This story was part of a class I’m taking from my employer. I thought it was funny and a great lesson for lots of businesses.
The story goes that a certain number of monkeys are placed in a large cage. From the ceiling of the cage hangs a bunch of bananas with a stepladder underneath. Being monkeys, they decide they want the bananas. As the first monkey rushes up the ladder, he is knocked off by a blast of cold water from a fire hose, and all the other monkeys are hosed down as well. Shocked, they sit back and regroup. Soon another monkey tries with the same result. After repeated attempts by each monkey they become conditioned not to go for the bananas and the fire hose is taken away.
One of the original monkeys is removed and a new monkey is added to the group. He spies the bananas and leaps onto the ladder, only to be dragged down and beaten by the rest of the group, fearing that he would be blasted by cold water and not wanting to be soaked themselves. After several failed attempts, the new monkey also learns not to go for the bananas.Another original monkey is replaced with a new monkey, and the same thing occurs. Before long, there is an entire group of monkeys who have never been soaked–never even seen the fire hose in fact–but still won’t climb the ladder. Even though they don’t know why, the message is clear: Don’t go for the bananas.
And that is how corporate culture and company policy begins. We do it this way because “we’ve always done it this way”. We do not attempt something new or beneficial because something similar has not worked previously, despite the fact that other aspects of delivery—the contract, technology, personnel–have changed.
In a Lean environment, we continually challenge policies and procedures that may have worked in the past but keep us from improving the way we do things today and in the future. Go for the bananas!
