Managing by getting in the way

Managing by getting in the way

You’ve heard of MBWA or “managing by walking about” ? It comes in a number of guises:
- The early morning tour just to say hello, catch a few swift glimpses of what’s going on, take the temperature and be seen to be around
- Staple yourself to the order – a famous HBR article about walking the route of a piece of work to see what really happens with it. It avoids “fact-free” meetings, all too common the higher you go in an organisation. You can apply it to any
- Back to the floor – not every manager is skillful enough to be trained to fully do the job of a frontline, but they can do a lot of learning and inspiring by taking part in frontline activities

Let me introduce you to another acronym – MBGITW or “managing by getting in the way” It also comes in a number of guises:
- the need for copious management information that tells you what happened in the past
- the need to know what’s going on in every corner all the time
- the need to be seen to have all the answers, to be in control, to make the decisions

We all do it. Try asking yourself these questions:
- How often are decisions about change made by the people who do the work involved?
- How long do the decisions take that you make, from first being raised through investigation to conclusion?
- How much time do people spend explaining the things they need to you?
- How often do you say “I don’t know”?