Are your staff like wet monkeys?

Have you ever wondered why people do the things they do, when you didn’t ask them to?

This is a simple parable, but it’s a fun picture to hold in your head.

There is a cage containing five monkeys. In the cage is a set of stairs and there is a banana on a string at the top of it. A monkey will go up the stairs and start to climb towards the banana, thinking “food, food“.

As soon as the monkey touches the banana, all of the others monkeys are sprayed with cold water. A few minutes later, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result; all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. After a couple of times, the water supply is turned off. Then another monkey tries to climb the stairs for the banana, the other monkeys now go mad and prevent it even though no water sprays them, they believe that they are about to get wet.

A monkey was then removed from the cage and replaced with a new one, who saw the banana and starts to climb the stairs. This new monkey has no idea why, but all of the monkeys attack him. He tries again, and once again, he’s attacked. He realises that if he attempts to climb the stairs he will be attacked by the other monkeys.

Another of the original monkeys is removed and replaced with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs, seeing the banana, and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with gusto.

A third one of the original five monkeys is removed and replaced with a new one. Again, it sees the banana and heads to the stairs only to be attacked by all the other monkeys in the cage, even though it doesn’t know why. In fact, two of the four monkeys that beat him up have no idea why they were not allowed to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing the fourth and fifth of the original monkeys there are no longer any monkeys that have been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the banana. Why not??

“Because that’s the way it’s always been around here.”

Sometimes things happen although there is no written rule, but a general understanding that that is what happens around here. In effect, it is company policy and you did not realise. I was working with a team the other day which had no idea why a certain policy existed, so I asked their boss. Their boss was mystified and said there is no such policy, although all the staff were convinced there was. We later worked out something had happened once two years earlier, so I told them the wet monkey story and we all laughed.

What are you going to do about the wet monkeys in your business?

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Tagged as: change management, culture, food, leadership, Management, Monkeys