Angry Monkeys — A Corporate Fable
This is my favorite corporate fable. Its moral is simple, but it is very easy to walk right into it.
A group of scientists put five monkeys in a room, and in the middle they placed a stepladder that had a delicious banana on its platform. When a monkey climbed the ladder and got to the banana the scientists hosed down the remaining 4 monkeys.
After a while the poor animals understood that they were going to get drenched if one of them attempted to get to the banana, so they lunged at the monkey that fell into temptation and beat it until it changed its mind.
Finally, when the monkeys established a brute-force-controlled environment where no monkey attempted to go for the forbidden banana, the scientists replaced one of the monkeys with a new one. As the new monkey didn’t know anything about the disturbing ritual, it immediately tried to get to the banana. But its attempts faced the determined aggressive resistance from the other monkeys. After a while, battered and bruised, it learned that it was not allowed on the ladder.
Every time when the group found its behavioral equilibrium, the scientists replaced one of the original monkeys by a new one until none of the original monkeys were left in the room. The scientists didn’t need to use water anymore as the older members of the group never let the new monkey climb on the ladder. And every new member to the group met a brutal resistance, even from the newest members, which prevented the new monkey reaching the banana until the new monkey gave in without understanding the reasons behind the assaults.
At the end of the experiment, in the room remained five angry monkeys that didn’t let each other or a new one climb the ladder without really knowing why.
The moral of the story is closely related to something that most of us have experienced in various stages in our careers:
Question and understand the true purpose of the established processes before you follow them blindly.
Thank you for reading.
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