Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Book Review
The Ape in the Corner Office – Understanding the Workplace Beast in All of Us
by Richard Conniff.
We’re a lot like chimpanzees, but not in the way you think. They’ve gotten a bum rap, and that’s news we can use. They’ve been accused of being aggressive and violent. That’s true but it’s not the whole truth. What the new research shows is that they fight, but only 5% of the time, then go out of their way to make up! They also spend 20% of their time in ‘social’ activities – grooming and being groomed, picking nits and stroking.
So, what does this mean to us? Apparently, Coniff tells us, Nature built us to be nice. The ‘Nature, red in tooth and claw’ idea may not be an accurate view of animal life. No longer can we use the alleged vicious and aggressive behavior of our primate forebears to justify our own vicious aggressive behaviors. But, and here’s the good news, we can use their amazing social skills as a justification for refining our own.
It’s not that chimps shun conflict, violence and aggression, they don’t, they can’t, just as we can’t. But they accept and use it much more effectively than we do. Most of us treat human nature as something to be overcome. Most managers seek to minimize the human, much less the animal element and make companies hum like machines. This wastes huge amounts of time and energy. How chimps make peace, keep peace and maintain stability by accepting and using all aspects of their nature is what we want to learn about.
And Coniff makes the learning easy and enjoyable, with amazing business stories and examples coupled with striking parallels from primate research. He offers many opportunities to think about familiar ideas and behaviors in unfamiliar creative ways. Not only can this book help bring us more in line with our essential natures, it can also help build better, more effective organizations. The writing is direct, swift and refreshing. The aha’s and insights almost jump from the pages. Well worth reading.
by Richard Conniff.
We’re a lot like chimpanzees, but not in the way you think. They’ve gotten a bum rap, and that’s news we can use. They’ve been accused of being aggressive and violent. That’s true but it’s not the whole truth. What the new research shows is that they fight, but only 5% of the time, then go out of their way to make up! They also spend 20% of their time in ‘social’ activities – grooming and being groomed, picking nits and stroking.
So, what does this mean to us? Apparently, Coniff tells us, Nature built us to be nice. The ‘Nature, red in tooth and claw’ idea may not be an accurate view of animal life. No longer can we use the alleged vicious and aggressive behavior of our primate forebears to justify our own vicious aggressive behaviors. But, and here’s the good news, we can use their amazing social skills as a justification for refining our own.
It’s not that chimps shun conflict, violence and aggression, they don’t, they can’t, just as we can’t. But they accept and use it much more effectively than we do. Most of us treat human nature as something to be overcome. Most managers seek to minimize the human, much less the animal element and make companies hum like machines. This wastes huge amounts of time and energy. How chimps make peace, keep peace and maintain stability by accepting and using all aspects of their nature is what we want to learn about.
And Coniff makes the learning easy and enjoyable, with amazing business stories and examples coupled with striking parallels from primate research. He offers many opportunities to think about familiar ideas and behaviors in unfamiliar creative ways. Not only can this book help bring us more in line with our essential natures, it can also help build better, more effective organizations. The writing is direct, swift and refreshing. The aha’s and insights almost jump from the pages. Well worth reading.
