Subject: An Experiment or How It Happens{Insp}
From: Unicorn (unicorn@indenial.com)
Date: Tue Feb 08 2000 - 03:58:00 EST
"An Experiment or How It Happens"
Start with a cage containing five apes.
In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put
stairs under it. Before long, an ape will go to the
stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As
soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the
apes with cold water.
After a while, another ape makes an attempt with
the same result - all the apes are sprayed with
cold water. This continues through several more
attempts. Pretty soon, when another ape tries to
climb the stairs, the other apes all try to prevent
it.
Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one ape
from the cage and replace it with a new one. The
new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the
stairs. To his horror, all of the other apes attack
him. After another attempt and attack, he knows
that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five apes and
replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to
the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer
takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
Again, replace a third original ape with a new one.
The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked
as well. Two of the four apes that beat him have
no idea why they were not permitted to climb the
stairs, or why they are participating in the beating
of the newest ape.
After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes,
all the apes, which have been sprayed with cold
water, have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape
ever again approaches the stairs. Why not?
"Because that's the way they've always done it,
and that's the way it's always been around here."
And that's how company policies begin....
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Wed Mar 01 2000 - 00:00:05 EST