I would acknowledge the author of this tale I am
about to tell about company policy if only I know who wrote it. It is
one of those stories that you see handed out at training courses or
published on the internet without a hint of who the author was.
The story begins....
"Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.
Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.
As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water.
After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result; all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water.
Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.
Now,
turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it
with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the
stairs.
To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.
After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
Next,
remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new
one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous
newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
Again, replace a third original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well.
Two
of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not
permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the
beating of the newest monkey.
After replacing the fourth and
fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys that have been sprayed with
cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again
approaches the stairs.
Why not?
Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been around here.
And that's how company policy begins ..."
It is a good tale. It is funny and it brings out the point but is too ludicrous to be true in real life?
A
company that I worked for in South America operated in a business
environment that included hyperinflation. Prices would rise in the
local currency by more than 60% per month. Minibar prices at the hotel
I often stayed at increased everyday.
The product the company
sold was fully imported and paid for in US dollars. Customers who
ordered product on credit only had to miss paying their invoice by a
few days after the due date to get a hefty discount on the quoted price
in money of the day terms.
To stop the company from bleeding
money a policy was put in place that all orders were to be vetted and
payment organised before the product would be loaded and delivered. The
process usually took a few hours but could take a day or two in
exceptional circumstances.
The organisations that bought products
from this company were large organisations themselves. Therefore the
production department that needed the product did not always know what
the accounts payable department had organised.
As you can imagine
there were occasional delays in delivering the product, which the
production department of the customer did not appreciate. This caused
great angst on occasions and threatened to upset long term
relationships with valuable customers.
So, another policy was
enacted whereby the despatch department of the supply company called
their "gold" customers telling them about the progress of their order,
keeping them updated every half hour or so.
When I saw this
company some six years after the policies were enacted, inflation was
running at eight percent per annum and falling. Price timing was no
longer an issue. However, there now was a department of fifty people
taking care of their "gold" customers.
When I asked how many
customers actually caused a problem with payment timing now inflation
was under control and what impact it had on the business, the answer
was "none and none".
"So why are the checks being made that
delays customers orders that causes a department of fifty people to
exist?" was a natural follow up question. The answer to which was,
"It's company policy".
I believe that all organisations I have
worked for and with have had a tranche of policies which are out of
date, do not fit the environment in which the organisation now finds
itself and cause significant levels of inefficiency and ineffectiveness.
The
solution to this often unseen problem is to review all policies and
processes which are three or more years older, for their purpose.
Otherwise we all risk making monkeys of ourselves.
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