Assumption Monkeys

Always Question Key Assumptions by Asking Why

Imagine five monkeys in a room, each trying to climb a ladder to reach a basket of bananas. Every time one climbs close, it gets blasted with cold water. After several attempts, they all stop trying.

One by one the monkeys are replaced. Each incoming monkey goes straight for the ladder to try and reach the bananas. Now, the new ones know nothing about the blast of cold water, but when they go for the bananas, they’re stopped by the others–who don’t even remember why.

This process continues until there are five “new” monkeys in the room, none of whom has ever been sprayed with cold water. Yet they all continue to stop each new monkey entering the room from climbing the ladder to get the bananas. This is now a learned behavior based on their life experience.

A new, curious monkey (not George), enters the room. He’s also stopped from climbing the ladder to get the bananas. So he seeks advice from the sage monkeys with years of experience living in the room. They happily provide volumes of advice, often waxing poetic and pontificating with superior confidence. The one thing they can’t tell the new monkey? Why they believe it. But without questioning their underlying assumptions, the new monkey is one degree away from the truth. The new monkey lacks the real information needed to make a decision to act or not.

If the new monkey had asked the simple question “why?”, the entrenched behaviors and beliefs held…