Break Through the “Monkey Traps” in the Material Handling Business
In my last post, I told you about a MHEDA Convention speaker who will be talking about promoting your dealership. Well, that’s only one of many topcis that will be covered at this year’s Convention, taking place May 1-5 in Marco Island, Florida. It’s still two months away, but I wanted to let folks know some more about it to allow ample time to make travel arrangements if you desire.
One of this year’s keynote speakers will be Peter McLaughlin, whose speech is title “Break Through The Monkey Traps.” If you’re like me, that title confused you at first. But let me clear things up for you. In the upcoming issue of The MHEDA Journal, McLaughlin writes in an article of the same title about the value of thinking creatively to break through the “monkey traps” that businesses get caught in.
Statements like, “There’s not much we can do until the economy turns around,” and “That’s not the way we do things around here,” are monkey-trap phrases. Often, we’re in a rut and don’t know it. A rut is just like a monkey trap—nothing is keeping us stuck except our inability to recognize that we’ve trapped ourselves. To change, we must start with ourselves. As Pogo once said in the famous comic, “We have met the enemy, and they are us.”
Still confused? Here’s some context:
In Southeast Asia, the natives have concocted a rather ingenious way of capturing monkeys, according to author Robert Persig in his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. “A monkey trap consists of a hollowed-out coconut chained to a stake. The coconut has some rice inside, which can be grabbed through a small hole. The hole is big enough so the monkey’s hand can go in, but too small for his fist with rice to come out. The monkey reaches in and is suddenly trapped—by nothing more than his own rigidity. He can’t revalue the rice. He cannot see that freedom without rice is more valuable than capture with it.”
In other words, in business, as with the monkeys, it pays to see things beyond the short-term. The reward does not always outweigh the risk.
It’s a bit abstract, but I, for one, am looking forward to hearing more from Mr. McLaughlin at the MHEDA Convention. Hope you’re there to join me.
Tags: convention, material handling
