Leaders and managers in smaller businesses struggle to make do with scarce resources. It's a condition of being smaller, but the one resource that smaller businesses have in exactly the same amount as large enterprises is time. Having the same quantity doesn't make it any easier to manage.
Several years ago, William Oncken Jr. and Donald Wass wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review about time management called "Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey." Oncken and Wass used the metaphor of monkeys to approach the issue of time management. The point is that we can't really manage time. We can manage how we use our time, but there are not any ways to increase the amount of time, move time around, or buy more of it (though we'd all certainly like to buy some once in a while). Time management is really more about priority management and delegation.
Monkeys are a metaphor for taking the initiative on tasks and responsibilities. A user's printer problem is a monkey. Setting up new user accounts for the staff members is a monkey. Reviewing server logs to troubleshoot the backup software is a monkey. Monkeys live on people's backs and they can be exchanged and moved around from person to person. The question is: how do you manage the monkeys so thing get done? Oncken and Wass proposed five rules for managing monkeys.
Rule #1: Monkeys should be fed or shot.
Although you should absolutely not micromanage, it's important to check in with your people to make sure they are feeding their monkeys with the appropriate attention. If a monkey isn't getting attention, it will eventually get angry and demand more attention than if it were addressed immediately. At the same time, it occasionally becomes necessary to shoot a monkey because it's no longer important or required. If you have a monkey that's been sitting around for weeks, maybe it would be better to just remove it as a to-do and move on.
Rule #2: The monkey population should be kept below the maximum number that the manager has time to feed.
Your people will only work on the number of monkeys that they have time for. A monkey that has been well maintained should only take five to 15 minutes of care to maintain. If your people have too many monkeys, you're going to have too many monkeys to care for and feed, too. It's important to know the team and yourself so that no one becomes overloaded. Otherwise, the monkeys will get to be overwhelming. You have seen those Career Builder ads, right?
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Rule #3: Monkeys should be fed by appointment only.
If one of your reports walks into your office with a monkey, it's sometimes a good idea to send them away to schedule a time to come back. With the intellectual style of IT work, sometimes we just need a little more time on our own to figure out a problem. It might be a good idea, though, to feed the monkey a treat by giving the person a thought that might get them approaching the problem from a different angle by which they take care of the monkey themselves.
Rule #4: Monkeys should be fed face to face or by telephone, but not in writing.
If someone sends you an e-mail about a monkey they're carrying that requires a response, who now has the monkey? That's right -- you do! The monkey is on the back of the person who has to take the next step. If you're asked a question about someone else's monkey, you want to be careful that they don't get you to take the monkey for them. Even some phone calls can move a monkey to you, so be careful how you talk. You want to help the person take care of their own monkey, not let them give the monkey to you.
Rule #5: Every monkey should be assigned the next feeding time and a degree of initiative.
Although not every monkey is going to be long term or require weeks of work, it is possible that a monkey isn't a task that can be completed short term. In that case, you want to check in and feed the monkey on a regular basis. By assigning how much initiative is needed, you also can set expectations about how much progress should be made before the next feeding. If you just check in to see how things are going, then maybe nothing will happen. If nothing happens, that could allow the monkey to jump onto the manager's back.
Though these rules are a bit extreme when taken strictly, I think it's definitely important to think about who has the monkey on a task. It can become easy to just say you'll take care of something because you know exactly what needs to be done. But, before you take on a new monkey, consider how it will affect the rest of the monkeys you already have on your back.
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Mike Bohlmann has more than 10 years of experience as a Web developer and an IT manager. He is an IT manager at the University of Illinois, where he is in the process of completing work toward his master's degree. His research is focused on IT management, leadership, and services.
