It’s a wonderful blessing to be able to do what you love for a living. Since I am fortunate enough to write and train, I’m always looking for new ways to get the stuff that’s in my head either onto paper or out to those I have the opportunity to teach. One book that has proven invaluable to me is Thinker toys by Michael Michalko. It is a handbook of creative thinking techniques that can be implemented if you take the time to do it right.
One of the big ticket items in this handbook is looking at things from other viewpoints than your own. Our perceptions are all filled with biases based on our life experiences and at times they tend to skew how we view certain situations and even people. This can cause us to make assumptions that also might be skewed. This is the basis of this blog entry. For those that do it right in the HVAC and Home Performance industries we pride ourselves on doing things the right way. Is it possible some of the things we think we are doing right aren't right at all? Is it possible our perception is skewed? This is where the five monkeys come into play.
Five Monkeys Moral Story..
In Michalko’s book he gives an example of five monkeys. In this example, the five monkeys are placed in a large cage that has a banana hanging from a string in the center of the cage. Underneath the banana is a set of stairs to enable the monkeys to reach the banana. After some time passes, one of the monkeys sets out to climb the stairs and go for the banana. As soon as the monkey touches the stairs, all the monkeys in the cage are blasted with ice cold water.
Some time passes and another monkey get brave enough to make an attempt at the banana. All the monkeys in the cage meet with the same fate of ice cold water on the second attempt. More time passes and another monkey try to go for the banana, this time he is attacked by the other monkeys.
Now the cold water is turned off and one of the original five monkeys is replaced with a new one. This new monkey sees the banana and tries to go up the stairs after it. He is immediately attacked by the other four monkeys. After a bit of time he tries again to climb the stairs and is once again attacked. This new monkey now knows you don’t even think about climbing the stairs or you’ll get the snot beat out of you.
Another one of the original monkeys is removed from the cage and replaced with a new one. The newest monkey heads straight for the stairs and is immediately attacked. The previous newcomer also joins in on the attack. The process continues with a third original monkey being replaced with a newcomer. The new monkey goes for the stairs and is attacked. Two of the monkeys who are attacking him have no idea why they are doing it; they are just following the crowd.
The original fourth and fifth monkeys are soon replaced, all the monkeys who have been sprayed by ice cold water are now gone yet none of the replacements will ever again approach the stairs. Why won’t they approach the stairs? Because that’s the way it has always been.
Don’t be a Monkey...
Is it possible that in the Any work and Home Performance industries that we have stopped challenging assumptions? When did we stop asking why and start blindly accepting things that we are told instead of going out and proving it to ourselves? I have to think of the State Farm insurance commercial as I type this. A gentleman is processing an accident report from his Smartphone on the sidewalk and a young lady approaches him asking what he is doing. They proceed to talk and she mentions if it’s on the internet it must be true. As soon as she utters these words a fellow she met on the internet claiming to be a French model walks up to take her on their date. Obviously he is not, Bonjour. It’s easy to see this in a commercial spoofing the idea, but not so easy to see it in ourselves taking place on a daily basis. Our perceptions become skewed based on our experiences and biases.
When I see comments made by those who want to test for Safety and try to do the right thing get hammered for wanting to learn the example of the five monkeys often comes to my mind. I have seen them give the tester the ability to uncover some dangerous situations though. On the contrary I have seen approved installations make the equipment operate absolutely dangerous and nothing is ever said. Why the discrepancy?
When will we stop attacking one another based on our own limited knowledge and experiences instead of getting the facts straight first? When we act like monkeys no one wins.
Written By M.Ajmal Khan.
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