This is a story that I happened to read somewhere a few years ago. After seeing a lot of things happening around, I thought of sharing this story with all of you.
And in the process, I wanted to have some fun. So I modified the story accordingly.
So, here it goes.
Eight monkeys working in a large company were sent a mail and asked to go and assemble in the big board room. They were told to sit around a big circular table.
All of these monkeys were waiting in eager anticipation and wondering, "Next is What?"
All of a sudden, the light bulbs dimmed. A frenzy of laser lights flashed all over the room, giving the idea of a major product launch.
Just after that, a spotlight focused on the ceiling, right in the center of the room. There was this big bunch of ripe bananas suspended from the ceiling.
Monkeys, being monkeys were very keen to eat them. But they were clueless about how to reach the top and get them.
One of the monkeys was bold enough to climb up the table. It jumped as hard as it could, but only managed to touch the bunch with its fingertip. It tried again, and this time it caught one banana with its hand. And just when it was about to pull it down, a shower popped down from the ceiling and sprayed ice cold water on its face.
It quickly retreated back to its seat.
A second monkey took a few chairs from the room, stacked them one above the other on the table and climbed up. Now the bunch of bananas was within this monkey's arm reach. No sooner did the monkey draw out its hand towards the bananas, there was a loud thud. It turned out that this monkey was on the floor, apparently taken down by a football which was thrown from some dark corner of the room.
This second monkey also was smart enough to quietly get back to its seat.
A third one, which was a quiet spectator all the while, tried to play it smart. It found a thin wire in the corner of the room, from which it made a lasso. It threw the lasso around the bunch of bananas and tightened the noose around. The moment it gave the wire a tug, it was zapped by an electric shock.
It quickly gave up, after having such a hair raising experience.
Each of the monkeys tried to get to the bunch of bananas. Some tried it individually, and some tried it as a team. But all their attempts failed miserably. In doing so, one of them had its face sprayed with ice water, while one had its tail burnt.
Soon, all the monkeys realized that the bananas were not meant to be eaten.
And they all stopped trying.
Well, that was the story. And now if you were wondering what's the big deal about it, just give this a thought.
"Isn't this how Company Policy evolves?"
Aren't we all like monkeys who are shown bananas which are tied up in an unreachable place?
There's so much hype built up around it that we actually look forward to get them.
And when we try to get them in any way which we can, we are thrown more and more bizarre policies at us.
And ultimately, most of us just give up.
"Don't you think so?"
