“Management Time: Who’s got the Monkey” is probably one of the most popular management article published by the Harvard Business Review (PDF can be found here). It’s been written by William Oncken and Donald Wass in 1974. It’s been reprinted several time since then and the message is still very true. This is a must read for everyone who has trouble delegating and ends up doing their subordinates or peers work.

If you can relate to the following situation, you should definitely read the article:

Let us imagine that a manager is walking down the hall and that he notices one of his subordinates, Jones, coming his way. When the two meet, Jones greets the manager with, “Good morning. By the way, we’ve got a problem. You see …. “As Jones continues, the manager recognizes in this problem the two characteristics common to all the problems his subordinates gratuitously bring to his attention. Namely, the manager knows (a) enough to get involved, but (b)not enough to make the on-the-spot decision expected of him. Eventually, the manager says, “So glad you brought this up. I’m in a rush right now. Meanwhile, let me think about it, and I’ll let you know.” Then he and Jones part company.

You’ve just allowed the actual problem or “monkey” to leap from your employee back to yours.

Imagine taking too many monkeys and you won’t be able to handle your actual job ! The problem your employee might have is probably very important to solve, but it’s his own problem, not yours and you should as much as possible encourage your employee to take responsibilities for their own problem. Now, your goal as a manager at any given level, is to be able to develop your employee’s initiative and sense of ownership. For some people you might need some coaching to help them figure out their own problem, push them to ask themselves the right question, consider different options. The GROW coaching model is something I’ve been using for that purpose during my career for employee who were not able to manage their own problem or question. In a nutshell, it stands for Goal – Reality – Options – Will.

Goal

• What do you want to achieve?
• What is the desire end state?

Reality

• What is the situation?
• What are the facts?
• What is the context?
• Who is involved?

Options

• What can you do?
• What are your alternatives?
• What else can you do?

Will

• What will you do?
• When will you do it?

The 4 steps and their related questions should help your employees get the full picture of their problems and allow them to take appropriate action. It’s rather simple yet effective. There is a reasonable entry in Wikipedia you might want to check out.

In an afterword to the classic article, Oncken and Wass offer these suggestions to return monkeys to their proper owners:

Make appointments to deal with monkeys.
Avoid discussing any monkey on an ad hoc basis—for example, when you pass a subordinate in the hallway. You won’t convey the proper seriousness. Instead, schedule an appointment to discuss the issue.
Specify level of initiative.
Your employees can exercise five levels of initiative in handling on-the-job problems. From lowest to highest, the levels are:

• Wait until told what to do.
• Ask what to do.
• Recommend an action, then with your approval, implement it.
• Take independent action but advise you at once.
• Take independent action and update you through routine procedure.

When an employee brings a problem to you, outlaw use of level 1 or 2. Agree on and assign level 3, 4, or 5 to the monkey. Take no more than 15 minutes to discuss the problem.

Agree on a status update.
After deciding how to proceed, agree on a time and place when the employee will give you a progress report.
Examine your own motives.
Some managers secretly worry that if they encourage subordinates to take more initiative, they’ll appear less strong, more vulnerable, and less useful. Instead, cultivate an inward sense of security that frees you to relinquish direct control and support employees’ growth.
Develop employees’ skills.
Employees try to hand off monkeys when they lack the desire or ability to handle them. Help employees develop needed problem-solving skills. It’s initially more time consuming than tackling problems yourself—but it saves time in the long run.
Foster trust.
Developing employees’ initiative requires a trusting relationship between you and your subordinates. If they’re afraid of failing, they’ll keep bringing their monkeys to you rather than working to solve their own problems. To promote trust, reassure them it’s safe to make mistakes.

The monkey theory should not be seen as a way to get rid of problems but should be seen as a way to empower each and everyone to handle their own problem in order for anyone else to better manage their time.

I definitely encourage you to read this excellent article.

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