Comments

So true...
I believe I get these kind of things right in project management today but it took me a while to get there. 12 years ago I was given a project to run. Another project on an already busy workload. So I saw it as an irritant not an opportunity. And I didn't manage it well. I focused on the P&L, I focused on meeting targets, on what i would report to the CEO each Monday morning. And I forgot the obvious stuff- the P E O P L E bit. So much so, I was not visble, I was not hands on and I didn't get to 'make friends' as TP suggests. I didn't even go and say hello to my new team for weeks!! So my old-school technique did not result in wow results, just okay results, and my team wondered who or what I was.

But I learnt quickly. And by the time the next project came around I knew about the merits of Management By Walking Around. So much so, some co-workers quipped 'what does Ian Sanders actually DO?' as I was famous for being the guy walking around the building, trademark red file under my arm, talking to people, rather than 'doing stuff' (but OF COURSE, i WAS doing stuff). I talked to team members, i talked to everyone even people that in those corporate rules I had little business to talk to (like people who i had no day to day involvment with). But I persevered and learnt that lesson about making personal 1-to-1 Connections. I changed my attitude from grumpy to friendly. I walked the floors, sometimes with an agenda, sometimes just to say hi. And people may have still asked 'what is that guy doing walking around with his red file?' but I was visible and I made connections. I invested in relationships face to face.
End Of Story.

Posted by Ian Sanders at June 2, 2008 10:08 AM

I think we literally need-must have "what does Ian Sanders actually DO?" sorts. They are the ones who make the machines run in their mysterious ways.

Posted by tom peters at June 2, 2008 1:05 PM

Great story Ian - your style does not surprise me at all – it is clear from my communications with you that you walk your own talk my friend. In the NHS there are far too many Senior Managers who would not recognise a front line employee if one walked into their office and slapped their face. And yet the patronising attitude remains in some places – ‘we know best.’ The most fantastic managers I ever worked for and with in the NHS, and there were a lot, were those who got off their backside, got out of the office and got to know the folks doing the work on the front line rather than staying in the office pretending to be busy writing reports that no one reads.

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 2, 2008 6:40 PM

Thanks Trevor. But back then, in my late 20s all this kind of stuff wasn’t obvious. Not being visible, not going to visit team members now sounds such bad management; at the time, it hadn’t occurred to me as I had my head in the sand.

Your NHS tale sounds only too familiar. A client of mine had two office buildings in London. One was about two miles from the other, or a 10 minute tube ride away from the HQ. How often did the smaller team at the ‘satellite’ office see senior management? How often did they see HR, Finance members or co-workers from completely different disciplines. Sometimes, never. Other times, rarely.

There are no excuses.

Posted by Ian Sanders at June 3, 2008 2:43 AM

I agree. I have started. Wish me luck!

Posted by chandra kumar at June 3, 2008 3:44 AM

Just wealth enough to give and spare
Just health enough to banish care
Just friends enough sincere and true
What more want we
What more want you

Posted by Patrick at June 3, 2008 1:46 PM

Ian, your red folder story got me thinking -

I once worked for a company that had a CEO that did a version of MBWA - but the way he did it inspired terror in all the employees. They were all worried about ending up in an elevator (for instance) with him and being asked the feared "So what do you do around here?" question - imagined to be the precursor for "We don't need any of that. Expect a pink slip soon". Now do I know anyone who this actually happened to? No. It was all a friend of a friend sort of anecdotes.

The point is, of course, that he did not walk around trying to make friends. At least not at that time. The company was in the red and a behemoth and he was looking for ways to cut things back and streamline the company. He walked around because he was interested in what people in the company were doing - and it so happened that if he could see a place for that in his vision of where the company was headed he would be very friendly and get them to stay. If he did not see that work as part of the company reborn, he quickly made efforts to find the right place to lop that part of the company off. But it was terrifying all the same. Rumors, "friend of a friend" anecdotes, and his past made for a whole lot of people trying to keep under the radar.

Was it the right thing to do at that time? You decide:

The CEO: Steve Jobs
The Company: Apple Computer, circa 1997

Posted by Martin Koning-Bastiaan at June 3, 2008 6:06 PM

I just finished reading "The Art of the New Leader" by William A. Cohen who writes about Peters, Thomas, Author and Consultant, 1 each and his concept of MBWA...

He points out that MBWA is how you make folks feel important, how you promote your vision, how you get to see and hear first hand the way things actually are as opposed to hearing about what some folks thought they were.

General George Patton credited his success as a battlefield commander to MBWA... to his "seeing and being seen". "The more senior the officer who appears with a very small unit on the front, the better the effect on the troops." I have seen this proven to be true some many times, be in the military, corporate, community volunteer environments.

Living in Arkansas I'm thinking there are about 12 people perhaps in the state who do not have a picture of them and former State Attorney General/Governor/ and President William Jefferson Clinton. Politics and the inevitable "wandering around" examples aside...it sure made a lasting impact on those he crossed paths with...

This stuff works!

Posted by Dave Wheeler at June 4, 2008 12:16 AM