Monkey business is good for business

Indulge here a bit and visualize a class room with animals in it... Animals of all sorts, shapes and sizes.

Many of us may feature a carload of monkeys in the last bench. Unruly, acting silly, wearing their rowdy badges proudly, showing the strength of the group, pinching food from others, snacking between class hours or often during class hours, howling, clapping, noisy, yet observant and smart.

All of us must have seen monkeys, observed them, discussed their behavior or at the least, used them in expressions and analogies. Now, don't be one cheeky monkey and say no! Let's discuss some of their characteristics and our takeaways.

Sense in Silly : Have you noticed the silliness in the picture of Albert Einstein with his tongue out? He was, apparently, 'acting silly' after a tired day of posing for the paparazzi. And it was not a moment of him reacting to 'being fed up'. Folklore goes, when he saw the picture, he liked it so much he asked the photographer to give him nine copies of it and he personally gave some of them away to reporters. We are still talking about the person who put together the Theory of Relativity.

Silliness keeps us sane, highlights the 'human' in us, makes tough conversations lighter and brings people closer. Monkeys are one of the most intelligent species, yet silliness is inherent in them. Bit of Monkey business is good for business, after all.

Peace out: Monkeys quarrel like their life depends on each of those fights, but once the fight is over, they'd pamper each other help in each other's grooming, show evidently through bodily gestures, to their nemesis, that the fight is over and they are now friends. Conflicts, Arguments and debates are part of a workplace and work. To a great extent these are healthy too.

• Where one draws the line,
• how one manages to not make it personal and
• what happens after the conflict,

differentiate professionals from others. Colleagues having the ability to peace out and establish that their roles are different form their person, emerge winners.

So go ahead, Monkey around!

Hobbies: Did you know Monkeys have a tendency to nurture hobbies? Over time they become better at it and often these are group hobbies. Hobby(ies) make a well-rounded person. They provide what's popularly called 'me time' to switch off from work when needed. Hobbies are the constant reminder that we are more than the work we do and that thought is so liberating that it makes us take risks and face challenges head-on at work, bringing out the leader in us.

In a business landscape where even B2Bs are designing end customer centric solutions, design mindset and putting user experience first have become not just the role of a few but all. Someone with a hobby comes with an additional edge, as hobbies of any kind provide a wider exposure, which leads to multi-faceted-ness and that in turn provides the ability to relate and empathize across spheres of end users and customers.

Time's not far when someone with a hobby is preferred over others and our primate friends are well prepared for the future.

Unlike what the famous expression would like for us to believe, it's not the monkey that's in the middle. Then, are we?.