Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

Many managers often encounter such a situation – as soon as they walk into the office every morning, there are employees waiting: “I encountered some problems at work yesterday, how can I solve it?” Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

At this time, many people will find that after listening to the subordinate’s work report, you find that this matter has not been completely resolved, and the work you originally planned to do today is also delayed a lot of time. So, how to avoid this kind of thing from happening? We have to talk about a management topic: monkey theory, monkey management rules.

We have to talk about a management topic: monkey theory, monkey management rules.

What is “Monkey Theory”?

‍‍The term “monkey” comes from the book “Don’t Let the Monkey Jump Back on Your Back” by William Anken, a world-renowned business management consultant, in which the classic management of “processing time management” and “monkey on your back” Methods have become a must-have skill for many enterprise managers, and have also been introduced into management training courses by many Fortune 500 companies such as Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.

“Monkey” refers to the next action step after the conversation between the supervisor and the subordinate. For example, a subordinate says I have a technical problem and need your help. The leader replied, I asked Jack to take a look at it for you. At this time, the “monkey” jumped on Jack’s back. If the leader said, oh, this problem seems to have been encountered before, I will look back and confirm, at this time the “monkey” seems to jump on the leader’s back, but in fact it has no one to feed. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

The monkey theory is a methodology on how to feed and manage “monkeys”. It is necessary to avoid the “starvation” of the monkeys due to no one to feed them, and to avoid carrying too many monkeys on the subordinates’ bodies and exhausting the subordinates to death.

5 levels of “monkey”?
The subordinate “monkeys”, measured by the degree to which tasks can be completed independently, can be divided into 5 levels:

The first level, waiting for instructions (the lowest level). It is usually the employee with the weakest independent ability, or the task with the strongest dependence on the supervisor, such as the employee who has just graduated and entered the workplace, and the task that needs to be arranged by the supervisor. This kind of monkey, waiting for the leader to clearly assign.

The second level, asking for instructions on what to do. Employees identify problems, report back to leaders, and wait for actions to be instructed by leaders. Strong reliance on leadership to assign monkeys.

The third level is to make recommendations and act according to the results of the judgment. This type of monkey is proposed by the employee. The employee usually has a certain ability to work independently. The employee comes with a few “monkeys” and waits for the leader to choose a plan.

The fourth level, action, but requires immediate instructions. For some urgent and important “monkeys”, matters that need to be decided immediately, work that subordinates can complete independently, and matters that need to be decided immediately due to special reasons are usually sudden or near milestones. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

The fifth level, independent action, routine reporting (the highest level). The “monkey” has the least dependence on the supervisor. Usually, the subordinates are solely responsible. They only report and communicate on a routine basis. Usually, they do not need any decision-making, and they can just act according to the plan.

The management goal of “monkeys” is to create as many “monkeys” on the fifth level as possible, reduce the number of monkeys on the first to third levels, and not let the “monkeys” of subordinates become their own “monkeys”; in the same way, “Monkey” also comes from his superiors as much as possible.

03 . Question = “Monkey”?
The key to this is that the work that should have been done by subordinate employees on their own is handed over to colleagues and bosses because of evasion of responsibility…

Each subordinate has its own “monkey”, if all are managed by the boss, obviously, the manager’s own time will become very insufficient. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

The monkey management principle proposed by William Onken aims to help managers determine that the right people are doing the right things at the right time and in the right way.

Of course, this rule can only be applied to valuable monkeys. If the monkey should not survive, just kill him!

The purpose of the monkey management rule is to help managers identify the right people, at the right time, to do the right thing in the right way. As a manager, you need to be able to let employees raise their “monkeys”, and you also have enough time to do important tasks such as planning, coordination, and innovation.

Every responsibility is a “monkey”
Are you a problem solver? If your subordinates admire you, you may be quite happy.

But after that, he asked you for almost everything, what do you think? Do you feel like you’re running out of time and start checking if something’s wrong with your management? Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

One day, one of your subordinates met you unexpectedly in the corridor of the office. The subordinate stopped and asked: Boss, there is a question, I have been wanting to ask you what to do.

At this time, there was a “monkey” on his subordinate who needed to be taken care of, and then he reported the problem like this.

Even though you have important things to do, you are too embarrassed to disappoint your subordinates who are eager to get things done. You listen very carefully… Slowly, one of the “monkey”‘s feet is quietly resting on your shoulders.

You’ve been listening carefully, nodding from time to time, and after a few minutes, you say to him that this is a very good question and would love to hear from him first, and ask: What do you think?

Boss, I had to ask you for help because I couldn’t think of a way.

No, you must be able to find a better way; you look at your watch, so, I happen to be in a hurry right now, I will be free after four o’clock tomorrow afternoon, then you can bring some solutions and we can discuss it together. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

Before saying goodbye, you didn’t forget to add: Haven’t you just been trained in brainstorming? I really can’t think of it, find a few partners for a brainstorm, and I’ll wait for your answers tomorrow.

The next day, the subordinate came as scheduled; from the expression on his face, he seemed to have a plan: Boss, according to your advice, we have 5 solutions that we think are okay, but we don’t know which one is better. Please make the decision.

Even if you can see at a glance which is better, don’t rush him to make a decision.

Otherwise, he will depend on you in the future, or if things don’t go well, he will definitely say: Boss, you can’t blame me, I will do it according to your opinion.

Regarding decision making, remember the following guidelines
➤ When the subordinates make decisions, they must learn to make decisions by themselves. Making decisions means taking responsibility for your own decisions. Do not want to make decisions, often subconsciously, he does not want to take responsibility.

➤ There are generally two reasons why subordinates don’t think about problems and are not used to making decisions: one is that they have “entrustment thinking” and rely on their superiors or others. Such subordinates cannot be of great use; the other is that superiors are used to making decisions on behalf of subordinates or like to enjoy Others follow their own sense of accomplishment, and such a boss and the team he leads are incompetent for complex tasks. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

➤ Let subordinates think of ways and make decisions by themselves, which is to train subordinates to think independently and act responsibly.

The conversation continues.

You said excitedly: great, so many good plans. Which one do you think is better in comparison?

I think plan A is better.

It’s a good idea, but have you thought about what to do if this happens?
Oh, it makes sense, it seems that the E scheme is better.

This plan is really good, but, have you ever thought about…

I understand that option B should be chosen. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

My idea is the same as yours, and I think I will do it your way.

Based on your experience, in fact, you already knew that you should choose plan B. The purpose of not telling him directly is to win another opportunity to train your subordinates. Training is a slow but fast process, and the “slow” of training is to be faster in the future.

The benefits of doing this are self-evident:
Break the negative “dependency” nerve chain of subordinates.
Trained subordinates to analyze problems and think about problems comprehensively.

Give subordinates confidence and a sense of achievement. He will feel that he actually has the ability to solve complex problems. Subordinates who are increasingly capable are increasingly competent for more important tasks.

Motivate subordinates to act. You will therefore not have to look after the “monkey” of your subordinates and free up more energy to look after your “monkey”

The application inspiration of monkey management rule
Everyone should take care of their “monkey”
Don’t bother others to take care of your “monkey”
Everyone in the organization should know which “monkeys” they should take care of and how to take care of them. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components

Fourth, don’t try to entrust your “monkey” to others to take care of. Others here may be bosses, subordinates, colleagues from other departments, or the company, society, even God, destiny, etc…

As a boss, you should not only clearly let your subordinates know which “monkeys” he should take care of, but also train your subordinates…
Take the initiative to help others bear responsibility, just like Bill Gates, not only bear the “monkey” of writing software, but also bear the “monkey” of selling software

Leaders will encourage subordinates who take the initiative to carry other people’s “monkeys”; only subordinates who are willing to take the initiative to carry other people’s “monkeys” have the opportunity to become leaders, and only small leaders who are willing to take the initiative to carry others’ “monkeys” have the opportunity to become big leaders! And the subordinates or small leaders who do not have “monkeys” on their backs can be safe on their own!

The teacher’s management view:
In general, about “monkeys” you need to do:

Whose “monkey” will carry it by himself, he must be responsible to the end, and he cannot shirk or jump.
The leader can give directions and suggestions to the subordinates, but the “monkey” is still a subordinate. If the leader does not give a timely answer, the subordinate should take the initiative to find the answer to the question, because the “monkey” is on the subordinate’s back.
Leaders should not leapfrog to interfere with the “monkeys” of their subordinates. It is easy to cause confusion. If the situation is urgent, the relevant people should be informed.
Leaders should confirm the number of “monkeys”, feeding time and priorities with their subordinates face to face. In order to ensure that the best “monkey” is still alive, the invalid “monkey” is discarded in due course.
As a coach, the purpose of the leader is to cultivate the self-reliance of subordinates. Self-reliance is an acquired trait that everyone can acquire through self-control, patience, and perseverance.
If the KPI method is not fully applicable, the OKR method can also be used to manage the “monkey”. Try to describe all the “monkeys” on one page. Specialized in the OEM/ODM industry stainless steel components