Monkey Management for Project teams

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Monkey Management for Project teams

• Mike Graupner, PMP
• mike.graupner_at_marlai.com

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Agenda

• What is a monkey?
• How do you get monkeys?
• What is the process?
• Why do we manage Other People Monkeys? (OPMs)
• How do we manage all our monkeys?
• How do we prioritize?

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Learning Objectives

• Time management is working on the right thing at
  the right time.
• To accomplish time management, you must
• Give your items the top priority
• (Feed your monkeys)
• Let other people work their problems
• (Let them feed their monkeys)
• Prioritize the work based on value
• (Magic Quadrant)

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What is a Monkey?

• Monkeys are issues/actions that people bring to
  you to solve.
• We use the Monkey on your back metaphor to
  describe issues, and the ownership of issues.
• Issues may be problems, tasks or other items in
  your life that you need to resolve.
• It is not avoiding work, rather managing time!!!

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Core Concepts

• You are the master of your domain
• When trouble is what you are looking for, you
  will be handsomely rewarded
• Dont look for more monkeys!

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Where did the Monkey concept come from?

• First Identified In Harvard Business Review
  1970
• Managing Management Time
• William Oncken, Jr.
• C 1984
• ISBN 0-13-551986-4
• The One Minute manager meets the Monkey
• Kenneth Blanchard/ William Oncken, Jr., Hall
  Burrows
• C 1989
• ISBN 978-0-688-10380-4
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Stephen R. Covey
• C 1989
• ISBN 978-0-7432-6951-3

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What is Monkey Management?

• Imagine someone walking into your office with a
  Monkey on their back
• They say, I have this problem, there is a monkey
  on my back, and I would like to put the monkey on
  your back
• What would you say?
• Great! Load it up, add it to the dozen I have
  already?

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Where do Monkeys come from?
Bosses
Events
Vendors
Family
Co-workers
Your Back
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Monkey Transference

• The process of transferring problems from one
  owner to a another owner
• Results
• Generate Stress
• Prevent you from working on your assigned higher
  priority tasks
• Prevent you from being perceived as effective.

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What to do?

• Recognize the monkey
• Help me to understand the issue
• Determine the owner
• Hmmm, who needs to solve this issue?
• Define the Impact
• How is this affecting us?
• Get agreement of ownership
• I am not sure this is on my plate, do you agree?
• Help the owner find an action plan
• If you did X, would this help?

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Why do we do it?

• We MUST help people with problems!
• Boy/Girl Scouts
• School
• Church
• We WANT to be the Hero!
• They will appreciate you for managing their
  problems
• We are programmed at an early age to fail!

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The Hard Truths

• Not every problem is your problem
• Work your monkeys first
• Not every problem you see needs to be fixed
• Ask yourself, am I responsible to take this on?
• Taking on Other Peoples Monkey (OPM) may not be
  appreciated
• Them Thank god I got rid of that!
• Manager Why is he/she working on that when I
  need this done!
• Adopting OPMs generates unnecessary stress in
  your life!
• Time management is key!

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Example

• Co worker comes and tells me that the PMO
  Projector is not being managed correctly.
• I was the PM that procured the projector
• The projector was turned over to the departmental
  admin to manage
• The projector is not being returned with the
  cables and non-PMO staff are not respecting the
  reservations.

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Response

• Why is this an issue?
• Waste PM time and makes the meeting start late
• Self image ?
• Who owns the problem
• Projector users (not me at this point)
• Potential solutions
• PMs prepare an hour early
• Speak with the admin about the process
• Buy a second projector
• Note since I am not a projector user
• This is not my monkey!

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Results

• Allow the person with the issue to consider
  action
• If no action is taken, it must not have been that
  big of issue

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Qeustoin?

• Whos Menkoy is tihs ?
• If my agneda is cmmoncatoins, is splleinig my
  Mkoney?

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Monkey Management Rules

• In addition to the law of monkey management, the
  authors list six rules of managing monkeys that
  are instructive to managers. These include
• 1. Monkeys should be fed or shot.
• No one likes the consequences of a starving
  monkey. They tend to be very disagreeable and
  squeal and raise a ruckus. Monkeys must be fed
  periodically in this analogy, the problem must
  be dealt with between the manager and the
  employee with the problem on a regular basis. If
  the monkey can be shot (the problem solved
  quickly), then feeding times are not necessary.
• 2. Every monkey should have an assigned next
  feeding time and a degree of initiative.
• After a feeding session, the manager should
  select an appropriate time for the next feeding
  and should have a number of action steps for the
  employee to take. "Can we meet next Tuesday at
  1030 a.m. to see how things are going and what
  we should do next?"
• 3. The monkey population should be kept below the
  maximum number that the manager has time to feed.
• The authors suggest that it should take 15
  minutes to feed a monkey, and that managers
  should keep the list of problems that are in
  various stages of solution at a manageable
  number.

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Monkey Management Rules

• 4. Monkeys should fed by appointment only.
• Allowing employees to bring problems to you on
  their timetable increases the chances that the
  monkey will move from the employee to the
  manager. By setting specific times for addressing
  the problem, managers empower employees to make
  interim decisions about the problem, and still
  report back.
• 5. Monkey feeding appointments may be rescheduled
  but never indefinitely postponed.
• Either party, the manager or the subordinate, may
  reschedule a feeding appointment for any reason,
  but it must be scheduled to a specific time to
  avoid losing track of the monkey.
• 6. Monkeys shall be fed face to face or by
  telephone, but not in writing.
• Holding feeding sessions via e-mail or memo
  transfers the monkey to the manager. An employee
  can pass the monkey to the manager by simply
  requesting a response. Feedings that take place
  in person or on the phone require the monkey to
  remain with the employee unless the supervisor
  takes an affirmative step to take it.
• Proper delegation skills, properly applied as
  suggested in this creative approach, can help
  managers better solve problems and develop their
  employees' problem solving skills. Visualizing
  each problem as a monkey that is impatient and
  noisy can help managers see problems as they
  really are and address them in the best possible
  way. Beware of the monkeys that may come into
  your life today!

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Managing Monkeys

• Goal of Time Management Get control over the
  timing and content of what you do.
• Enlarge discretionary time by eliminating
  subordinate-imposed time.
• Use a portion of this newfound discretionary time
  to see to it that each subordinate possesses the
  initiative without which he or she cannot
  exercise initiative, and then see to it that this
  initiative is in fact taken.
• Use another portion of the increased
  discretionary time to get and keep control of the
  timing and content of both boss-imposed and
  system-imposed time.

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Once you can identify your monkeys

• Use the magic quadrant

Not Urgent/Important
Urgent/Important
Urgent/Not Important
Not Urgent/Not Important
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Priorities

• Urgent/Important
• Do first
• Typically from Management
• Important/Not Urgent
• Do Second
• Typically from your work assignment
• Keeps the Urgent/Important items to a minimum
• STOP You are done

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Why Stop?

• Not Urgent/Not Important or Not Important tasks
  are not worth doing
• No Value!
• If worked, you will most likely not get to other
  tasks of value

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Understanding Value

• Inputs
• Boss Imposed (1)
• System Imposed (2)
• Self Imposed (3)
• Leverage
• Employee time (1)
• Supervisory time (2)
• Executive time (3)
• Output
• Stabilizing time (1)
• Corrective time (2)
• Progressive time (3)

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Understanding Inputs

• Inputs
• Boss Imposed (1)
• Assignments from the boss
• System Imposed (2)
• Assignments from the system (budgeting, time
  approval etc)
• Self Imposed (3)
• E.G. Working on next years problems.
• Boss giving input has the least value, because
  you are not anticipating their needs.
• Self Imposed time is when you can work on magical
  things.

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Understanding Leverage

• Leverage
• Employee time (1)
• Managing Monkeys yourself
• Supervisory time (2)
• Managing monkeys by delegation
• Executive time (3)
• Managing monkeys by assignment
• Doing is the least value, assigning has the most
  value (process driven)

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Understanding Outputs

• Output
• Stabilizing time (Value 1)
• Admin functions/ todays problems
• Corrective time (Value 2)
• Solutions/Responses to this years
  Problems/Opportunities
• Progressive time (Value 3)
• Solutions/Responses to next years
  Problems/Opportunities

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Least Valuable Time

• Inputs
• Boss Imposed (1)
• Boss tells you to
• Leverage
• Employee time (1)
• Manage the monkey yourself
• Output
• Stabilizing time (1)
• To fix today's problem

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Most Valuable Time

• Inputs
• Self Imposed (3)
• You tell you to
• Leverage
• Executive time (3)
• Identify and Assign Monkeys
• Output
• Progressive time (3)
• For Solutions/Responses to Next Years
  Problems/Opportunities

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Dont ignore 1,1,1!

• Least valuable time is important, but try to keep
  it down to a minimum
• Try to grow the percentage your are spending on
  most valuable time (3,3,3)
• Balance is the key!

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Exercise 1

• Break into 5 people teams
• Identify a Monkey of each team member that jumped
  on your back in the last week
• Define a strategy for moving the monkey back to
  the proper owner
• Be prepared to report to the group on each issue