Production Tracking - Don't Be a Dry Monkey

Put a few monkeys in a cage with a ladder that has bananas on top. One monkey immediately goes for the bananas.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

Cold water sprays on the others.  

Field Productivity: Don't Be a Dry Monkey. Know the Why behind production, know the how of troubleshooting and know the when and the who for escalation of production problems.

One more monkey might try to go for the bananas again after they dry off and forget.  The cold water sprays the others again.  

All of these original monkeys are now conditioned to not go for the bananas.  

Replace one of the monkeys and the new one immediately goes for the bananas but the others stop him because they don’t want to get sprayed with cold water again.  

Replace another of the original monkeys and the pattern repeats itself.  

Replace all of the original monkeys until no monkey has ever been sprayed by water yet the group think conditioning remains so no monkey will ever be allowed to go for the bananas.  

This behavior keeps us safe in some ways but in many more ways it simply stops learning and innovation.  

When it comes to production tracking don’t let anyone on your team be a dry monkey.  Always encourage learning and smart risk taking by leading the way to find a better way.  


Improving Labor Productivity Workshop


Production Tracking - Don't Be a Dry Monkey
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....

Production Tracking - Don't Be a Dry Monkey
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....

Attracting and Retaining Talent: The Five Most Important Questions
To attract and retain the best talent, everyone on your team must be able to clearly answer these five questions. Your answers must be competitive with the other choices a potential new team member has.
Project Team Zero
What would it mean for your company if every one of your project teams were a zero? Zero-Accidents + Zero-Fade + Delighted Customer = Perfect Project
1 Million Point Evaluation for Contractor Operations
How effective is your whole system from strategic market choices through project exit? This simple evaluation exercise with your team will help you align then eliminate your key bottlenecks and constraint.