Shifting the Monkey

As part of my involvement with my PLN at #txed, we participated in a book study of Shifting the Monkey by Todd Whitaker.  Todd, very active on Twitter, faithfully dropped in our weekly chats about the book.  I am constantly amazed of the connections that can be made via social media outlets like Twitter.  Being able to interact with an author while reading their book had a profound impact on my learning.  Todd is very gracious and has recently became an advocate of using Twitter.  He talked regularly about our group as he visited districts around the state and country.  This resulted in many new voices in our conversation and rich dialogue filled with reflection and insight.  

The message of this book seems overly simple:  to ensure that the monkeys, the  "responsibilities, obligations, and problem everyone deals with everyday," are in their proper place.  While this seems simple, in practice it is very difficult to do.  Often times, we take on the monkeys of others because it is easier to do the job ourselves.  We may take on misplaced monkeys to avoid having a difficult conversation, or we may shift extra monkeys to our best workers because we know the job will get done.  


Todd encourages leaders to take care of their best employees so they feel rewarded, protected, and have autonomy.  Beyond that though leaders need to take steps "shift monkeys to change behavior, so that people behave themselves even when the boss isn't looking."  To do this, he encourages leaders to ask themselves three questions:

1.  Where is the monkey?
2.  Where should the monkey be?
3.  How do I shift the monkey to its proper place?

One technique Todd shared was to treat everyone well.  When Todd says everyone, he means everyone--even the "slackers liars, and criers".  While this at first seemed counterproductive; however, when we presume positive intent in others we can shift behaviors.  He encourages leaders to address He juxtaposes this with the treat everyone as if they were guilty approach that many leaders take.  


As I read this book a personal experience came to mind.  I worked for a boss who sent out blanket emails whenever someone did something that needed correcting.  For example, we would all get a "be sure you are at work on time" email when someone ran late for work.   The crazy thing was even if I was at work on time that day, I would worry that the email was directed to me.    I would console myself by thinking if my boss had a problem with me, she would come speak to me.  One day, we all received another blanket email for an infraction that I knew was directed solely to me.  The problem was, my boss had never spoken to me about it.  I realize now that my boss was shifting monkeys of a few on to the group as a whole rather than speaking directly to the person involved.

I especially enjoyed discussing this book with colleagues from across Texas (and beyond) via Twitter during #texedchat.