Who’s got the monkey now?
Problem solving and ownership in a collaborative world
Who’s got the monkey, the 2nd best-selling HBR article of all time, explores the manager’s challenge in balancing delegation and support overload. Published in 1974, it addressed overworked managers in the command-and-control culture of the time. I discovered the article years later in my early management days (long after the 70’s!) while learning to better delegate. I later learned many better ways to collaborate and partner with my team and colleagues with great cultural examples such as Altassian. I believe delegation is still relevant to leaders in today’s collaborative culture but it needs some reframing. Here is a reflection on what still rings true from the original article and additional tips to help solve leaders (and collaborators generally) manage problem overload in the modern world.
The monkey-transfer problem
“Who’s got the monkey” means “who owns a problem”. Per the illustration: A team member approaches their manager, stating, “we have a problem”, to which the manager replies, “let me think about it and get back to you”. What just happened? One moment the problem was owned by the team member, and in a flash, it became the manager’s problem. Eventually, the manager is exhausted by “all the monkeys”.
The primary message of the article is: Leaders can’t survive if they shoulder every burden in their team. They must find a way to delegate and support sustainably.
Leaders can’t survive if they shoulder every burden in their team. They must find a way to delegate and support sustainably.
Following the core concepts of the original article, we’ll see this phenomenon is alive and well today.
All the expectations
Called “demands for time” in the original, here are the key sources of expectations one finds in modern work:
Your manager: Your manager has needs and expectations of you in your role. They likely created your role, hired you or became your team leader.
Your peers: Your peers need support to a level often defined by the organisation’s collaboration culture and the specific dependencies you have with your peers.
Your team: Your team needs leadership and support. To help set direction, support problem-solving and foster a positive team culture.
Your organisation: Presents “hard” and “soft” expectations. “Hard” ones involve mandatory processes and systems. “Softer” ones involve behaviours required/rewarded.
You: You have goals to grow personally and in your career. These create expectations you place on yourself on where to invest time to make a professional impact and manage personal well-being.
While modern employees are more self-directed and organisations better support individual careers, performance expectations remain crucial. Further, organisations understand that effectiveness depends on collaboration and so expect it. While this impacts everyone, for leaders especially, it creates a complex set of expectations to navigate.
Calling out the monkeys
Monkeys are sneaky, so seeing them is the first step to managing them. “Who’s got the monkey?” asks, “as we conclude, who owns the problem and has the initiative to find a solution?” The leader may be the right person to tackle a high-impact problem. But as the leader, be careful: Is this the right thing to do and how many can you take on?
“Who’s got the monkey?” asks, “as we conclude, who owns the problem and has the initiative to find a solution?”
The phrase also reaffirms team-member ownership. For example, I’ve said something like, “Yes, I will get back to you with X, but you still have the monkey here, right?” Per the original article, it seeks clarity that there is only one monkey here, and it is clear who is leaving with it!
Alignment to release monkeys
The original article explores “who is working for whom?” with the stark example of the leader travelling to work on a weekend only to see the team playing golf. While this scenario resulted from several monkey transfers to the leader, it could also be that the leader wants the monkey. It could be for a genuine reason, such as an inexperienced team or navigating a particular culture. However, the reason could be personal or unknown, leading back to unwanted monkey acquisition.
Have you tried creating more alignment if you feel that your manager is overly controlling because you want to own your monkey?
Alignment is a powerful tool for releasing monkeys. Alignment means a leader and team member are committed to the same drivers, outcomes and timelines. If leaders are confident this has happened, they will empower others to take the monkey. The best leaders do this collaboratively, setting the tone of an ongoing partnership.
If you are reading this as a leader, what can you do to align and release those monkeys better? Have you tried creating more alignment if you feel that your manager is overly controlling because you want to own your monkey?
Feeding the monkeys
Monkeys need feeding regardless of who owns them, meaning support is needed to explore and solve problems. It’s often a mistake to think empowerment means there is little/no ongoing collaboration, this forgoes the experience and support for greater impact.
It’s often a mistake to think empowerment means there is little/no ongoing collaboration, this forgoes the experience and support for greater impact.
The challenge for leaders (or collaborators) is to support and unblock others without inadvertently taking ownership of the monkey. Someone may bring you the monkey, and you feed it, but it doesn’t get on your back.
A few quick ideas to help here:
Alignment reminder: Simply reminding both of you about earlier alignment, for example “what were we optimising for?”, will likely feed the monkey, including adjusting that alignment if needed.
Collaborate on a page/document: A shared page allows occasional support with reviews and comments, respectful of the page’s “readiness for review”. This approach is efficient in a hybrid world but can result in sporadic progress.
Time-box a meeting: Thinking about a short meeting as a time-boxed monkey-feeding session can be helpful. The session prioritises identifying the owner’s next steps. This approach creates a clear but material time commitment.
I typically look for opportunities in the order described above. It depends on your own style as a leader/collaborator.
Letting monkeys sleep, or go
Sometimes there are just too many monkeys. The original article advises being clear with the current owner that the monkey must sleep for a time and remain in their care or even entirely let go.
Letting monkeys sleep can be a great tactic to survive a busy period, but are the right monkeys sleeping? I’ve seen and employed these strategies when unsure:
Ownership grouping: Clear lines of ownership by department or function, and monkeys are fed, left to sleep or let go within that structure.
Multi-level alignment: Leaders collaborate on the relative priority of problems and the necessary capacity and skills to address them.
Your effectiveness culture may suggest the approach. In the right culture, you will benefit from openly managing expectations and priorities rather than leaving (or hiding) monkeys sleeping in the corner.
Initiative and partnership for monkey-owners
We’ve discussed traits leaders need to manage monkeys better. However, leaders will still be reluctant to release monkeys if they never see them again. Or worse, they return as unexpected gorillas (bigger problems) or chimpanzees (different problems).
If you want to be trusted to solve a problem, embrace alignment on outcomes, demonstrate initiative and appropriately partner with stakeholders as work progresses.
The original article concludes with a discussion on levels of initiative:
Wait until told (lowest initiative);
Ask what to do;
Recommend, then take resulting action;
Act, but advise at once;
And act on own, then routinely report (highest initiative).
#1 and #2 are ineffective, especially for leaders. However, independently running with #5 may create dysfunction depending on the person’s role, ability and the nature of the problem.
As Steven R Covey mentions in his sidebar contribution to the original article, ongoing partnerships help leaders and team members navigate problem-solving in modern work.
If you want to be trusted to solve a problem, embrace alignment on outcomes, demonstrate initiative and appropriately partner with stakeholders as work progresses.
Growing together, for the monkeys and us
Today, some take on too many monkeys, some won’t let them go, and some too quickly let them go. The reasons lie in growth areas for both leaders and team members. Leaders and team members desire a positive collaboration with clear expectations and opportunities for individual growth. The short-term plan could be forming a partnership based on trust that demonstrates alignment, initiative and communication. To take the first step, ask, “who’s got the monkey?”