Adopted from: https://99reallifestories.com
Have you heard of monkey business? Well, monkey business has different connotations – one of them being stupid business or stupid activity. The question is where does that this stupidity come from? Many companies unknowingly engage in monkey business. The so called SOP(Standard Operating Procedure) is one such great example as to why it ends up being a monkey business. Here is a satirical tale(or call it an experiment) as how do company policies get implemented sometimes. This is funny, however, there is still some element of truth hidden there.
The Monkey business experiment
The experiment started with a huge cage containing five monkeys. A banana was left hanging inside the cage with stairs built to access this banana. Monkeys have a great fascination for bananas and they all wanted it. But whenever a monkey entered the stairs, all the other monkeys were sprayed with cold water. This continued every time a monkey attempted to enter the stairs and snatch the banana.
After a while, anytime a monkey attempted to enter the stairs, all the other monkeys tried to prevent it from doing so, to protect themselves from the cold water spray.
After some time, one of the monkeys was removed and replaced with a new one. Of course, the new monkey had no clue what happens when somebody enters the stairs. When the new monkey was put in the cage, it obviously went to climb the stairs. To its surprise, all the other monkeys in the cage attacked him. This new monkey made another attempt and again met with the same consequences. The other monkeys started assaulting him every time he tried to reach for the stairs.
After some time, one more of the original five monkeys was removed and replaced with a new one. Again the new monkey in the cage gets tempted to have the banana and approaches the stairs. All the other monkeys attack this newcomer for doing so. This includes the previous newcomer who also attacks with enthusiasm.
Similarly, the third original monkey is replaced. Then the fourth and the fifth. Every time the newest monkey approaches the stairs, it is attacked by the other monkeys in the cage. The irony is all the monkeys attacking have no idea why they are doing it. They are just doing it because that’s just seemed to be the “process”.
Bear in mind – When all the five original monkeys were replaced, no monkeys were ever sprayed with cold water. However, none of these monkeys ever again approach the stairs in their quest for the banana.
Why?
Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done around here. That’s the “process”. That’s the Standard Operating Procedure(SOP).
On a lighter note, does your company policy sound like this monkey business? Are people merely implementing the policies and processes without understanding the spirit in which they were framed? If so, we would call that as monkey business. And this experiment explains why so!
Adopted from: https://99reallifestories.com
