Monkey Management

A couple of weeks ago I started to listen to all the podcasts given by Cornelius Fochtner in his The PM Podcast.
This podcast is very interesting and technically very well prepared.

Episode 82 dealt with Monkey Management. Monkey Management is an interesting way to avoid problems, or better, to avoid to take responsibility of problems that do not directly regard us or are not directly connected to us or to our responsibilities.

After listening to this episode, my first reaction was that all this was just a way to avoid taking responsibilities (or worse, to move responsibilities on someone else's shoulders).
Some days later, though, what I heard sedimented in my brain (in my subconscious I should say). I started realizing that too many times we take on ourselves problems that are not ours, and that will get in our way when we have to get our things done.
It's not a matter of being polite, supportive or caring. It's a matter of understanding that we cannot take care of all the problems of the world.
Sometimes, in order to get our things done, to meet our targets, we have to be able to assign priorities, and let others deal with their own problems.