The Banana Story - demonstrating the power of culture

In one of the North American universities there was an experiment that I believe demonstrates the potential of change in a corporate environment. Having first heard this story I was convinced it was true however through further investigation I have since discovered that it is in fact a fable - no matter the story itself is of such quality that it truly serves its purpose.

It goes like this:

A group of students decided on an experiment. They choose the nearest thing to Human Beings they could find - monkeys.

They built a large cage and put into this cage a variety foliage for the monkeys to enjoy. Right in the middle of the cage was a 10ft step ladder - extended and positioned to reach its full height.

Ten monkeys were allowed one week of un-interupted enjoyment of the facilities. Then the experiment started. The first thing that the students did was to hang a bunch of ripe bananas about three feet above the extended step ladder. The monkeys climbed the step ladder to get at the bananas. Each day for seven days a new bunch was dangled for the monkeys and each day they managed to get at and devour the bananas.

The second stage of the experiment involved punishing the monkeys for going onto the step ladder. So, in the second week every time a monkey touched the ladder a sequence of high pressure hoses opened up on not only the offending monkey, but all the other monkeys as well.

Quickly the monkeys learnt not to go on the ladders and went without their banana treats. After a further week the third stage was initiated. This involved swapping the monkeys - two at a time- with new monkeys who had not been sprayed with water. When the first two were introduced to the cage they huddled together and studied their surroundings. After a while they began to move steadily towards the ladder in order to get the dangling bananas. Before reaching the bottom step the original monkeys leapt in their way and shooed them away. The eight original monkeys left in the cage protected the ladder from the newcomers for several days until such time as they made no further moves towards the bananas. They too had now learnt the culture of the cage.

The monkeys were steadily swapped with newcomers and on each occasion the ladder was protected - even by those first newcomers who had never suffered as a result.

Eventually, all the monkeys in the cage were now newcomers with not one being of the original ten. The really scary part of the story comes at the end. As the monkeys were continually swapped and newly introduced monkeys became more and more disinterested in the bananas until at last the new monkeys didn't even try to go for the ladder - the culture was now fully engrained and the primates went without something which would normally be a basic instinct for them.

Imagine what strange things have happened in your own organisation - things that may have once proved sensible but have become instinctive over time and yet no longer have a place in this technological age.