Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?

A "monkey" represents the next move or action step in any task, and it sits on the back of whoever owns that next move. When a subordinate brings a problem to a manager and the manager agrees to "think about it" or "look into it," the monkey leaps from the subordinate's back to the manager's, effectively making the manager work for the subordinate. This reversal is the root cause of managerial time starvation.

Managers deal with boss-imposed time (mandated by superiors), system-imposed time (peer requests), and self-imposed time (which splits into subordinate-imposed time and discretionary time). The key insight is that only self-imposed time is free from external penalties, making it the critical lever for regaining control—specifically by eliminating the subordinate-imposed component to increase discretionary time.

Through four vivid scenarios (Jones's hallway problem, Johnson's memo, Smith's PR proposal, Reed's new venture objectives), the authors demonstrate that monkeys jump to the manager's back whenever the manager accepts the next move—whether by saying "let me think about it," "send me a memo," "let me know how I can help," or "I will draw up an initial draft." In every case, the subordinate ends up waiting for the manager, not the other way around.

A hierarchy of initiative levels ranges from (1) wait until told (lowest) to (5) act on own, then routinely report (highest). Managers must outlaw levels 1 and 2 for subordinates and ensure every problem has an agreed-upon initiative level, forcing subordinates to master "Completed Staff Work" rather than delegating upward.