Who’s got the monkey? It was a line I first heard from my CEO about five years ago, when I worked at a tech-driven startup in Nigeria’s downstream oil & gas sector.

We had an ambitious goal: construct 40 retail gas stations across the country — a move that could earn us 2% of the massive market share. For a startup that had only existed for three years, that was a bold target.

To reduce bottlenecks during project strategy calls, he would often ask:

“Who’s got the monkey?”

It was his way of pinpointing exactly where the main issue was and who it belonged to.

Fast Forward to Today

As a product manager and individual contributor managing a cross-functional team remotely across various time zones, I still ask myself that question constantly. Why?
Because it’s a quick way to check:

• Am I holding onto work that belongs to someone else?

• Am I enabling my team to move forward?

• Am I freeing up my own time to focus on high-impact work?

If I’m holding onto someone else’s “monkey” — for example, providing feedback for a UX designer, testing an update after engineering is complete, or sitting on a dependent task — I’m creating a bottleneck instead of removing one.

The Origin of the Monkey 🐒

The term originates from the November 1974 Harvard Business Review article "Managing Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?" by William Oncken, Jr., which was later expanded into the book "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey" by Kenneth Blanchard, William Oncken, Jr., and Hal Burrows.

A monkey is a project or a problem (such as an issue, task, or responsibility). For every monkey, there are two people: one to work it and one to supervise it. This concept is a classic in time management, and when fully understood, it’s highly effective for accomplishing tasks. As a PM, that’s the core of your role, which is to get things done, especially while managing a cross-functional team.

Have you ever walked out of a meeting with a “monkey” you didn’t arrive with? That’s the trap. Managers (and PMs!) often take on monkeys that belong to other people, spreading themselves too thin and holding up progress.

The 4 Rules of Monkey Management and How to Apply Them

Rule 1: Description

The “next moves” must be clear. A monkey is a project or problem, so it needs to be well-defined. For example, my monkey could be to redesign an onboarding flow to reduce the number of steps required for activation from 17 to 5 steps or from 10 minutes to < 3 minutes. The scope is specific, measurable, and actionable.

Have you ever had a vague instruction like “update the report” or “follow up with the client”, without knowing precisely what that meant or what the outcome should be? That’s a poorly described monkey.

Rule 2: Owner

The monkey must be assigned to a person, not just verbally, but documented. Following the onboarding example, I’ll create a ClickUp task, tag the designer, and clearly describe all the details.

The best way to develop responsibility in people is to give them responsibility.

For you, maybe it’s assigning a Jira ticket to a specific engineer instead of mentioning it in a huddle or creating a Trello card for your marketing colleague with the campaign brief so they have everything they need to run with it.

Rule 3: Insurance Policy

The risk must be covered, and there are two ways to do it:

1. Recommend, then act — Approval first. In this case, the designer and I align in a huddle, where I share the user data, the PRD, the goals, and any constraints. That way, they establish the proper guardrails before beginning the redesign of the onboarding flow.
   For you, it could be meeting with your sales team to agree on the pitch outline before they present to the client.

2. Act, then advise — Act first, then provide feedback. Here, the designer builds the first pass, and we review together afterwards. In your case, the pitch is worked on first, then you review together.

Trade-offs to be aware of:

• Approval-first reduces rework risk but may slow creativity.

• Action-first is faster but risks misalignment.

Rule 4: Monkey Feeding & Checkups

The time and place for follow-up must be set. In my world, halfway to the deadline, I’ll ask, “Are we on track?” or “Any blockers?”, not wait until the end. This keeps the work moving and avoids last-minute surprises.

In yours, maybe it’s checking in with a vendor mid-way through a project instead of only at delivery. Or having a quick sync with your finance colleague before month-end to ensure numbers are aligned.

Why This Matters

The goal of monkey management is to ensure that the right things are done, the right way, at the right time, by the right people. When I follow these rules, I:

• Free up my own time quickly

• Empower my team to deliver

• Reduce friction across projects

The One Minute Manager book further talks about delegation and the three kinds of organizational time:

• Boss-imposed time

• System-imposed time

• Self-imposed time

…but I won’t be covering those in this article.

What I hope is that this week, as you go about your work and aim to deliver on your goals, you’ll ask yourself, “Who’s got the monkey?” and follow the four rules to free up your time and become more productive.

Look at your to-do list and ask:🐒 Am I holding onto someone else’s monkey?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you caught yourself carrying someone else’s “monkey” recently? Let’s connect on LinkedIn and keep the conversation going.

If you want the original concept from Harvard Business Review, here’s the source: Managing Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey? (subscriber version). You can also read the commentary by Stephen Covey here (free)