Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1494346
70 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2023 pronounced: "Our DRC rules have remained set to the defaults of our people since the beginning of time." is continued around the table as they pointed to charts and data to show how their workflows were never altered in ways that would cause component defects such as these. Aer the stakeholder feedback was given— and just before they had a chance to begin pointing f inger s at each other—the V P of engineering began to talk about a profound parable. "Sit down and I'll tell you about the 'Five Monkeys Experiment,'" he said, and began weav ing a ver sion o f t h e s t o r y s p e - cially adapted for his group. It went some- thing like this: Long, long ago (in the '90s), five "CAD monkeys" were placed in a cage as part of an experiment. In the cage were a bunch of bananas hang- ing by a string from the ceiling, as well as a spring-loaded test bed and a ladder, which needed to be precisely repositioned under the bananas to reach them. e CAD monkeys had no use for the test bed at first. ey knew intuitively that the lad- der was the key to reaching the bananas. But each time a CAD monkey reset the ladder to climb toward the bananas, a crazy PCB clean- ing process engineer sprayed all the CAD monkeys with icy de-ionized water. e CAD monkeys quickly formed some tribal knowl- edge about being sprayed down by the icy de- ionized water whenever attempting to reset the ladder. From then on, they agreed to inflict severe beatings on any who would dare go near the ladder. Following their new tribal agreement, not a single CAD monkey went near the lad- der. Instead, they spent all their time trying to figure out other creative ways to reach the bananas. Spontaneously, all five CAD monkeys tried reaching the bananas by bouncing higher and higher on the test bed. But you know what happens when five CAD monkeys jumped on a bed? Yep, one fell off and broke his head—a program manager then came along and sub- stituted the injured CAD monkey in the cage with a new CAD monkey. Intuitively, the first thing the new CAD monkey did was try to use the ladder to reach the bananas. Aer a training session involving several tail lashings from the already schooled CAD monkeys, the new CAD monkey learned the social norm. He was never taught "why" the other CAD monkeys wouldn't let him use the ladder to reach the bananas because he had never been sprayed with icy de-ionized water. Never- theless, he quickly l e a r n e d t h a t t h i s behavior would not be tolerated by the other CAD monkeys. ey continued trying to reach the banana without using the ladder. ey even tried making a CAD monkey pyramid, but again, another monkey was injured. One by one, each CAD monkey in the cage was injured trying to find a workaround for fear of using the ladder. Each time, the injured CAD monkey would be replaced by a new CAD monkey, who intuitively tried to climb the ladder, only to get beaten up. is hap- pened a few more times until none of the origi- nal group remained. By the end of the experiment, all five CAD monkeys in the cage had learned to never touch the ladder, though none knew the source of this strange reasoning. None of the remain- ing CAD monkeys knew about the icy de-ion- ized water abuse—the true root cause of their behavior modification (or tribal knowledge) in the first place. If they had, would they have called HR and recommended that the abusive test engineer be terminated? Once HR created a less toxic, experimental workplace, would Intuitively, the first thing the new CAD monkey did was try to use the ladder to reach the bananas.