Harvard Management Conference-who carries monkeys

Why are managers busy and their subordinates idle? Here we will explore the connotation of management time, because it involves the interaction between managers and their superiors, employees at the same level and their subordinates. Specifically, we will discuss three management times:

• Time at the control of the boss, used to complete the work tasks assigned by the boss. Managers should not take their responsibilities lightly, or they will be immediately punished.
• The time at the control of the organization, used to meet the requirements of the personnel at the same level for positive support.Even though the punishment is not always direct or rapid.
• Personal time is used to complete the tasks that managers come up with or agree to. However, some of the time is occupied by subordinates, which is called the time at which subordinates take control. The remaining time is the manager's own time. The time spent by an individual will not result in penalty. Because the boss or organization does not know what the manager was going to do at all, it is impossible to punish what has not been done.

To meet the requirements of all parties, the manager needs to control the schedule and content of the work. Even if the tasks cannot be completed by superiors and organizations, the managers must be punished. Therefore, personal time becomes their main consideration. Managers should try to minimize or eliminate the time at their subordinates, increase the discretionary time in the personal time, and then take advantage of the increased time to better handle the tasks assigned by superiors and organizations. However, most managers do not realize that they spend too much time solving subordinate problems. Therefore, we will use the monkey on our back to analyze how time is produced by subordinates and how our superiors should respond.

Who has the monkey on?

Let's imagine that a manager is walking in the hall and noticed that Jones, one of his subordinates, is coming. When the two met, Jones said to the manager, "Good morning. By the way, we encountered a problem. You know ...... "When Jones continued, the manager found that the problem had the same two characteristics as all the questions raised by his subordinates: first, he knew that he needed to solve the problem; second, he was not familiar with the situation, and he could not make a shot on the spot as his subordinates wished. finally, the managers have to say, "I'm glad you can raise this question. I am very busy now. let me think about it. I will give you a reply. "Then the two broke up.

Let's analyze what happened just now. In front of the two, "Who is the monkey? On the back of his subordinates. Who did the monkeys carry after they broke up? On the manager's back. when the monkey jumps from the back of his subordinates to the back of his superiors, the time for his subordinates to take control begins until the manager returns the monkey to the real master for feeding. when accepting monkeys, the manager voluntarily turned them into subordinates of his subordinates. that is to say, he allows Jones to turn him into her subordinates to do two things a subordinate usually has to do for his superiors-the manager has taken responsibility from his subordinates, report the progress to the subordinates.

In order to ensure that the manager will not forget the incident, the subordinate will then probe his head into the manager's office and ask with pleasure: How is the incident going? (This is called supervision ). or, let's imagine another scenario. at the end of the meeting, the manager said to another subordinate, Johnson, "Okay. send me the memo on this issue."

Let's analyze this situation. The monkey is still on the back of his subordinates because the next step is to be taken by him, but the monkey is ready to jump. Pay attention to this monkey. Johnson wrote his memorandum with due diligence and put him in the text basket. Soon afterwards, the manager obtained the memorandum from his own basket and began to read it. Who should take action now? This is the manager. If he does not act quickly, he will get a memorandum from his subordinates (this is another form of supervision ). The longer the manager delays, the more frustrated the subordinate (he will do nothing), and the more guilty the manager is (the time spent by the subordinate will increase significantly ).

Imagine meeting Smith, the third subordinate. The manager asked Smith to draft a PR plan and ensure necessary support for her. When leaving, the manager said to him, "If you need help, let me know ."

Now let's analyze this example. The monkey was originally on the back of his subordinates. But how long will he stay? Smith realized that he could not "tell" the manager what he needed before the plan was approved. Based on her past experience, she realized that her proposal had to be put in the manager's file box for several weeks before being reviewed by the manager. So who carried the monkey? Who will check who is working? At this point, the bottleneck effect of the idle phenomenon occurs again.

The fourth subordinate is Reid, who has just been transferred from another department of the company to start and ultimately manage a new business project. The manager said they should meet as soon as possible to finalize a list of work objectives for the new task. "I will draft a preliminary plan and discuss it with you," he added ."

Let's also analyze this situation. This subordinate has a new job (officially appointed) and all responsibilities (officially authorized ). but the manager has to take the next step. before the task is completed, he will carry monkeys, and his subordinates will have nothing to do.

Why does this happen? In each case, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the manager and his subordinates thought the problem was two people from the very beginning. in each example, the monkey first exists on both sides of the individual's back. it just needs to move the cross-Wrong leg-"Sorry! "-- The subordinate suddenly disappears, leaving the manager to take care of the monkey. of course, you can train a monkey not to move that leg, but the simpler way is to stop it from spreading across two people's backs from the very beginning.

WHO is working?

Let's assume that these four subordinates are very considerate to their superiors. In order not to take up his precious time, everyone tries their best not to let more than three monkeys jump to the manager's back within one day. in the week of five working days, the manager was about to carry too many monkeys with 60 screams, which could not be handled one by one. therefore, he spent his subordinate time dealing with the "Primary transactions ".

Late Friday afternoon, the manager kept himself in the office to avoid disturbing others, so that he could carefully consider the situation and his subordinates were waiting outside the door, to seize the last chance before the weekend, remind him to "make a decision ". imagine how they talk about managers while they are waiting: "They are always stuck here! He just cannot decide. A person who cannot make a decision occupies a high position in the company! "

The worst thing is that the manager cannot take any "next action" because he spends almost all his time doing what he needs from his boss and company. To cope with these tasks, he needs a free time, but when he is full of brains about subordinate monkeys, he has no free time. the manager entered a vicious circle. However, time is passing in vain (so it is still light ). the manager calls the Secretary via the internal phone and asks him to inform his subordinates that he can only see them one afternoon next week. at, he drove home, made up his mind to go back to the office to work overtime the next day, and finished everything over the weekend. the next day, he came to the office very early, but he saw four people playing doubles on the lawn near the golf course through the office window. guess who they are?

It turns out that. he now knows who is competing to work. in addition, he realized that if he planned to finish his job over the weekend, his subordinates would boost morale and everyone would be relaxed, let more monkeys jump onto his back. in short, as suddenly as he was on the top of the hill, he suddenly realized that the more he rushed forward, the more he would fall behind.

He leaves the office as quickly as he evades the plague. What is his plan? He wants to do something he has never taken care of for years: spend the weekend with his family (this is one of multiple forms of free time ).

He slept for 10 hours on Sunday night because he had made a clear plan for Monday. He plans to discard the time of his subordinates. In this way, he will have the same amount of free time as them, and some of the time he will spend on his subordinates, make sure they learn the difficult and beneficial management art called "monkey feeding.

The manager will have a lot of free time left, and can better manage the time at the control of the Organization, so as to effectively control the time schedule and work content in these two aspects. This also takes a few months, but it is very rewarding compared with the past. The manager's ultimate goal is to manage his own time.

Get rid of monkeys on your back

On Monday morning, the manager deliberately came late so that the four subordinates had gathered outside his office and waited for him to discuss their monkeys. He calls them into the office one by one. Every time he takes out a monkey, he puts it on the Zhuo face between the two and jointly determines the next action for his subordinates. For some monkeys, it does take some twists and turns. If you cannot determine the next step, the Manager will have the right to let the monkey stay on the back of his subordinates for the night, and let him or her bring the monkey back at the appointed time the next morning, and continue to explore the next step for his subordinates. (This night the monkey slept on the back of his subordinates as well as on the back of his superiors)

When every subordinate got up and left, the manager was pleased to see a monkey lying on the back of his subordinates leaving the office. In the next 24 hours, the manager waited not for the subordinate to wait for the manager, but for the subordinate to wait.

Later, it seemed that in order to remind myself that conducting beneficial activities in the middle of the process did not violate the regulations. The manager stepped forward to his subordinate office and probe outside the door: "How is the process going?" (The time spent on doing this is a free time for managers, and a time for subordinates to be dominated by superiors)

The next day, when the subordinate (carrying a monkey) and the Manager met at the agreed time, the manager explained his basic principles in the following words:
   
"Whenever I help you solve this or that problem, your problem will not become my problem. When your problem becomes my problem, you will no longer have it. I cannot help anyone who has no problems ."
   
"At the end of this meeting, your problem will be the same as when you come in. You can request my help at any agreed time, and we will jointly determine who of us will take the next action ."
   
"Generally, the person who takes the next step will not be me. If it is me, you should make a decision with me. I will not take any action independently ."
    
When talking to every subordinate, the manager follows the same principle. The conversation lasted until around eleven o'clock A.M., and he realized that he had to close the door and the monkey had left. Of course, they will come back, but they will only appear at the agreed time. His calendar will ensure this.
 

Return the initiative to the subordinates

Through the monkey metaphor on the back, we strive to show that managers can return the initiative of action to their subordinates and ultimately maintain this initiative. We try to emphasize an obvious but subtle truth: before discovering the initiative of a subordinate, the manager must ensure that the subordinate has the initiative. Once the manager puts this initiative back, he will not own it, and he will be able to reduce the time of his subordinates and increase his free time.

Managers and subordinates cannot have the same initiative at the same time. The opening remark "Boss, we have a problem" implies that it is related to two people, and, as mentioned above, indicates that a monkey spans the backs of two people, it is an extremely bad way for a monkey to start his career. Therefore, let us take a moment to look at what we call "Management Initiative analysis ".

When dealing with superiors and organizations, managers can take the initiative in five levels:
1. Wait for others' instructions (the lowest level of initiative );
2. Ask what to do;
3. Make suggestions and take corresponding actions;
4. Take action, but make immediate suggestions;
5. Take the initiative and report regularly (the highest level of initiative ).

Obviously, managers should have enough professionalism to deal with their superiors or organizations, not just level 1 and level 2 initiative. Managers who take the first level of initiative cannot control the time controlled by their superiors and organizations at all-whether on the schedule or on the work content, therefore, you do not have the right to complain about what you are asked to do or when to do it. Managers who take the second level of initiative can properly arrange the time, but cannot control the work content. Managers at level 3, 4, and 5 can both be controlled, while managers at level 5 have maximum control.

For subordinate management, the manager's work is dual. First, we should prohibit subordinates from taking level 1 and level 2 initiative, which can force them to have no choice but to learn and master "all duties of employees ". Second, it is necessary to ensure that, when a subordinate leaves the manager's office with a problem, both parties should not only agree on the time and place for the next meeting, but also reach an agreement on the initiative level to be adopted by the subordinate. In addition, the manager should promptly indicate the meeting time and place on the schedule.

Feeding monkeys

To make the similarity between monkeys on the back and Task Assignment and control processes clearer, let's take a look at the manager's work schedule. Such calendars require adherence to the five strict principles of "Feeding monkeys" (violations of these principles will lead to the loss of free time ).

Principle 1: either feed the monkey or shoot it. Otherwise, the monkey will starve to death, and the manager will waste a lot of valuable time for the monkey to perform an autopsy, or try to make the monkey dead again.

Principle 2: The number of monkeys should be controlled within the limit when the manager has time to feed. the subordinate should try to provide the manager with enough monkeys for feeding, but not beyond his or her time. feed a normal monkey for no more than 5-15 minutes.

Principle 3: The monkey should be fed only as agreed in advance, and the manager should not capture the Hungry Monkey everywhere and indiscriminately catch one and feed one.

Principle 4: The Monkeys should be fed face to face or by phone, but never by email (remember: if the mail is fed, the person taking the next action will be the manager ). of course, the feeding process can include file records, but it cannot replace the feeding itself.

Principle 5: determine the next feeding time and initiative level for each monkey. as long as both parties agree, these agreements can be modified at any time, but they can never be vague or uncertain. otherwise, the monkey either starved to death or eventually fell on the back of the manager. "controlling work time and work content" is a useful suggestion for time management. the first step is that the manager can expand the discretionary time by eliminating the time at the subordinate's disposal. second, the manager should take part of the additional free time to ensure that the subordinates are active and give full play to them. step 3: The manager takes additional time to control the tasks assigned by superiors and organizations. all these steps will increase the manager's ability to control time, so that every hour they spend on managing "management time" can be infinitely increased.