Same Forest Different Monkeys

Every Saint has a past. Every Sinner has a future. (HR Managers were added to the whatsapp group... hehe)

In the World’s boardrooms, rugby fields, sales teams, and even The White House—one pattern repeats:

Same Forest. Different Monkeys.

We swap the actors but keep the script.

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The Astronomer CEO & HR Story

A CEO and an HR Manager collapse a business. Millions lost.
Staff unpaid. Loans defaulted. Suppliers left hanging. Careers paused.

The irony? They were once the poster children of success.
They graced conference panels. Quoted in business magazines. HR blogs shared their “top 5 leadership tips.”

Fast forward to today, and they’re ghosted in their own WhatsApp groups.
Phones on silent. LinkedIn posts gone cold.

Are they sinners? Can they come back?

In Kenya’s business world, failure isn’t new. What’s rare is learning from it.

We’ve seen it before. A different team will emerge, raise capital, hire the same staff, wash, rinse, repeat…….

Because the forest didn’t change. Only the monkeys did.

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Kenya Rugby’s Missed Million Dollar Payday

Let’s talk about rugby.

Kenya missed out on a $1 million Rugby World Cup cheque. That’s how much the Zimbabwe Rugby union are expected to get from World Rugby…..it could be more and we have not started talking about their local businesses.
Picture the conversation at the Safcom ya Zim, KQ ya Zim, KCB ya Zim na Kabras ya Zim (maanze tutauza bundles, tickets, ATM cards…..na sukari na mafuta ya kupika…… welcome to brand heaven)

That money could’ve transformed the game. Paid players properly. Built academies. Fixed broken systems.

But instead, we tripped over the same hurdles. Poor preparation. Governance fights. Selection politics.
It’s a script we’ve watched on loop since 1991.

Different coaches. Different captains. Same chaos.

And now, we’re back in the same meetings:

“Let’s restructure the union.”
“We need a new chairman.”
“Let’s overhaul the technical bench.”

Stop.

Same forest. Different monkeys.

Until we change the system—club structures, development pathways, governance models—we’ll keep watching reruns.

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Riggy G: Villain to Hero?

Remember Riggy G, Kenya’s Deputy President?

2022: Meme King.
Trending for the wrong reasons….”but he’s doing the Lord’s work”….
Soundbites. Scandals. Stand-up comedy material.

2025: Injecting Daily.

Money flowing. Markets moving. Suddenly, he’s the darling of small business owners.

When liquidity hits, past sins fade fast.

Is this real reform? Or just sugar injections to quiet the masses?

Maybe both.

But in Kenya, if you help people get what they want, you get to rewrite your narrative.

Villain to hero? Maybe. But definitely still in the same forest.

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Small Business Owners: You’re in This Too

If you run a sales team, this isn’t just about rugby or politics.

How many times have you:

• Fired your sales team thinking that’s the fix?

• Changed the head of sales but kept the same broken commission model?

• Replaced the GM but kept the same poor training culture?

Same forest. Different monkeys.

We blame the team. We swap the faces.
But the problem isn’t the people—it’s the system they’re in.

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So What’s The Real Lesson?

In sales. In leadership. In rugby. In life:

Changing the people without changing the system is a waste of time.

You’ll get the same results—just with different actors playing the roles.

If you want real change:

• Rewrite the script.

• Build new systems.

• Set different incentives.

• Train differently.

• Govern differently.

Change the forest—not just the monkeys.

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Your Move:

• Forward this to your HR friend.

• Tag your sales manager.

• Ask your rugby coach: Are we fixing the system, or just rotating monkeys?

Let’s keep the conversation going. https://salesresourceafrica.co.ke/contact-us/

See you in the comments.

#SameForestDifferentMonkeys #SalesFundiKe #Leadership #SalesLessons #SundayBanter