Walking the shop floor to inspire execution
‘Management by walk about’, MBWA, is what it’s called. I would say this is a very basic way to describe one of the most powerful habits required of leaders, for how else would one ensure that the strategy that he/she and his/her team at the top spelled out is being well executed, if executed at all? Not only is it done to ensure executional accuracy but also to inspire interest as well as action. A past mentor once explained his reason for doing so as such; “Whenever I went out to visit my troops on the ground, my sales folks, I noticed that they made extra effort to cross all the ‘T’s and dot all the ‘I’s of their execution.
Once I got over the initial disturbance this caused me, for it meant that they were at their executional best only when I was visiting and less so when they did not expect me, it inspired me to visit more for my presence on the ground more frequently would mean more frequent crossing of ‘T’s and dotting of ‘I’s, and very soon the habit of crossing the ‘T’s and dotting the ‘I’s would become second nature through practice”.
Visiting the shop floor regularly and spending time with executional folks must not be thought of as interference in the day-to-day operational responsibilities of the operational folks but rather as an enhancement of their ability to execute, because for one, it helps bridge potential communication gaps between the executive and the shop floor. Through frequent interaction with employees, you get to know them better through the interaction and they in turn start to see their leaders as people they can trust and will therefore be more open to sharing ideas with them. This breeds enhanced communication which has the distinct advantage of exposing the leaders to issues that may be plaguing execution.
As a leader, you are responsible for the growth and development agenda of the team below you. What better way to spot talent would there be than in observation of that talent in action? The more time you spend with the team in action, the more exposed you are to their different abilities and this not only helps in effective resource allocation across the board but also helps you position yourself as a coach and mentor not only in guiding them where you see executional gaps but most importantly in helping them address their development needs. This benefit alone goes a really long way in building overall engagement in the organization because of the trust that it helps build.
Before however you even step out of your office into the operational arena to begin your MBWA, you need to ensure you understand what it is you plan to do when you get there. Is your visit meant to solidify execution or is it one intended to help you meet and get to know and gel with the team? Is it positioned as a coaching visit or is it one intended as an audit? This preparation ahead of the visit helps in ensuring a structured visit. There is nothing quite as upsetting to employees than a boss whose mission is not clear, even if that mission was just a short visit to his or her operational area. Preparation helps define that mission.
Once the objective for the visit has been set it is important that it is well communicated to all parties in good time ahead of it. This is done to enable the recipients of the visit prepare adequately for it and it is in this preparation that those employees who are not as effective in execution as they ought to be at all times get to cross their ‘T’s and dot their ‘I’s, which, as we have seen, is not an entirely bad thing.
Open communication at this point is really important because you don’t want employees feeling untrusted. Always remember, the objective of MBWA is to catch employees doing the right thing and to build onto that, rather than to catch them doing the wrong thing. Once the visit has been concluded it is wise to communicate the feedback as clearly as possible so as to foster trust, improvement and teamwork.
It is quite tedious and time consuming to get into the MBWA habit, but crucial that it is done. Building MBWA muscle through perseverance is therefore of utmost importance. You can do this through setting aside a time either every week or every month or as your diary will allow and blocking it out like you would do for board meetings and any other engagements that you consider important. In these days of virtual working, it is not easy to maintain a set regimen for MBWA especially because virtual working causes physical meeting drifts, but this only means it is even more important to do so.
In closing, the words of a good friend and accomplished leader come to mind; “It is what gets inspected that gets done, not what is expected”. MBWA gives you the opportunity for regular inspection.
