Do your HR Policies reflect where you are going and what you want to do? Do they need to be brought up to date? Have they been allowed to stagnate?

Within a partnership approach we will examine all of your Company Policies and bring them up to date scientifically, preventing the kind of scenario described below.

A Professor was teaching organisational behaviour to a new class of undergraduates. Wanting to move away from the traditional seminar, chalk and talk style of training delivery, she thought she would use a demonstration.

She started with a cage containing six chimpanzees. Inside the cage, she hung a banana on a string and strategically placed a set of stairs under it. Before long, a chimpanzee went to the stairs and started to climb up towards the banana. However as soon as he touched the stairs, the Professor sprayed all of the other chimpanzees with cold water.

After a while, another chimpanzee made an attempt with the same result - the Professor sprayed all the other chimpanzees with cold water. Soon after that, a third chimpanzee tried to climb the stairs but before the Professor could do anything, the other chimpanzees clubbed together to prevent it from doing so.

At this point the Professor put away the cold water, removed one chimpanzee from the cage and replaced it with a new one. The new chimpanzee saw the banana and naturally started to climb the stairs. To the classes surprise all of the other chimpanzees attacked it.

After another attempt and subsequent attack, it got the idea that if it tried to climb the stairs, the result would be more punishment. Next, the Professor removed another of the original five chimpanzees and replace it with a new one. The new chimpanzee went to the stairs and was attacked. The previous chimpanzee enthusisatically took part in the punishment! To drive home this point, the Professor replaced a third original chimpanzee with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth and finally the last.

Every time the newest chimpanzee went to the stairs, it was attacked. Most of the chimpanzees that were beating him had no idea why they were doing this - why each could not climb the stairs nor why they were all beating the newest chimpanzee.

After replacing all the original chimpanzees, none of the them had ever been sprayed with cold water. However, no chimpanzee would approach the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not?

Because the behaviour of their peers had taught them that that was the way things had always been done around here. It had become Chimpanzee Company Policy to prevent banana retrieval using physical force.

What does this tell you about your own Company Policy?

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