# Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?
## Metadata
- Author: [[William Oncken, Jr.
Donald L. Wass]]
- Full Title: Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?
- Category: #articles
- Summary: Managers often struggle with time because they take on tasks that should be handled by their subordinates. By properly managing tasks and responsibilities, managers can free up discretionary time to focus on more important matters and empower their subordinates to take initiative. The key is to avoid letting "monkeys" leap from subordinates to managers and instead encourage subordinates to take ownership of their responsibilities.
- URL: https://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
## Highlights
- Specifically, we shall deal with three kinds of management time:
*Boss-imposed time*—used to accomplish those activities that the boss requires and that the manager cannot disregard without direct and swift penalty.
*System-imposed time*—used to accommodate requests from peers for active support. Neglecting these requests will also result in penalties, though not always as direct or swift.
*Self-imposed time*—used to do those things that the manager originates or agrees to do. A certain portion of this kind of time, however, will be taken by subordinates and is called *subordinate-imposed time*. The remaining portion will be the manager’s own and is called *discretionary time*. Self-imposed time is not subject to penalty since neither the boss nor the system can discipline the manager for not doing what they didn’t know he had intended to do in the first place. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz3037kmm4kma9mes5rx2qw7))
- Managers should try to increase the discretionary component of their self-imposed time by minimizing or doing away with the subordinate component. They will then use the added increment to get better control over their boss-imposed and system-imposed activities. Most managers spend much more time dealing with subordinates’ problems than they even faintly realize. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz30s4cfdy0smt67p1zrf6t1))
- Jones greets the manager with, “Good morning. By the way, we’ve got a problem. You see….” As Jones continues, the manager recognizes in this problem the two characteristics common to all the problems his subordinates gratuitously bring to his attention. Namely, the manager knows (a) enough to get involved, but (b) not enough to make the on-the-spot decision expected of him. Eventually, the manager says, “So glad you brought this up. I’m in a rush right now. Meanwhile, let me think about it, and I’ll let you know.” Then he and Jones part company. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz30v1apqemss5exq304apmt))
- Subordinate-imposed time begins the moment a monkey successfully leaps from the back of a subordinate to the back of his or her superior and does not end until the monkey is returned to its proper owner for care and feeding. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz30ypvks6fv2d92007n5nkq))
- The subordinate, to make sure the manager does not miss this point, will later stick her head in the manager’s office and cheerily query, “How’s it coming?” (This is called supervision.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz30yv30q9mxq2g2bt4ae0rf))
- concluding a conference with Johnson, another subordinate, the manager’s parting words are, “Fine. Send me a memo on that.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz3116dhsa47jtxe8fjjdfsm))
- Johnson dutifully writes the requested memo and drops it in his out-basket. Shortly thereafter, the manager plucks it from his in-basket and reads it. Whose move is it now? The manager’s. If he does not make that move soon, he will get a follow-up memo from the subordinate. (This is another form of supervision.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz3105pck3pb4h53mnywba7j))
- The manager’s parting words to her are, “Just let me know how I can help.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz311t2kahx9dvpxv27ee5k4))
- Who’s really got the monkey? Who will be checking up on whom? Wheel spinning and bottlenecking are well on their way again. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz314s4w2f4v9kbdyh62wth7))
- Reed, has just been transferred from another part of the company so that he can launch and eventually manage a newly created business venture. The manager has said they should get together soon to hammer out a set of objectives for the new job, adding, “I will draw up an initial draft for discussion with you.”
Let us analyze this one, too. The subordinate has the new job (by formal assignment) and the full responsibility (by formal delegation), but the manager has the next move. Until he makes it, he will have the monkey, and the subordinate will be immobilized. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz3166bad7mwb1rmq37c37p5))
- Why does all of this happen? Because in each instance the manager and the subordinate assume at the outset, wittingly or unwittingly, that the matter under consideration is a joint problem. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz316x5vg0yftxxsrw55kff2))
- Worst of all, the reason the manager cannot make any of these “next moves” is that his time is almost entirely eaten up by meeting his own boss-imposed and system-imposed requirements. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz319cyfy6revf3agtt0vhrf))
- In short, he now sees, with the clarity of a revelation on a mountaintop, that the more he gets caught up, the more he will fall behind. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz31ba08xvgd5sq5w6he7d5j))
- The purpose of each interview is to take a monkey, place it on the desk between them, and figure out together how the next move might conceivably be the subordinate’s. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz31hsb3h5xtpspjh1fxwfr9))
- “At no time while I am helping you with this or any other problem will your problem become my problem. The instant your problem becomes mine, you no longer have a problem. I cannot help a person who hasn’t got a problem.
“When this meeting is over, the problem will leave this office exactly the way it came in—on your back. You may ask my help at any appointed time, and we will make a joint determination of what the next move will be and which of us will make it.
“In those rare instances where the next move turns out to be mine, you and I will determine it together. I will not make any move alone.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz31mtdaahvn5q5mn4f7g53p))
- The opener, “Boss, we’ve got a problem,” implies this duality and represents, as noted earlier, a monkey astride two backs, which is a very bad way to start a monkey on its career. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz31q0aw0sncbq8x3s4760e2))
- There are five degrees of initiative that the manager can exercise in relation to the boss and to the system:
1. wait until told (lowest initiative);
2. ask what to do;
3. recommend, then take resulting action;
4. act, but advise at once;
5. and act on own, then routinely report (highest initiative).
Clearly, the manager should be professional enough not to indulge in initiatives 1 and 2 in relation either to the boss or to the system. A manager who uses initiative 1 has no control over either the timing or the content of boss-imposed or system-imposed time and thereby forfeits any right to complain about what he or she is told to do or when. The manager who uses initiative 2 has control over the timing but not over the content. Initiatives 3, 4, and 5 leave the manager in control of both, with the greatest amount of control being exercised at level 5. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz31rzp74etsnmfngceervhj))
- In relation to subordinates, the manager’s job is twofold. First, to outlaw the use of initiatives 1 and 2, thus giving subordinates no choice but to learn and master “Completed Staff Work.” Second, to see that for each problem leaving his or her office there is an agreed-upon level of initiative assigned to it, in addition to an agreed-upon time and place for the next manager-subordinate conference. The latter should be duly noted on the manager’s calendar. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hz31vwwrjwfsvyqh50wrxw6v))