Monkey Management for Project Teams PDF - Libsyn

Monkey Management for 

Project teams 

12/1/2007 

Mike Graupner, PMP 

mike.graupner@marlai.com 

mike.graupner@marlai.com - 

714.349.8170 1

Agenda 

� What is a monkey? 

� How do you get monkeys? 

� What is the process? 

� Why do we manage Other People 

Monkeys? (OPM’s) 

� How do we manage all our monkeys? 

� How do we prioritize? 

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Learning Objectives 

� Time management is working on the 

right thing at the right time. 

� To accomplish time management, you 

must 

� Give your items the top priority 

� (Feed your monkeys) 

� Let other people work their problems 

� (Let them feed their monkeys) 

� Prioritize the work based on value 

� (Magic Quadrant) 

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What is a Monkey? 

� Monkeys are issues/actions that people bring 

to you to solve. 

� We use the Monkey on your back metaphor to 

describe issues, and the ownership of issues. 

� Issues may be problems, tasks or other items 

in your life that you need to resolve. 

� It is not avoiding work, rather managing 

time!!! 

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Core Concepts 

� You are the master of your domain 

� “When trouble is what you are looking 

for, you will be handsomely rewarded” 

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� Don’t look for more monkeys! 


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Where did the Monkey concept 

come from? 

� First Identified In Harvard Business Review ~ 1970 

� Managing Management Time 

� William Oncken, Jr. 

� C 1984 

� ISBN 0-13-551986-4 

� The One Minute manager meets the Monkey 

� Kenneth Blanchard/ William Oncken, Jr., Hall Burrows 

� C 1989 

� ISBN 978-0-688-10380-4 

� The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 

� Stephen R. Covey 

� C 1989 

� ISBN 978-0-7432-6951-3 

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What is Monkey Management? 

� Imagine someone walking into your 

office with a Monkey on their back 

� They say, “I have this problem, there is a 

monkey on my back, and I would like to 

put the monkey on your back” 

� What would you say? 

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� “Great! Load it up, add it to the dozen I have 

already?” 


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Where do Monkeys come from? 

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Vendors 

Family 

Co-workers 

Events 

Bosses 

Your Back 


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Monkey Transference 

� The process of transferring problems 

from one owner to a another owner 

� Results 

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� Generate Stress 

� Prevent you from working on your assigned 

higher priority tasks 

� Prevent you from being perceived as 

effective. 


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What to do? 

� Recognize the monkey 

� “Help me to understand the issue” 

� Determine the owner 

� “Hmmm, who needs to solve this issue?” 

� Define the Impact 

� “How is this affecting us?” 

� Get agreement of ownership 

� I am not sure this is on my plate, do you agree? 

� Help the owner find an action plan 

� “If you did X, would this help?” 

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Why do we do it? 

� We MUST help people with problems! 

� Boy/Girl Scouts 

� School 

� Church 

� We WANT to be the Hero! 

� They will appreciate you for managing their 

problems 

� We are programmed at an early age to 

fail! 

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The Hard Truths 

� Not every problem is your problem 

� Work your monkeys first 

� Not every problem you see needs to be fixed 

� Ask yourself, “am I responsible to take this on?” 

� Taking on Other Peoples Monkey (OPM) may not be 

appreciated 

� Them: “Thank god I got rid of that!’ 

� Manager “Why is he/she working on that when I need this 

done!” 

� Adopting OPM’s generates unnecessary stress in your 

life! 

� Time management is key! 

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Example 

� Co worker comes and tells me that 

the PMO Projector is not being 

managed correctly. 

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� I was the PM that procured the projector 

� The projector was turned over to the 

departmental admin to manage 

� The projector is not being returned with the 

cables and non-PMO staff are not 

respecting the reservations. 


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Response 

� Why is this an issue? 

� Waste PM time and makes the meeting start late 

� Self image ? 

� Who owns the problem 

� Projector users (not me at this point) 

� Potential solutions 

� PM’s prepare an hour early 

� Speak with the admin about the process 

� Buy a second projector 

� Note since I am not a projector user 

� This is not my monkey! 

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Results 

� Allow the person with the issue to 

consider action 

� If no action is taken, it must not have 

been that big of issue 

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Qeustoin? 

� Who’s Menkoy is tihs ? 

� If my agneda is cmmoncatoins, is 

splleinig my Mkoney? 

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Monkey Management Rules 

� In addition to the law of monkey management, the authors list six rules of 

managing monkeys that are instructive to managers. These include: 

� 1. Monkeys should be fed or shot. 

� No one likes the consequences of a starving monkey. They tend to be very 

disagreeable and squeal and raise a ruckus. Monkeys must be fed periodically; in 

this analogy, the problem must be dealt with between the manager and the 

employee with the problem on a regular basis. If the monkey can be shot (the 

problem solved quickly), then feeding times are not necessary. 

� 2. Every monkey should have an assigned next feeding time and a 

degree of initiative. 

� After a feeding session, the manager should select an appropriate time for the next 

feeding and should have a number of action steps for the employee to take. "Can 

we meet next Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to see how things are going and what we 

should do next?" 

� 3. The monkey population should be kept below the maximum number 

that the manager has time to feed. 

� The authors suggest that it should take 15 minutes to feed a monkey, and that 

managers should keep the list of problems that are in various stages of solution at a 

manageable number. 

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Monkey Management Rules 

� 4. Monkeys should fed by appointment only. 

� Allowing employees to bring problems to you on their timetable increases the 

chances that the monkey will move from the employee to the manager. By setting 

specific times for addressing the problem, managers empower employees to make 

interim decisions about the problem, and still report back. 

� 5. Monkey feeding appointments may be rescheduled but never 

indefinitely postponed. 

� Either party, the manager or the subordinate, may reschedule a feeding 

appointment for any reason, but it must be scheduled to a specific time to avoid 

losing track of the monkey. 

� 6. Monkeys shall be fed face to face or by telephone, but not in writing. 

� Holding feeding sessions via e-mail or memo transfers the monkey to the manager. 

An employee can pass the monkey to the manager by simply requesting a 

response. Feedings that take place in person or on the phone require the monkey to 

remain with the employee unless the supervisor takes an affirmative step to take it. 

� Proper delegation skills, properly applied as suggested in this creative 

approach, can help managers better solve problems and develop their 

employees' problem solving skills. Visualizing each problem as a monkey 

that is impatient and noisy can help managers see problems as they 

really are and address them in the best possible way. Beware of the 

monkeys that may come into your life today! 

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Managing Monkeys 

� Goal of Time Management: Get control over the 

timing and content of what you do. 

� Enlarge discretionary time by eliminating subordinateimposed 

time. 

� Use a portion of this newfound discretionary time to 

see to it that each subordinate possesses the initiative 

without which he or she cannot exercise initiative, and 

then see to it that this initiative is in fact taken. 

� Use another portion of the increased discretionary 

time to get and keep control of the timing and content 

of both boss-imposed and system-imposed time. 

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Once you can identify your monkeys 

� Use the magic quadrant: 

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Urgent/Important 

Urgent/Not Important 

Not Urgent/Important 

Not Urgent/Not Important 


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Priorities 

� Urgent/Important 

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� Do first 

� Typically from Management 

� Important/Not Urgent 

� Do Second 

� Typically from your work assignment 

� Keeps the Urgent/Important items to a minimum 

� STOP – You are done 


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Why Stop? 

� “Not Urgent/Not Important or Not 

Important tasks are not worth doing 

� No Value! 

� If worked, you will most likely not get to 

other tasks of value 

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Understanding Value 

� Inputs 

� Boss Imposed (1) 

� System Imposed (2) 

� Self Imposed (3) 

� Leverage 

� Employee time (1) 

� Supervisory time (2) 

� Executive time (3) 

� Output 

� Stabilizing time (1) 

� Corrective time (2) 

� Progressive time (3) 

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Understanding Inputs 

� Inputs 


� Assignments from the boss 

� System Imposed (2) 

� Assignments from the system (budgeting, time approval 

etc…) 


� E.G. Working on next years problems. 

� Boss giving input has the least value, because 

you are not anticipating their needs. 

� Self Imposed time is when you can work on 

magical things. 

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Understanding Leverage 

� Leverage 

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� Managing Monkeys yourself 

� Supervisory time (2) 

� Managing monkeys by delegation 


� Managing monkeys by assignment 

� Doing is the least value, assigning has the 

most value (process driven) 


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Understanding Outputs 

� Output 

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� Stabilizing time (Value = 1) 

� Admin functions/ today’s problems 

� Corrective time (Value = 2) 

� Solutions/Responses to this years 

Problems/Opportunities 

� Progressive time (Value = 3) 

� Solutions/Responses to next years 



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Least Valuable Time 

� Inputs 


� Boss tells you to 

� Leverage 


� Manage the monkey yourself 

� Output 

� Stabilizing time (1) 

� To fix today's problem 

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Most Valuable Time 

� Inputs 

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� You tell you to 

� Leverage 


� Output 

� Identify and Assign Monkeys 

� Progressive time (3) 

� For Solutions/Responses to Next Years 



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Don’t ignore 1,1,1! 

� Least valuable time is important, but try 

to keep it down to a minimum 

� Try to grow the percentage your are 

spending on most valuable time (3,3,3) 

� Balance is the key! 

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Exercise #1 

� Break into 5 people teams 

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� Identify a Monkey of each team member 

that jumped on your back in the last week 

� Define a strategy for moving the monkey 

back to the proper owner 

� Be prepared to report to the group on each 

issue 


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