In this way, they will pass by the factory, the store, the café, among many other places that they may not frequent or are not part of their routine.
This makes it easier to activate active listening for the benefit of employees and also to observe them first hand, taking into account that the conversation has to happen in both directions. The manager must also intervene.
Keep in mind that there are many organizations that use Management By Walking Around without actually doing walks, simply leaving their office doors open in case an employee is willing to go and have a conversation.
Management By Walking Around: Let the Information Flow
Despite what one might think about this technique, the truth is that for decades managers have only maintained relationships with their employees based on what their supervisors tell them, so the information is actually filtered.
Thus, Tom Peters called MBWA “the technology of the obvious” in his book “The Passion for Excellence”, in which he believes that managers should walk around their company to get to know their employees.
This way, they can communicate the company's values and listen to the ideas uk company email list and solutions that these employees can contribute.
Informal and unscheduled meetings are what characterize this management of which we speak, as well as having delimited points that guarantee the effectiveness of this practice.
These walks should be done as often as possible and without any intention of undermining the work of supervisors. Leaders should be open to receiving feedback that they may not have wanted to hear.
The opinions of different employees will be the order of the day if this technique is put into practice, so before doing it, you should take several points into account.
Managers should identify the purpose of each walk , such as finding out how a latent business problem is going or simply to find out the mood of team members.
The leader's goal should be to gather information , so ask staff for their opinions, spend a few minutes talking about the weather or the latest Netflix series. All of this can help build trust.
What is promised in that conversation must be fulfilled , especially by the leader, otherwise there will be a risk of losing credibility and ensuring failure in future meetings.
At the end of the walk, it is advisable to record everything discussed and filter it at different levels . Priority issues (those that require a prompt solution), data of medium relevance (to be taken into consideration in the future) and information of low relevance but unknown until now.
In short, each “tour” must be well planned, even if the conversation is informal.
