Why am I chronically running out of time and energy? I had asked myself this question many times, but the problem became acute when we relocated and built a new building. There seemed no end to what I was expected to do.
Then someone suggested I read an article from the November/December 1974 Harvard Business Review. As I read it, I realized the answer: Much of the time, I was working for my staff, not the other way around.
William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass, the authors, pointed out three kinds of tasks that consume time for managers:
Position-Imposed: Tasks your position demands; the pastoral duties expected by the congregation you serve.
Organization-Imposed: Requests for involvement in the community and in the local and district organizations of your denomination.
Self-Imposed: Activities that fulfill responsibilities as a spouse and parent, and other things you have decided to take on, such as continuing education.
If any of the three areas gets shorted, it’s usually the last one, and often that’s because of colleague-imposed responsibilities, requests for assistance from staff members or key lay leaders. That was my experience.
I was delegating work, but mysteriously some of that work was landing back on my desk. How was it happening?
The art of monkey passing
Work assignments might be compared to the proverbial monkey on the back. I don’t recall seeing a course in any college or seminary catalogue titled “The Art of Monkey Passing,” but most of us are fairly good at it. It may be a requisite for surviving as a member of a pastoral team. Let me give an example.
At the end of a Tuesday-morning staff meeting, the associate responsible for Christian education pauses before leaving the room and says, “By the way, Pastor, we have a problem in the junior high department.” He describes it.
The pastor responds, “I don’t have time to deal with this right now, but I will give it some thought and get back to you.” With this, the meeting ends.
Consider what happened in this brief after-the-meeting meeting. Who was carrying the problem, the “monkey,” before the meeting? The associate. Who was carrying it after the meeting? The senior pastor. The associate left with one less thing to worry about. The pastor left with one more problem to solve.
This pastor doesn’t realize it, but by accepting this monkey, he (or she) has voluntarily assumed a position subordinate to the associate. He has begun working for the associate. How? The pastor did two things that associates are there to do: (a) he accepted an assignment; (b) he promised a progress report.
With the roles now reversed, the associate sees to it that the deadline for solving the problem is met. From time to time the associate will drop by the pastor’s office or pass him in the hall and ask, “Any more thoughts on that junior high problem?”
In case you didn’t recognize it, this is supervision.
Unintentionally accepting a monkey
The acceptance of an assignment is not always easy to recognize. Here are some of the ways it can happen:
After an evening Bible study, the deacon in charge of buildings and grounds compliments the pastor on the study and adds, “We’ve been having trouble with the heating unit in the elementary school wing. I think it needs to be replaced. But before I authorize the expenditure, would you mind having it evaluated?” The pastor assures the deacon he will look into it.
The last person to leave the meeting is the deacon in charge of the primary boys’ club program. “Pastor,” he says, “we have a serious shortage of leadership in our program. In fact, if we don’t get help soon, we’re going to lose the leaders we have.” On that cheerful note, the deacon vanishes, and the pastor has one more thing to do.
The pastor returns from lunch and finds a file folder in his basket. An attached note reads, “Pastor: Please review the enclosed plans for a winter choir camp. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated. If you approve the concept, I will proceed to develop the program. I need your response by late this afternoon, if possible.”
Here is a creative, hard working, and thoughtful associate of music submitting a new aspect of his music ministry for the pastor’s approval. It looks like the way a program introduction ought to be done.
Down the hall, though, the music minister is feeling the clock running on his preparation time for the camp. After a while, he asks, “Have you had a chance to glance at my proposal?” (The initial nudge, another effective tool of supervision.) If the pastor says he hasn’t had time yet but hopes to get to it this afternoon or tomorrow morning, the associate may say, “I know you’re busy, but if you could give me your evaluation by this evening, I’d really appreciate it. I have a meeting scheduled with the steering committee tomorrow evening.” (The reasonable but tight deadline, another effective tool of supervision.) The job assignment is now complete with the deadline understood and the consequences of missing it underscored.
In each of these cases, the responsibility for making decisions or recruiting has passed from the person in charge of that area to the pastor. Now these people can’t move until the pastor finishes the assignments. If each key leader we meet in a week passes us just one monkey, we’ll soon be overwhelmed by them.
Keeping monkeys with their owners
How to overcome the problem? Keep monkeys with their owners as much as possible. Certainly associates will want to confer with the pastor about projects, perhaps even many times a day. I have assured staff, “I’m here to help you with your monkeys and the problems they cause you.” We want to be involved and to help make decisions.
But this can happen without the monkey’s passing to the pastor.
My staff and I talked about job responsibilities, and we even kidded each other about monkeys. I told them, “While I’m helping you with a monkey, it shouldn’t become mine. When you leave my office, be sure that whatever needs to be done on the project will be your responsibility.”
From the article mentioned earlier, we developed some rules for our work together:
When the care and feeding of a monkey requires the pastor’s assistance, set up an appointment to talk together. While certain emergencies don’t allow this, the rule keeps monkeys from being dropped on the pastor’s back at random.
Contact with the pastor about a monkey should be face to face or by phone, never by memo. Monkeys by mail automatically become the property of the receiver, as the choir-camp memo illustrates.
After someone has talked with the pastor concerning a monkey, the person should set a date for when he’ll next attend to it.
These guidelines keep monkeys in the care of their owners.
William Oncken, Jr., says that when colleague-imposed time consumption is minimized, we can then use the newly released time to gain control of the position- and organization-imposed demands placed on us. That’s been true for me. When I learned how to leave monkeys with their owners, I became able to spend more and better hours preparing to teach and preach. I even found time for self-imposed demands, such as writing articles.
-Orville E. Easterly
Roseville, California
Copyright © 1989 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
