Practicing the art of Management By Wandering Around (MBWA), has been my habit ever since reading In Search of Excellence in the early 80’s, when two McKinsey Consultants Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. publicized this highly effective management technique they uncovered at Hewlett-Packard.

The basic principle is that command and control management is ineffective. Managers who rely on information from their direct reports and financial and other reports alone will make sub optimal decisions.

The reason that MBWA works is that people close to the front line have much better access to customers, problems, and information (although the picture may not be complete). By literally wandering around and interacting with employees, managers are able to get an alternative insight into their business problems and opportunities for improvement. Peters and Waterman defined the effect of MBWA as “Productivity through people” – treating employees as a source of quality.

MBWA is not the only technique that managers have developed to get that critical front line insight. Toyota Motor Company has had enormous success with the Toyota Way. The Toyota Way consists of 14 principles, one of which is kaizen, a technique that, when properly implemented (it is highly bureaucratic) enables continuous improvement from the people affected by that system. It empowers the employee to aid in the growth and improvement of the company.

In my experience there are some basic rules that help to make MBWA effective:

Just talking to your direct reports does not count as MBWA – Spend time with all levels of the organization, travel, plan and devote real time to doing MBWA.

Make MBWA part of every day – Build MBWA into your day, regardless of where you are or what you are doing. Remember the power of the message that MBWA sends out to your people. You are approachable and positively seek their opinion and views. With effort you will get to hear the hidden bad news early enough to fix the underlying problems.

Make your own choices of who to talk to and do it alone – MBWA works best when the employees feel that they can tell you anything without fear of reprisal from their direct supervisor.

Avoid undermining junior managers – Have local issues dealt with locally first but follow up to ensure action has been taken. Be seen as a manager who listens and acts. If you disagree, say so and explain clearly why. Don’t leave loose ends and resentment behind.

Ask, ask, ask – Ask open questions and then shut up and listen. Encourage open communications.

Use all of your senses to listen – Watch faces and hands, check enthusiasm. Do they believe it, do they get it?

Make a point of communicating your dreams – It is hard to see the picture from the bottom of the coal mine. You are in the unique position that you see the strategy and how it is panning out. Share the vision, give the team a taste of the big picture and their part in it.

Back to the floor – Stack the shelves, load the truck, work the night shift, analyze the problem. Share in the teams work and experience the view of your world from a different perspective. Be amazed at what you learn, and the stupidity you will uncover.

Be lighthearted and ensure that MBWA is fun not an imposition – Meeting with a senior manager can be intimidating, keep it lighthearted and stay approachable

Never hesitate to praise the good – A leaders job is to raise morale and spur the team on to bigger and better things. When you see that someone has got it – say so.

Adopt a no blame approach – When you uncover something that is not right ask why things are being done this way. It wouldn’t be the first time that madness on the shop floor was the unintended consequence of a board decision! If you can, put the problem right straight away and follow through.

As well as advertising the use of MBWA, In Search of Excellence consists of entertaining and informative case studies (in the Harvard Business School style) to illustrate eight common themes that, in the author’s opinion, were responsible for the success of a number of major US Companies: