Whether you work for a small business or large corporation, we all have some sort of company culture. It’s the foundation we use for making decisions, creating policies and often it defines our brand. That’s why it’s so important to know the history of your culture and clearly understand why you do the things you do.
Here’s a fantastic example of this from an article a friend shared with me about a scientific experiment involving five monkeys.
Begin with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result, and all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon the monkeys will try to prevent it.
Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.
Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done around here.
According to the study, this is how a company policy begins. If you don’t believe me, just imagine replacing the monkeys with people and instead of spraying them with water, try removing their morning coffee.
Note: From what I can tell, the original research paper was called Empowering Analytic Hierarchy Process by Habitual Domains Concepts. It was written by P. L. Yu, distinguished chair professor, Institute of Information Management, National Chiao Tung University, and Hsin Chu, Taiwan Y. C. Chen Institute of Information Management, National Chiao Tung University, Hsin Chu, Taiwan .
Want more free tips, ideas, information, and inspiration to take your business to the next level? Click here to subscribe to The Biz Bite.
Thanks for regularly reading and supporting this blog! –Whitney Keyes