Managing Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?

by William Oncken Jr.

Bill Oncken, Jr. hits both the absurdities and realities of organizational life in America with such accuracy that it hurts. Now what hundreds of thousands of managers have learned in "Managing Management Time" seminars is being made available for every manager in America to read in the quiet of his or her office. Get out the handkerchiefs because this book reads as accurately & humorously as Bill tells it "live". He offers practical, realistic, workable solutions to the dilemmas facing the overloaded manager. His advice on "How to Delegate" is, by itself, many times worth the price of this book. Practicing managers all over the world will "lap up" this book. It should be required reading for all students of management in all universities and colleges. "Managing Management Time" is not just about time management, it's a complete course in management. You will learn from and enjoy this book but most important, is that you will use what you learn. The truths that Bill Oncken will give you can set you free and make your organization a more productive and satisfying place for everyone to work. This book is an invaluable reference.

Genres: Management, Business, Leadership, Nonfiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1984

About the author

William Oncken, Jr., was chairman of the William Oncken Corporation until his death in 1988. His son, William Oncken III, now heads the company.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is really hard to find. I have a copy but good luck finding one out in the world. This one has a lot of influence on the way we do things at my current workplace and I expect that it'll have a lot of influence on me professionally for years to come. The two main concepts are (1) Carefully structure and limit the number of "monkeys" that your team attempts to transfer from their own backs to your back (2) Maximize the amount of freedom that you give to your team, with insurance policies in place. I could go on and on about this one, honestly. Highly, highly recommended.

[Christoph Kappel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally learned about this book from The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey and immediately wanted to read the original book.

The whole time concept, like system-induced time, boss-induced time and so on is really interesting and the book is generally really funny with lots of anecdotes. One of the downs for me is the complexity of creating this own language and terminology like molecules. I sometimes thought this is difficult to grasp, except the monkeys and gorillas - this I got immediately. ;)

[Alexandra]

Assigned reading for work -- I actually only made it a third of the way through. It is written for a powerless little rat in a large bureaucratic trap filled with many other little rats; I have never had the misfortune to be in this situation and don't anticipate ever so being. Therefore, this book serves no constructive purpose for me. I apprised my boss and he told me to stop wasting my time. I like my boss! :)

[Lendl Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astute observations about organizational behavior and examples of the counterintuitive approaches to enabling individual and team contributions in organizations.

Some really helpful principles and frameworks here (I especially appreciated the nuggets of perspective from "Benjamin Franklin's Grandfather" 😂).

While a few of the illustrations are hilarious and really helped the concepts stick for me, on the whole it felt like his storytelling was so abundant and over the top that it was more distracting than helpful.

[Kaitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little long winded, but some very interesting, valuable and pertinent points for anyone looking to understand how to be a "professional" manager. Especially useful for someone starting out in management, but I imagine also a good read several years into your management career, to remind you of what you should be doing to maximise your potential and career.

[Jeff Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

if time management is a weakness, this offers some practical advice on addressing

[Caroline Milburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really good. Lots of great concepts. Not a five page leadership book :)

[Tobias MZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hidden gem - I've rarely enjoyed a business book so much!

[Himanshu Kapila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best management related book that I have ever read.

[Bob Selden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Management Time: Who’s Got The Monkey? Has been one of the most popular articles ever published in HBR – and one of the most useful.

Oncken and Wass suggest that there are three types of management-imposed time pressure – Boss, System, and Self. Each has its own imperatives and if not managed, consequences.

Boss-imposed time pressure are activities, which must be accomplished, or we’ll suffer the consequences! System-imposed time pressures are those activities/requests which come from peers and colleagues. The penalties are not so severe or as swift, but we may still suffer if these things are not done.

Self-imposed time pressure are those activities we ourselves initiate or agree to do – particularly those things which have been upwardly delegated from people who report to us. These activities impact heavily on our discretionary time, and the penalty for not doing these is stress.

Oncken and Wass use the monkey analogy to make their point. When someone in our team talks about a “problem” they want to “run past us”, the monkey (in other words, the problem) is very clearly on their back. But when we respond with something like “Well, I haven’t got time right now, but leave it with me”, the monkey immediately leaps from their shoulders to ours. We have just been on the receiving end of an excellent piece of upward delegation.

They suggest the way to deal with this is to develop the initiative of team members to take action. At the heart of their article is deciding which of five “levels of initiative” your people are at. It’s then a matter of helping each person progress through the five levels.

I’ve used this process helping managers improve their time management and delegation skills for over ten years. If you want to improve your productivity as a manager, this publication is highly recommended.

[Paul Bard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing wise piece on delegation, notable also for the afterword but Dr Stephen Covey entitled Making time for gorillas.

[Shahzad]

Excellent book to learn how to prioritize the work and how to delegate when required.