Lessons from the animals
Ray Allegrezza -- Furniture Today, January 2, 2005
Ever notice how so many of today's best-selling motivational business books are written as parables and use life forms other than humans?
There's a tome titled "Fish! Tales: Real-Life Stories to Help You Transform Your Workplace and Your Life." You can follow that up with "Fish! Sticks: A Remarkable Way to Adapt to Changing Times and Keep Your Work Fresh." And let's not forget "Fish! For Life: A Remarkable Way to Achieve Your Dreams."
Want a bigger picture? Crack open a book called "Whale Done: The Power of Positive Relationships."
At a neighborhood Christmas party, I heard one man talked about the difficulty of changing corporate culture. He told a story that could become the next best seller. And it didn't even involve a fish!
Instead, his story was about five apes that lived together in a large cage. One day, their keeper attached stairs to the inside of the cage and, at the same time, tied a bunch of bananas to the ceiling.
Soon, one of the apes climbed the stairs and tried to grab the bananas. At that exact moment, the four other apes were doused with ice-cold water. Every time one of the apes would climb the stairs and reach for the bananas, all those watching would get soaked with frigid water.
Then, the keeper took one of the apes out of the cage and brought in a new ape. As soon as that ape made a move to climb the stairs, the others beat him so quickly the keeper didn't have time to turn the hose on the group.
The keeper removed another of the original apes and replaced that one with a new ape. This time, when the newest ape tried to climb the stairs and get the bananas, all the others, including the one who had never been doused with water, attacked him.
The morals of this story are pretty clear. First, it's very easy to foster a we've-always-done-it-this-way mentality. Second, established habits are hard to break, especially in a climate of negative reinforcement.
Hey, who knows? Maybe we'll all soon be discussing the next best seller, "Don't Drown Your Ape."
Here's wishing you a healthy, productive and prosperous 2005. May this be the year we all grab the bananas with dry hands!
Furnitureland teams with Nantz
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