Monkeys

There are lots of situations where one might make reference to a monkey. Homer Simpson has a deep fear of the power of monkeys, a monkey can be a sum of money if you live "dahn saff - down south", you could be a porch monkey if you intend to stay in one place and never leave and finally in this instance, you could have a monkey on your back.

A good Friend of mine was telling me recently how in business it is usual, in times of trouble, to get that monkey off your back by advising the concerned party to carry out a seemingly pointless task. The concerned party then goes about this task unaware of its pointlessness and in this way, you have got the monkey off your back and at the very least, bought some time to consider your next move.

I have first hand experience of being that concerned party this week at work. Without going into detail, I am slap bang in the middle of a situation that has an obvious solution. However, the solution has financial implications and the people who can say yes or no as to whether we can resolve the problem keep giving me small time delaying tasks to carry out that ultimately stall us from resolving the problem until such a time as they have to commit to a resolution.

I don't like being a monkey. My work style is to tell people the truth. I say what I see and, if its in my power, I do what needs to be done. Being a monkey is not my style. The outcome of this current problem will be damaging to all parties just because we did not do the right thing at the right time. We can argue and finger point later but now is not the time and place for silly games.

So although getting a monkey off your back buys you time, it does nothing for your credibility and goes little way to resolving the problem.

Like I said, I don't do monkeys......