MANAGEMENT BY WALKING AROUND

“GET MANAGEMENT OUT OF THE OFFICE”

If you wait for people to come to you,

you’ll only get small problems. You must

go and find them. The big problems are

where people don’t realize they have

one in the first place.

–W. Edwards Deming

WHAT IS MBWA?

Unstructured approach

Involves direct participation by the managers in the work-related affairs

of their subordinates, in contrast to rigid and distant management.

In MBWA practice, managers spend a significant amount of their time

making informal visits to work area and listening to the employees.

The purpose of this exercise is to collect qualitative information, listen to

suggestions and complaints, and keep a finger on the pulse of the

organization.

Also called management by wandering around.

HOW DID IT START?

In the 1970s, when their company began

growing, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard

created a management style.

This technique was marked by personal

involvement, good listening skills and the

recognition that everyone in an organization

wants to do a good job

Top Things About MBWA

1. In 1978 when Tom Peters first heard of Management by

Walking around, he called it “the technology of the obvious”.

2. Considered to be a leadership technique

3. Japanese managers use a similar strategy called the 3 G’s,

which stand for

Genba actual place

Genbutsu actual thing

Genjitsu actual situation

The 3 G’s originated at Honda.

Guidelines For MBWA

Do it to everyone Do it as often as you can Go by yourself Ask questions Watch and listen Share your dreams with them

Management by Exception is a "policy by which management devotes its time to investigating only those situations in which actual results differ significantly from planned results. The idea is that management should spend its valuable time concentrating on the more important items (such as shaping the company's future strategic course). Attention is given only to material deviations requiring investigation."

Guidelines For MBWA Try out their work Bring good news Have fun Catch them in the act of doing

something right Don’t be critical

Benefits

Builds trust and relationships.

Motivates staff by suggesting that management takes an active

interest in people.

Encourages staff to achieve individual and collective goals.

Strengthens ability to drive cultural change for higher organizational

performance.

Refreshes organizational values.

Makes work less formal.

Creates a healthy organization.

Why Some Managers Fail? lack purpose, they seem to walk around the business with

no specific goal in mind other than to walk around their

business

don’t have a plan, just stopping by the usual people to say

hello

are reluctant to be repetitive in their actions and as such

are unwilling to adopt the required leader behaviour

get put off by early disappointments

talk to much and don’t listen enough

IS MBWA STILL RELEVANT?

In this era of the “www.” is there still room for

“MBWA?”

Management by Walking Around is still practiced

today. It is not seen as much in big corporations,

but some small companies practice it. Two big

corporations that do practice it are Hewlett-

Packard and Kingston Technologies.

The Return of Management by Walking Around

It is the driving force behind the popular TV reality

shows Undercover Boss, Dirty Jobs.

In Undercover Boss, company executives work in

disguise and undercover in their own firms to explore

how the company really works, what can be improved,

and the challenges faced by employees.

The series Dirty Jobs is just that. Its host performs the

disgusting, smelly, messy and sometimes dangerous

jobs that people do.

MBWA is ...Total Success, Big Money

and most of all.....Happy Employees.