Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)
by William, Jr. Oncken, Donald L. Wass
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Book Summary Information
Author: Donald L. Wass, William, Jr. OnckenEdition: Digital
Format: Download: PDF
Published: 2000-02-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 9
Publisher: Harvard Business Review
Book Reviews of Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)
Book Review: How to truely empower your people
Summary: 5 Stars
Management Time: Who's Got The Monkey? Has been one of the most popular articles ever published in HBR - and one of the most useful.
Oncken and Wass suggest that there are three types of management-imposed time pressure - Boss, System, and Self. Each has its own imperatives and if not managed, consequences.
Boss-imposed time pressure are activities, which must be accomplished, or we'll suffer the consequences! System-imposed time pressures are those activities/requests which come from peers and colleagues. The penalties are not so severe or as swift, but we may still suffer if these things are not done.
Self-imposed time pressure are those activities we ourselves initiate or agree to do - particularly those things which have been upwardly delegated from people who report to us. These activities impact heavily on our discretionary time, and the penalty for not doing these is stress.
Oncken and Wass use the monkey analogy to make their point. When someone in our team talks about a "problem" they want to "run past us", the monkey (in other words, the problem) is very clearly on their back. But when we respond with something like "Well, I haven't got time right now, but leave it with me", the monkey immediately leaps from their shoulders to ours. We have just been on the receiving end of an excellent piece of upward delegation.
They suggest the way to deal with this is to develop the initiative of team members to take action. At the heart of their article is deciding which of five "levels of initiative" your people are at. It's then a matter of helping each person progress through the five levels.
I've used this process helping managers improve their time management and delegation skills for over ten years. If you want to improve your productivity as a manager, this publication is highly recommended. Ignore the Covey reflection as it adds nothing to the great original article.
Bob Selden, author of What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers
Summary of Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)
Many managers feel overwhelmed. They have too many problems--too many monkeys--on their backs. All too often, they say, they find themselves running out of time while their subordinates are running out of work. Such is the common phenomenon described by the late William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass in this 1974 HBR classic. They tell the engaging story of an overburdened manager who has unwittingly taken on all of his subordinates' problems. If, for example, an employee has a problem and the manager says, "Let me think about that and get back to you," the monkey has just leaped from the subordinate's back to the manager's. This article describes how the manager can delegate effectively to keep most monkeys on the subordinate's back. It offers suggestions on the care and feeding of monkeys and on how managers can transfer initiative. In his accompanying commentary, Stephen R. Covey discusses both the enduring power of this message and how theories of time management have progressed beyond these ideas. Management thinkers and executives alike now realize that bosses cannot just give a monkey back to their subordinates. Subordinates must first be empowered, and that's hard and complicated work. It means bosses have to develop their subordinates and establish trust. Perhaps even more important and relevant than it was 25 years ago, Covey says, this article is a powerful wake-up call for managers at risk for carrying too many monkeys.This is an enhanced edition of the HBR reprint 99609, originally published in November/December 1999. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Many managers feel overwhelmed. They have too many problems--too many monkeys--on their backs. All too often, they say, they find themselves running out of time while their subordinates are running out of work. Such is the common phenomenon described by the late William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass in this 1974 HBR classic. They tell the engaging story of an overburdened manager who has unwittingly taken on all of his subordinates' problems. If, for example, an employee has a problem and the manager says, "Let me think about that and get back to you," the monkey has just leaped from the subordinate's back to the manager's. This article describes how the manager can delegate effectively to keep most monkeys on the subordinate's back. It offers suggestions on the care and feeding of monkeys and on how managers can transfer initiative. In his accompanying commentary, Stephen R. Covey discusses both the enduring power of this message and how theories of time management have progressed beyond these ideas. Management thinkers and executives alike now realize that bosses cannot just give a monkey back to their subordinates. Subordinates must first be empowered, and that's hard and complicated work. It means bosses have to develop their subordinates and establish trust. Perhaps even more important and relevant than it was 25 years ago, Covey says, this article is a powerful wake-up call for managers at risk for carrying too many monkeys.
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