What Are Your Monkeys and Bananas?
September 26, 2014One of the phrases my coworkers and I used a lot (at another firm during my career) in times of frustration was “monkeys and bananas.” That was our way of saying that we were operating under a bunch of constraints and no one could explain a logical or rational reason for those constraints. “That’s the way it’s always been done…” is the beginning of an explanation that would always irritate me. Just because something has always been done that way doesn’t mean it’s the way it should continue to be done. So…how does that relate to monkeys and bananas???
As the story goes, and I’m not certain if it’s an urban myth or a true study, there were monkeys in a large cage with bananas on all four corners. On three corners, the monkey could freely eat bananas. On the fourth, there would be a blast of water when reaching for the bananas so the monkeys stopped going to that corner for food.
Then, one monkey was removed and replaced with a new one. When the new monkey went to the fourth corner, the other monkeys would pull the new monkey away so that it wouldn’t get blasted with a water hose. Eventually every monkey was replaced and there was a cage full of monkeys who refused to eat from thefourth corner and would stop other new monkeys from eating there but not one of them had ever been blasted with water.
Why wouldn’t they eat from that corner? If they could talk, they wouldn’t be able to tell you. They had never experienced a negative consequence, yet they refused to eat from that corner and wouldn’t allow another monkey to either.
Companies often have rules in place that seem like monkeys and bananas. When a process seems very antiquated or silly or nonsensical, and you dig into “why do we do it this way?”, the answer more times than you’d like is “we’ve always done it this way.” At least it was the answer I got a lot. So I would respond “does that mean we can’t change it and make it better?” And sometimes we would change policies to make them more logical and reasonable or to make things less difficult for employees to be productive.
I see this with some people I talk to about their financial life. They continue to engage in counterproductive behavior with their financial lives and can’t exactly say why. Some examples: getting a new car every 3 years, keeping credit card balances at their maximum credit limit month after month, going out to eat nearly every night, living beyond their means on a consistent basis, etc.
Why do people do these things? When I ask, they have no reason other than “it’s the way I’ve always done this.” When I hear that, I tell the monkeys and bananas story and ask them if they want to continue along their current path (they probably wouldn’t be talking with me if they truly wanted that) or if they’d like to make a change for the better. Almost always, the answer is that they are ready to make a change. They just didn’t realize they could make the change.
What can you do? Take a look at your life. What are some “monkeys and bananas” situations that you maybe didn’t realize you have the ability to change? Once you realize you don’t have to do something the way it’s always been done, your creativity can shine through and you can begin to make progress toward the goals that are most important to you. Your job now…look for monkeys!