Business Decision-Making

Let Go of the Banana

(Delegate) or (Delegation Pitfalls)

Vignette: How to Catch a Monkey

In India, people catch monkeys quite often using hollowed coconuts. One end of the coconut is attached to a tree; the other end has a little hole just big enough for a monkey to put its paw into the hollowed coconut shell and to grab the food inside, usually a small banana. The monkey smells the treat, puts its monkey-paw inside, and takes hold of the banana. The monkey’s fist holding the banana inside the hollowed coconut is larger than the hole. Therefore, the monkey cannot pull its paw out of the coconut. The animal is “stuck.” Unless the monkey “lets go of the banana,” it will not be able to free itself from this deceiving “cage.” He is easily caught ...