Just ONE Thing
Who's Carrying the Monkey in Your Auto Repair Shop? — Here’s What to Do About It
Episode 213
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. My name is Rick White from 180BIZ, and this is my Just One Thing.
What I want to talk about today are MONKEYS. Now I'm not talking about being in the zoo or anything like that. What I'm talking about is actually when someone comes to you with a problem and they don't know what to do next. You got to be able to understand what a monkey is.
For years, I thought a monkey was the problem, right? That it was their problem, and they had to take care of it, right? Well, what I've discovered in reading—I'm reading The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, or something like that. It's really a pretty decent book, and it actually really made a lot of sense.
See, the monkey isn't the problem or the challenge. The monkey is the next move. The monkey is: what do we do next?
And typically, here's what it sounds like:
"Hey, Scott. Man, I broke some exhaust bolts. I don't know what to do about them, you know, here."
And so now, what I want you to envision is a monkey right here on my shoulder. And as I'm talking to Scott, that monkey, if Scott allows it, is going to hop off of my shoulder and onto his shoulder. And I think that is really an issue.
I'm going to tell you that one of the reasons why you feel like you're working all day long and getting nothing that you want done is because you have too many monkeys in your office. Okay, there are monkeys from other people. They're issues that, instead of them stepping back and saying, "Hey, what can I do about this?" right? They're giving it to you.
And here's the issue—if you allow that to happen, they come to you with more and more monkeys. Okay?
So here's what I want you to understand: when you take their monkey, they're now your supervisor. See, when you're the boss and you say, "Here, do this, please," they're in the process of doing the activity. You're there to manage and make sure it gets done.
Well, what happens is, when they come to you and they give you their monkey, now you've got to report back to them, and they're the manager waiting for it to happen.
Okay, so number one—you got to understand what the next move is. That's the first thing you got to do.
Now, when someone comes to you with a problem—I did this for years and years and years—I'm going to ask you to think this through. I want you to implement the 1-3-1 rule, because what happens too often is people show up with monkeys and they haven't thought them through. They're just looking to get rid of it.
Your goal is to keep that monkey on their back. Okay?
So the 1-3-1 rule—my people were not allowed to come into my office and complain. My people were allowed to come in with an issue, but they had to come up with three potential solutions to that issue and one recommendation. Until they had those three things—we called it the 1-3-1—until they had that, they were not allowed to sit in my office and complain. Didn't listen to it.
This is your issue. I'm paying you to figure it out. That's what you're here for.
So number one—figure out what the next move is together, right? So that's specific. You know each monkey.
Because we gotta understand this is rule number two—you gotta make sure that everybody knows who the monkey is assigned to, right? And you're absolutely right. When you follow this monkey management routine, it actually turns into a delegation process. It's really pretty cool.
So now, the next thing you got to do is make sure that there are insurance policies.
What does that mean? That the risk is covered. Either you're not real confident with the person's ability to handle it—number one—or number two, it could have catastrophic, you know, results to the company, like burn the building down. Then you're going to ask them to come and recommend before they act. That's level one.
Okay, that's level one risk: they come to you and make recommendations, and then you give them feedback—they act.
Level two is where they act, and then they fill you in. That is when you have a higher level of confidence in what they're doing. Okay?
But here's rule number four—and this is something you all are not doing—is you got to make sure the monkeys are fed.
What that means is you got to make sure that there's follow-up. Just because it's their monkey, you got to recognize that the result that you're looking for with that team member is a shared responsibility. And what you want to do is have regular check-ins where you're going to see how they're doing, right?
You don't want to just give them a hunting license and let them go. You want to make sure that you're on top of it. It makes you feel better. It empowers them, and it works really, really cool.
Okay, so rule number one—you got to make sure the next move is specified.
Rule number two—you got to make sure that the monkey, the next move, is assigned to somebody, whether it's you or them. And sometimes it will be you, but other times it should be them—most of the time.
Number three—the risk is covered. You got the insurance policy.
Number four—you got regular feeding and check-up appointments to make sure this stuff is getting done.
Okay. So I hope that has made sense. If it has, please share this video.
Please remember our Shop Owners Round Table—July 10, 7 PM Eastern. We have our Shop Owners Round Table. Come on in. In the summertime, they tend to be a little lighter because of the summer. Come on in—we'll be able to spend some time dealing with issues that you're going through right now. Okay, that's the first thing.
Second thing—we have a great webinar series: Pocket Business Genius. It's the second Thursday every month, 1 PM. If that's something you'd like, just let me know, and we will make that happen.
Let's go make it a fun week and go make some money this week, everybody.
Take care. God bless. We'll see you later. Bye-bye.
