Monday, November 16, 2009

See how it's done?

The Mysteries of Management...

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.

And that, my friends, is how a company policy begins.


14 comments:

Arkansas Patti said...

Very disturbing but sadly true. Hopefully the new trend to "think out side the box" will replace the "because that is how it has always been done." Other wise there will be no forward movement.

Arlee Bird said...

That is a very interesting observation. Not only company policy but all social behavior. Perhaps that explains some of the weird cultural customs that different peoples have come up with.

Patti said...

.....Because that's the way my mom did it and they way her mom did it and the way her mom did it.....on and on......maybe we just need a bigger pan that fit's the roast instead of cutting it off :-) Sure we've all heard that one. But it's so true! We need to "think for ourselves" don't we?

Pat - Arkansas said...

"You can't do THAT! You'll get ALL of us in trouble!"

Interesting story, Patty.

Kavita Saharia said...

Very interesting observations and the results...i am glad i don't work for a company.

Cheryl said...

Very interesting. Certainly an eye-opener!

dyanna said...

Very beautiful and very interesting story.

Shionge said...

Heheheh...it is also known as conform & condition :D

Greetings to you & Abe :D

Renie Burghardt said...

Most interesting, and it applies to so much in life. Monkey see, monkey do isn't the best policy, is it?

Have a nice evening. Almost time for Dancing.

Renie

Mississippi Songbird said...

very interesting.. Thanks for posting. I am also signing up to send a card to the servicemen and women. Thanks for that button .I haven't been blogging much. I've been hanging around facebook. I hope you enjoy the upcoming holidays.. Bunches of hugs..

DeniseinVA said...

Fascinating! You do share the most interesting posts Patty.

Sunny said...

I think I worked there at one time.
Very interesting post.
Thanks for visiting me.
Sunny :)

Tina Butler said...

Hi Patty thanks for stopping by. I answered the ? to your post on the meringue powder. It is in the comments section.

Beth Niquette said...

Oh, my goodness! What an interesting commentary. I am just fascinated. Wow....how often do we do things because our ancesters did 'em that way? I shall have to think about this one.

In the words of yesteryear... "That's pretty heavy, man."