Management by Walking Around

 

Some of you may remember Tom Peters and Robert Waterman’s wonderful book, In Search of Excellence. If you don’t know it, I highly recommend it. It’s filled with good business practices that, while from the last century (and yes, the last Millennium), still hold up.

I was reminded of this book while on one of the many Zoom calls this week. When an applicant, responding to a question about his management philosophy, he mentioned he was a fan of managing by walking around. Simply put, MBWA, as it’s sometimes known, is getting out from behind your desk or out of your office and being seen by and talking with your employees face-to-face in their environment.

Great idea and smart managers were doing this a long time before it had a name. However, this started me thinking if and how this concept can work in our current (and maybe forever) remote environment. Today, managers may be thinking, “If I’m not seeing my employees, other than on a screen, how will I have the connection I want, a connection which used to happen when I walked around the office or spent time on the factory floor?”

I used to work for an organization where the CEO was the best at managing by walking around. Every day, and I do mean every day, he started the day by speaking personally to every employee while walking around the office. The employees loved it and were comfortable talking with him and sharing ideas and concerns. (I think some of the middle managers were less fond of this practice because he learned things they didn’t know, but that’s a subject for another blog.)

I’m thinking that in our remote world when managers don’t see people in person anymore, the only way they can have that personal, one on one connection is to call each one and have a chat. I know this is time consuming, and I’m not suggesting it is something to do every day.  However, maybe it’s a practice that might create that all important connection we crave in our remote world.

What do you think?