Last week, I shared the story of how Not My Monkey Methodology™ began – emerging from almost two decades of working with conflict, human behaviour, fractured relationships, difficult decisions and accountability.

But recognising the pattern was only the beginning.  The more I observed it, the more I realised that the same behaviours I had encountered in mediation were playing themselves out every day in another environment: the workplace and the boardroom.

Different setting. Different language. Different stakes. But remarkably similar human behaviour.

When Everyone Is Carrying Someone Else’s Monkey

Organisations are built around structures: roles, reporting lines, delegations of authority, job descriptions, governance frameworks and performance measures.  Yet organisations are ultimately populated by people.  And people do not always behave according to the organisational chart.

• A manager repeatedly fixes a team member’s mistakes because it is quicker than addressing the performance problem.
• A high-performing employee becomes the person everyone turns to when something goes wrong – and gradually becomes responsible for work that was never theirs.
• A director becomes involved in operational matters that properly belong with management.
• A CEO carries problems that should have been resolved several levels below.
• A colleague absorbs another colleague’s anxiety, workload or consequences because saying “no” feels uncomfortable.
• A team spends hours discussing a problem, but nobody leaves the meeting clearly accountable for resolving it.

And sometimes the reverse happens.

People avoid responsibility for matters that genuinely are theirs.  That is where the monkey becomes useful.  The question becomes:  Whose monkey is this?

Not as a joke. Not as an excuse to disengage. And certainly not as a licence to say, “That’s not my problem.”

It is a structured question about ownership, responsibility, authority, boundaries and accountability.

Not My Monkey Is Not About Doing Less

One of the most important distinctions within Not My Monkey Methodology™ is that healthy boundaries are not the same as avoidance.

There is a considerable difference between:

“That is not my responsibility, therefore I do not care,”

and:

“I understand the problem, I am willing to support the person responsible for resolving it, but I will not take ownership of a responsibility that properly belongs elsewhere.”

The first can be organisationally destructive.  The second can be good leadership.

The methodology therefore challenges both extremes: over-functioning and under-functioning.

• Some people habitually carry too much.
• Others habitually carry too little.

Healthy organisations require people who understand what belongs to them, what does not, where they have authority to act, when they should escalate and when they need to step back.

The Cost of Organisational Monkey-Shifting

When responsibility becomes blurred, the consequences are rarely confined to one individual.

Monkey-shifting can create bottlenecks because everything eventually lands on the desk of the person regarded as most capable.

• It can contribute to burnout among high performers.
• It can allow poor performance to remain hidden because somebody else continually compensates for it.
• It can undermine managers when their responsibilities are repeatedly taken over by more senior colleagues.
• It can produce resentment between colleagues.
• It can create meetings where everybody participates but nobody owns the outcome.

And, at board level, blurred boundaries between governance and operations can become particularly problematic.

The organisation may appear extremely busy while accountability is actually becoming weaker.  That is an important distinction. Activity is not the same as accountability.

Taking the Monkey into the Boardroom

At executive and board level, the methodology becomes more sophisticated.

The question is no longer simply:  “Whose problem is this?”

It becomes:

• Who owns the responsibility?
• Who has the authority to make the decision?
• Who is accountable for the outcome?
• Who needs to be consulted?
• Who needs to be informed?
• What belongs with management and what properly belongs before the board?
• Has responsibility been delegated without sufficient authority?

And perhaps most importantly:  Has somebody quietly picked up a monkey that never belonged to them?

These questions can expose organisational problems that have little to do with technical competence and everything to do with human behaviour.

Accountability Without Blame

Accountability is frequently misunderstood as punishment.  That misunderstanding can make people defensive.  The purpose of Not My Monkey Methodology™ is not to create a culture in which employees point across the table and announce, “That’s your monkey.” Quite the opposite.

The objective is to create environments in which responsibility can be identified without humiliation, blame or unnecessary conflict.  Instead of asking: “Who caused this?” an organisation can also ask: “Who owns the next action?”  That small shift can fundamentally change a conversation.  It moves people from defensiveness towards resolution.

Boundaries Are an Organisational Competency

We often speak about boundaries as though they belong exclusively to personal relationships.

They do not.  Professional boundaries are essential to healthy organisations. A boundary determines where my responsibility ends and yours begins.

• It establishes what I may reasonably be expected to carry.
• It also establishes what I am entitled to expect from somebody else.

Without boundaries, helpful people can become overwhelmed, capable people can become overloaded, struggling employees can become increasingly dependent and leaders can inadvertently create organisations that cannot function without them.

That is not resilience.  It is dependency disguised as commitment.

The Methodology in Practice

Not My Monkey Methodology™ is designed to translate these behavioural principles into practical organisational tools.  The methodology can be applied to leadership development, executive training, team functioning, workplace conflict, accountability, delegation, decision-making, boundary management and organisational resilience.

Tools such as the Monkey Audit™, Accountability Mapping™ and Boundary Script Builder™ move the conversation beyond theory.

They ask participants to examine their actual working behaviour.

• What am I currently carrying?
• Which responsibilities legitimately belong to me?
• Which have I inherited, absorbed or accepted without consciously deciding to do so?
• What am I carrying because somebody else has failed to act?
• Where am I taking responsibility without having the authority required to deliver the outcome?

And equally:  Which of my own monkeys have I quietly allowed somebody else to carry?

That final question matters.

Because Not My Monkey™ works in both directions.  From the Individual to the Organisation

The methodology begins with individual behaviour, but its implications are organisational.

• When individuals become clearer about ownership, teams can become clearer about accountability.
• When teams become clearer about accountability, managers can delegate more effectively.
• When managers stop unnecessarily absorbing operational problems, executives can focus on leadership.
• And when executives and boards maintain appropriate distinctions between governance, strategy and operations, organisations can function with greater clarity.

That is where Not My Monkey Methodology™ moves beyond the language of personal boundaries.

It becomes a framework for examining how responsibility travels through an organisation.

Because one of the most revealing questions we can ask in any workplace – from the frontline to the boardroom – is remarkably simple:

Who is carrying the monkey – and who should be?

Sometimes the answer tells us far more about an organisation than its organisational chart ever could.

Not My Monkey Methodology™ is a developing behavioural and organisational methodology focused on responsibility, accountability, professional boundaries and organisational resilience.

Next in the series: The Monkey Audit™ — What Are You Carrying That Was Never Yours?