One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey Book Review
Shortly after the One minute manager was published, became one of the best-selling business books of all time, and remains one of the most popular business books to this day. Ken Blanchard, one of the co-authors, later teamed up with other business experts to write other books using the parable format of the One minute managementR. Blanchard teamed up with William Onchen to write the One minute manager meets the monkey. Onchen was an expert in time management and had written his own book titled management time management. Together, Blanchard and Onchen collaborated to write about how managers could be more effective if they learned the art of delegating and supervising routine tasks.
The story they tell is about a struggling manager who never seems to have enough time while his people always do. When he finally got so frustrated that he couldn’t take it anymore, he met with the One Minute Manager who could help him with his problem. The One Minute Manager helped him realize that he was inadvertently taking on work that his people should have been doing and it was piling up on his desk. His “ah-ha” moment came when he realized that when his people came to him with an issue or a problem, he needed to redirect them with the problem to solve it themselves, i.e. let them keep the “Monkey”. A monkey is defined as the next move. As long as he could stop “Monkeys” from jumping from someone else’s back to his own, he would have more control over his own time. Then he could focus only on those things that only he could do and have time to do it too. Here are the Onchen Rules for handling monkeys as described in this book:
1. Describe the Monkey: When someone comes to you with a problem, then the task is to keep talking until the next move has been specifically identified.
2. Assign the Monkey: Assign the Monkey (next move) to the lowest level that can handle the problem which, in most cases, is the person who came to you with the problem. Be careful not to inadvertently set up a next move like “write me a memo”, which will then require you to read and react to it after it is sent to you. So a better move is to send your employee with instructions to come back with three workarounds so you can discuss this again and choose one for the employee to implement.
3. Secure the Jumpsuit: Decide what level of risk you are willing to accept for the employee to take immediate action to resolve the issue. Generally, you can fire them with one of two levels of insurance: 1) recommend then act or 2) act then advise. Depending on the employee’s experience and the nature of the task, choose an insurance level that matches the employee’s ability to solve the problem on their own and their own willingness to accept the consequences if things aren’t done right. If you have any concerns about the employee’s ability to act first, simply ask them to recommend a solution before they can proceed. Otherwise, you can agree on a solution and simply send them to take action right away and report back later.
4. Check the Monkey: Schedule an appointment for a follow-up meeting to find out how your employee is doing. If you have assigned them responsibility for the next moveinstead of your employees asking “How are you doing?” while dealing with their Monkeys, you can be the one to ask them “How’s it going?”
Using these simple rules will help you gain more control over your own time. Instead of working through all your office problems, you’ll have your employees do most of the work while you check in periodically to ask “How’s it going?” You can then use your time not only to follow up with your people, but also to focus on only those issues that need your attention because you are the only one with the authority or resources to fix them. Also, keep in mind that the monkeys can not only jump from your employees, but also down from your boss or to the sides of a colleague. Sometimes you will have to take responsibility for the next moves in some of these monkeys that jump down or to the sides; however, if you have a good discussion with your boss or colleague, many times you’ll still have the “next step” when you’re done talking about it. Following the Rules of Onchen will not only help you manage your “management time” better, it will also help strengthen your people as you train them to solve most of their problems on their own. In addition, they will find their work more rewarding and less frustrating, since you empower them to do the work themselves and not expect you to do it for them.
Similar to One minute manager book, this book is a quick read with some simple yet powerful lessons. If you find yourself in the same position as the struggling manager in this story, then this is the book for you. You can read it in one sitting, and if you experience the same “aha” moment as this manager, you can apply these four rules the next day at work. In a matter of a few meetings, you, too, can be on your way to becoming a “One Minute Manager.”