The Experiment
There is an old “science” experiment that makes for a great analogy. You may have heard about it. The recipe is 10 parts monkeys, 1 part banana, 1 part large cage, and 1 part hose. Actually, you can use as many bananas as you want. As for brand of monkey, there are generally high regards for the Capuchin series. And for you Dane Cooktards, no, this does not involve a bank or a van.
The cage should be significantly large to hold the five monkeys with the banana out of their immediate reach. Basically, monkeys on one end, banana on the other. At some point in time, I imagine very quickly (those little bastards are curious, I hear), you will see a monkey go check out the banana. When he does, you spray the other little simians with the hose.
Likely, the first monkey was quick enough to nab the fruit. Let him bask in his tasty, nutritious glory while you replace the banana. When the next, possibly, soaking wet fur-ball goes after the new banana, you surprise his friends with another cold shower.
Not only are monkeys curious, but they must be smart as well. How else would they be able to do battle with people, or drive a van, or replenish my beverage from the supply in the fridge? Very quickly, they will learn: “If anyone goes for the banana, the rest of us will get turned into spongebob monkey pants.”
This is where it gets interesting. Now that any banana placed in the cage is considered a “Made Banana” by the hungry, wet simians, we remove one of the monkeys. It is replaced with a new monkey, full of fresh ideas and unadulterated hopes and dreams. This new monkey has no idea of mob law and goes straight for the banana at the other end of the cage. Almost immediately, this new monkey, likely named Marcel, gets the monkey juice kicked out of him. Maybe one or two more beatings and Marcel is up to speed on this new world order.
When that happens, we take another monkey out of the cage and replace it with a new monkey.
Stir, Rinse, Repeat.
After a few rounds, you will end up with monkeys that have never been sprayed with the hose. In fact, they don’t even know what a hose is as they have never seen one before. But they still will attack any monkey that goes to nab the banana.
The Reality
Does this sound familiar? It should. In many places, but especially business, there is an old process established that everyone follows. But no one remembers why the process exists and even if it still applies today.
Most corporate structure perpetuates this. Divide up the company into departments and managers of managers and political and turf warfare eventually take over. A creative department that needs help from an IT department is forced to adhere to a process within IT that is completely inefficient for creative. Creative asks IT why they must follow this process when the deadline was yesterday. IT says, “We have to follow it because that is the process management laid out.” If the heads of each department meet, you can bet that the head of IT will defend that process because they own it and it empowers them to have control over the other departments. I’m not just picking on IT here, all departmental organization falls into this trap.
The real solution is to constantly reevaluate your process. Does it apply in today’s environment? If so, is it as efficient as it could be? That makes perfect sense, right? Well…
Does constant reevaluation sound like a lot of work? It is. After all, there are better things to do, like your business. But it shouldn’t be.
Traditional corporate structure is too complicated and prevents this type of agile “redevelopment.” We need to re-invent how we structure our companies. There are so many layers of policy and human interference in the way of just getting things done. We have reduced people to thoughtless, single function, unfulfilled worker ants. Does it foster innovation? NO! It creates politics; people taking ownership of others ideas to make themselves look better, and it stifles creativity.
Okay, so now we have dwindling productivity. ”That’s fine, I’ll just throw more people at it and push past the loss.” So sayeth the PHB.
But that isn’t the only problem.
Companies today need to be agile and innovative to survive. In my career, I have been around many companies, inside and out, and I see the same thing every time. They do not leverage all of their talent. They only talk to people that have a certain title. Even within a department and people of the same skill, people tend towards preferred relationships.
The same departmental walls that sap efficiency also prevent talent from being recognized, fostered, and applied to real projects that need it. People sit in a cube, working the 60 minutes their job requires, then surf ebay or craigslist and talk about their kids’ latest faux-pa in the locker room. Don’t blame them! That’s what the system creates.
Your next great idea could come from places you would not expect it. The person at the front desk answering the phone may be your next head of marketing. The product or idea that takes your company to the next level could come from the mail room. Those are both true stories, by the way.
The Hope
How do we leverage all that bottled up talent sitting within our 4 walls? Rip out a hundred years or more of established business practices? No! Flatten the org chart? Yeah, right! Have an open mind? Ha, these are PHBs we are talking about here! Maybe, leverage newer technology and just embrace the latest buzzwords?
“Achieve Employee 2.0 through service-oriented, cloud-deployment on rich internet clusters of productivity boosting agile methodology!”
Err, what…?
Well, I don’t plan on selling you on any buzzwords. Technology isn’t the solution. Technology is how we implement the solution. While we are a technology company, we actually work with ideas more than tech. Should we move beyond titles? Should every company adopt an 80/20 rule to foster new ideas? What that 20% is may depend on your business.
Surprise, surprise. I hope I’m not selling the farm with this:
There is no magic answer, no magic bullet.
But there is a beginning out there. It is almost tangible. A shadowy, nameless revolution that is starting to take root. It is a movement that began with the next generation coming in the door. It is the new monkey placed in the cage that doesn’t yet know the rules. Only this time, technology and social tools provide the monkey with something the fur balls never had before… Awareness. Because of immediate access to people all over the world, they are Aware that the status quo isn’t always right.
It used to be you talked about work with your friends over a beer at the local pub. Now you talk about work over twitter with people you have never met before. The monkey’s eyes are wide open and now he knows logic doesn’t have to succumb to the status quo.
“What do you mean I have to wait 2 weeks for my request to be approved!? It is a five minute change!”
It used to be that that positive, youthful will would slowly die a dark death. After all, who are they to suggest change to the experts? But now, with Awareness? That energetic will doesn’t die. It realizes the futility of the matter and moves on. It finds some place that will foster it’s ideas and energy and talent.
I haven’t provided any answers. But I hope to have kicked off a public discussion we will be having through our products over the next few years. In the 21st century, who will your company be: The retirement home for the status quo? Or the efficient powerhouse that embraces change?
) His coworker, Fred we’ll call him, was a very smart guy with a family and made very decent money. In the summer of 2008, Fred saw what was going to happen to his company. He immediately started looking for a new job. But no one was hiring anyone with his experience. If he was laid off, his savings wouldn’t last long. What did Fred do? He took a job at car wash. I kid you not. He started washing cars! Fred was laughed at by all of his old coworkers. Months later, when they were all laid off, without any jobs, Fred was still paying the bills. And my buddy was jealous that Fred was humble enough to find work at a car wash. Even those jobs weren’t available anymore. This is a true story. Luckily for my buddy, he is still young and doesn’t have a family.