times we've let this happen to ourselves and I leave each one of them with alittle plastic monkey to put on their desk to remind themselves "Monkeys:  Don't let folks leave your office without 'em!"

Read the original Oncken & Wass article at: Who's Got the Monkey? - Meilink.net