The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey

In The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, Ken Blanchard teams up with William Oncken, one of the leading time management experts, to help managers learn to delegate properly. Oncken’s unique concept of the monkey makes understanding delegation humorous and clear. A monkey is any task or decision that must be made. The person who has the monkey on his back is the one responsible for taking the next step in solving the problem. The key is to put the monkeys on the backs of the appropriate subordinates and not allowing subordinates to put monkeys on your back.

Don’t take responsibility for other people’s work. When you do, not only do you end up with too much work, but you also demotivate your subordinates by taking away their role in the work. There are two negative ways to respond to someone with a problem: First, be a persecutor and attack the person with the problem for having the problem. Second, be a rescuer and solve the problem for the other person. Both have disastrous consequences. When you rescue someone you are actually implying that he is not smart enough, creative enough, able to solve his own problem, so you end up disempowering him and diminishing his ability to perform.

When someone is learning, you need to spend a lot of time with him. But once he has learned his job, you need to give him room to operate. However, you must communicate clearly why you are spending a lot of time with him or why you are leaving him alone, so there will be no misunderstanding.

Give people the freedom to make mistakes. The problem is not making mistakes but not learning from your mistakes.

“Trying is just a noisy way of not doing anything.”

It is not your commitment that makes things happen but your action on your commitment carried out consistently over time that will make things happen. Stop looking for a magic formula or system; work the one that you already have and it will work for you.