Free: Gibbons

(A Gibbon is small primate. Just picture them like a monkey, spastically jumping around and making noise.)

When I was in college (back when candles were used for lighting and coal for heating) my friends and I would sit around and in between old episodes of Star Trek, we would develop lists of “Givens.” Like “It’s a given that she won’t go out with you” or “You’re gonna flunk that test; that’s a given.” One of us started calling them Gibbons (perhaps they weren't quite sober at the time). And so the idea of the Gibbon was born: an event, task, idea or concept that was foreordained, as certain as the sun's rising and setting, and therefore an event, task, idea or concept that couldn't be questioned. Failing the test was a Gibbon, so you didn't even worry about how to change your study habits or cram at the last second. It just wouldn't be worth it.

After a year or two it became apparent to my friends and I that Gibbons are funny things. Since they don't get questioned they develop lives of their own. In fact it is quite easy for your life to be taken over by Gibbons. And like all monkeys, Gibbons end up settling comfortably onto your back, where they weigh you down until you set them free. Sometimes the monkey was a task (as the common useage would indicate), but more often than not the monkey was just conventional wisdom, limiting the holder of the Gibbon to a existence of quiet frustration.

If you are in corporate America then you have are quite literally covered in Gibbons. Ever get asked to do something that is so stupid that you just have to wonder who ever thought it was a good idea in the first place? That’s a Gibbon. Ever fail to raise your hand at a company meeting and challenge the conventional wisdom? That's a Gibbon too. Gibbons cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year, because Gibbons limit progress and waste time.

Gibbons spring to life due to one of two phenomenons:

1. Something was a good idea once, but doesn't make sense any more. Gibbons are amazingly resilient to the ravages of time.
2. The Gibbon was born of something called the Abilene Paradox whereby nobody wanted the Gibbon in the first place, but you ended up with it anyway.

APGs (Abilene Paradox Gibbons) are actually the most ruthless and destructive types of Gibbons, which is especially frustrating because nobody wanted that Gibbon in the first place. In fact, every time I think of APG's I think of "Super Regions."

A former client of mine had more Gibbons than I have ever seen anywhere else. The king of the Gibbons was something they called the “Super Region.” This client acquired competitors so often that they started to group them into large supra-regions that encompassed states, but were not as large as geographical demarcations such as “Pacific Northwest.” The problem was that the “Super Region” concept really screwed up your reporting, because it forced a separate branch of the organizational hierarchy. In effect, you always had to run two reports (one for states and one for super regions) and then manually reconcile them. There were two people who were hired just to reconcile the reports, so needless to say the whole concept of a super region was costing the client a lot of money.

I was enlisted to bring some sense to this dysfunction. My first step was to do some exploration. Unsurprisingly I found that everybody hated the idea of the super region. It appeared that it had been the brainchild of somebody who was long since gone. But like all ideas, once born it had a life of its own.

I started to go around and ask people two questions: “Would you mind if I killed the super region table and just reported by state” and “Do you know of any reason why I shouldn’t kill it?” The answers were always the same “I would love it if you got rid of it, but I think Bob over in accounting (or Judy in purchasing, or some such person in some such department) really needs it, so you better go talk to him / her.” Following the trail to the next step just got a repeat of the same answers, so I ended up corporate sleuthing for months until I came to a senior exec (they are always lurking in there somewhere) who had asked for a report by super region 5 years ago. I went to the exec and asked "Why?" as in "What business problem are you solving by having this report?" “I don’t," came the reply "I just have always gotten the report that way and so I ask for it that way.”

A long story to paint a simple picture: Gibbons are phantoms. They exist on the energy of “We have always done it that way” or “Whatisname wants it that way.” Neither of these is a good business reason for doing something. So here are four simple hints for setting Gibbons free:

1. Why? – Ask the question “Why?” “Hey Bob, file this report in triplicate!” You say “Why?” The failure to ask “Why?” is at the heart of most corporate dysfunction. Just asking the question can liberate you from hours of useless work.
2. Require a Reason – If the person asking you to take care of the Gibbon scratches their head and says “You know, I really have no idea”, problem solved. But if they stick around and stand there, arms akimbo, saying “Because I said so, that’s why!” then have the guts to demand a better reason. Don’t take “because” as an answer.
3. Connect the Dots – Any good reason for doing something in a business will be no more than two leaps of logic from a primary and strategic goal of the business. Two – tops. You start by asking “Why” and the Gibbon passer replies “Because the boss is requesting it” and you reply “But what does it have to do with (fill in the blank with a stated strategic objective of the organization)?” Yes, you will probably get a reputation for being a pain in the ass, but this mindless Gibbon passing is a key reason you stock price is down and you are unhappy in your job. Better to be respected for demanding excellence and reason than to be liked for not rocking the boat.
4. Take Responsibility for Freeing your Gibbons – You are part of a system that has been creating Gibbons and passing them around for years. The Gibbons can’t be free until you make up your mind to do something about it. So after you ask “Why?” and demand a response that makes sense given the business’ objectives, take the responsibility to go find the answer yourself. Make it a little “pet” project. In most organizations people sit around waiting for a corporate function or the efficiency experts to come in and tell them what makes sense and what doesn’t. In the meantime you sit around thinking that some idiot somewhere “just doesn’t get it” and start cursing the world for putting you in a place where you have to deal with all these troglodytes who keep putting crap on your desk and don’t they know that you are busy… But your rant is a Gibbon. It doesn’t bring any value to you or the people around you and it exists simply because you have always ranted and raved when people have given you things to do you don’t like. So shut yourself up for a second and spend the time and energy fixing he problem rather than getting enraged about it. Never was this 60’s aphorism truer than when it comes to Gibbons: “If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

Don’t let people give you Gibbons, and don’t let Gibbons be held captive on people’s backs. Take the risk to set Gibbons free.