Shoot the Monkey

I took my first time management course in the early 1970s--using material from a cantankerous presenter, William Oncken, Jr. He built his talk around monkeys--and reminiscent of a later movie, They Shoot Monkeys, Don't They? (paraphrased from horses!), Oncken spoke of monkeys as "initiatives" or projects that can take on a life of their own. Sometimes you need to kill the project, ie, "shoot the monkey."


If you, as a manager, are not careful, the work will jump right off the back of a subordinate and onto your back.

I believe my friend and former bridge partner, Steve, will remember our Oncken training.

I quickly learned that ideas & projects can take on a life of their own. These monkeys have "tails"--and those tails can eventually be time consuming, expensive, distracting and counter-productive.

I dedicate this article to my Rocket Scientist friend, Jason. I greatly appreciate his efforts over the past few weeks to coordinate a series of golf outings when he visits in mid-July.

Jason is having difficulty getting people to respond to his emails, and to commit to forming into foursomes. We'll have fun--but I know it can be frustrating.

By the way, Jason is doing his part to develop the new Ares rocket. Here is his piece of the action.


Whether you are a boss, or if you choose to take on a personal project, this monkey is going to present tails. It behooves you to make sure the project is worthwhile, or you re going to waste valuable time and resources.

Oncken presented five rules for the care and feeding of monkeys. If you violate any of these rules, you will forfeit your discretionary time.

Rule 1. Monkeys should be fed or shot. Otherwise, they will starve to death, and you will waste valuable time on postmortems or attempted resurrections.

Rule 2. The monkey population should be kept below the maximum number you have time to feed. Subordinates will find time to work as many monkeys as you find time to feed, but no more. It shouldn't take more than 5 to 15 minutes to feed a properly maintained monkey.

Rule 3. Monkeys should be fed by appointment only. You should not have to hunt down starving monkeys and feed them on a catch-as-catch-can basis.

Rule 4. Monkeys should be fed face-to-face or by telephone, but never by mail. (Remember--with mail, the next move will be yours.) Documentation may add to the feeding process, but it cannot take the place of feeding.

Rule 5. Every monkey should have an assigned next feeding time and degree of initiative. These may be revised at any time by mutual consent but never allowed to become vague or indefinite. Otherwise, the monkey will either starve to death or wind up on your back.

“Get control over the timing and content of what you do” is appropriate advice for managing your time. Your first order of business is to enlarge your discretionary time. You do this by eliminating subordinate-imposed time, or by eliminating personal projects that aren't worthwhile.

The result of all this is that you will increase your leverage, which will in turn enable you to multiply, without theoretical limit, the value of each hour that you spend.

Some people are amazed at how much I am able to accomplish. It's actually quite simple. You now know the secret. Feed or kill your monkeys!!