This caught my attention. Cha R Mie nakita ko na: In a 2011 PT blog post called What Monkeys Can Teach Us About Human Behavior, Michael Michalko (MM) described an experiment involving five monkeys, a ladder, and a banana. Descriptions of this experiment can also be found on the Internet, as a result of this story being told many times in various blogs, books and speeches. The experiment as described in the story, however, never happened. This is how MM described the experiment in his blog post. This human behavior of not challenging assumptions reminds me of an experiment psychologists performed years ago. They started with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, they hung a banana on a string with a set of stairs placed under it. Before long, a monkey went to the stairs and started to climb towards the banana. As soon as he started up the stairs, the psychologists sprayed all of the other monkeys with ice cold water. After a while, another monkey made an attempt to obtain the banana. As soon as his foot touched the stairs, all of the other monkeys were sprayed with ice cold water. Its wasnt long before all of the other monkeys would physically prevent any monkey from climbing the stairs. Now, the psychologists shut off the cold water, removed one monkey from the cage and replaced it with a new one. The new monkey saw the banana and started to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attacked him. After another attempt and attack, he discovered that if he tried to climb the stairs, he would be assaulted. Next they removed another of the original five monkeys and replaced it with a new one. The newcomer went to the stairs and was attacked. The previous newcomer took part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, they replaced a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey tried to climb the stairs, he was attacked. The monkeys had no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they were beating any monkey that tried. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys had ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approached the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know thats the way its always been around here. MM then concludes: People sometimes do the same in the workplace. How many times have you heard It has always been done this way. Dont mess with what works. Instead of challenging these assumptions, many of us, like the monkeys, simply keep reproducing what has been done before. Its the easiest thing to do.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 05:02:22 +0000
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