5.27.2010

Stealing Monkeys

No, I'm not going to steal your pet chimp, but it is often tempting and easy to "steal a monkey" from people while in the genba...

While doing some follow up at a manufacturing plant in North Carolina, I heard this strange phrase from a number of supervisors talking to each other about problems on the floor. One described a problem he asked his people to tackle but were having trouble with. The two supervisors invariably started brainstorming solutions to the problem. The other supervisor stopped himself abruptly and said, "wait, wait, wait...let's not steal their monkey." I asked what this meant and the explanation makes perfect sense:

When somebody has a problem, they have a monkey on their back. We all have problems we must face. If I solve the problem for them, then I have stolen their monkey. What a great way to think about empowerment! And what an easy reminder for you to stop yourself before you solve a person's problem that they could solve on their own.

I heard other people saying, "don't take their monkey" but I like the effect "stealing" has on the concept of being a genba leader. When we steal their monkey, we are basically telling people not to think, not to worry, not to solve their own problems within their control. Why do I say this? When we "take" something from somebody as a genba leader, we do it in the context of helping them. But have we... really? Have we really helped them, or hurt them? Put another way, when we steal a monkey, we are stifling responsibility, creativity, morale, and thinking in the workplace, precisely the opposite of what we want in a lean culture. We wonder why people do not take action, or offer ideas - because we "take their monkeys" for them! We decide to do the heavy lifting for them.

Stealing is wrong. And stealing somebody's monkey is just as wrong as stealing their wallet, we are stealing their ideas, their pride and their creativity before they even have a chance to know it is gone. Don't steal their monkeys!

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3 Comments:

At May 27, 2010 at 1:22 PM , Blogger Tim McMahon said...

That is a great story with a great lesson about empowerment. Thanks for sharing. They don't need someone to do it for them they need help to do it themselves.

Tim McMahon
A Lean Journey Blog
http://leanjourneytruenorth.blogspot.com

 
At June 4, 2010 at 6:42 AM , Anonymous Jamie Flinchbaugh said...

This is hard for most organizations because the systems are set up to encourage stealing monkeys. Unless organizations put more emphasis on leaders developing people instead of being a hero problem solver, then this might be short lived.

Jamie Flinchbaugh
Lean Learning Center

 
At August 22, 2016 at 1:46 AM , Blogger navya said...

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