MANAGEMENT BY WALKING ABOUT (MBWA)
Use MBWA to avoid becoming detached from staff and what is going on in your organisation.
Like a lot of theories, MBWA is something that good managers have been doing since Adam and Eve first expressed an interest in apples and it’s impossible to identify where the idea originated. But it’s probably fair to say that both Mark McCormack and Tom Peters helped to popularise it.
The theory is simple. To avoid becoming isolated and losing touch with staff and the day-to-day operations of the organisation, managers must get out of their office and walk around the factory, shop, site or office, listen to staff and observe what is going on at first hand.
USE THE WALKS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO:
Build trust and understanding with staff.
Listen to what staff have to say and take on board their work problems and ideas.
Look for examples of good practice that can be implemented elsewhere in the organisation.
Look for examples of bad practice and eliminate them.
Observe how other managers and supervisors interact with staff.
Improve your knowledge of the business, its staff and products.
Answer staff questions.
Get to know people personally and what motivates/demotivates them.
HOW TO USE IT
- Identify an aim for every walk you take. This may be to find out what staff think of new working procedures, identify a problem or good practice in a specific section, get a feel for staff morale generally and on rare occasions to promote a new initiative.
- Don’t talk at staff. Listen more than you speak and ask staff for their ideas and views on work issues. Don’t be afraid to spend a few minutes talking about football or what was on telly last night if that helps the person to relax and open up.
- Always deliver on any promises that you make and never commit to anything you can’t deliver.
- Once back in the office jot down a few notes on what you found and analyse your data into three categories, i.e.
- Matters that require immediate action.
- Information that will inform your future actions.
- Factual information about the organisation and its processes that you were unaware of.
- Use the data collected to improve the organisation’s behaviours, practices and processes and to inform your decisions.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- When was the last time I ‘walked the job’?
- Where does my information about the business come from? How many filters has it gone through before it reaches me?