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Going walkabout
February 21, 2008 | Author: admin | Filed under: Communications Management, Project Management Best Practices
Going walkabout
By Kailash Awati
“Hey, when are you going to get to your office and do some real work?” jibed Mike, as he spotted me walking past his office.
It was one of those days. I must have walked by his door at least four times that morning and the day was still young. I looked his way, just a tad irritated by his tone. He had his trademark grin on his face.
“Shouldn’t you be sorting out the problem with the web module instead of tracking me?” I retorted, continuing down the corridor.
He said something in response that I didn’t quite catch.
Despite Mike’s grin, I suspect his question was at least partially serious. So it deserves more than a flippant response.
I do spend a great deal of time away from my desk. Why?
I’ve been practising MBWA or management by wandering (or walking) around. In a nutshell, this means wandering around the office and talking to people to get a feel for how things are going.
My wanderings incorporate regular, informal, face-to-face chats with team members, to get a first hand view of their concerns and problems. There are innumerable ad-hoc tasks vying for the attention of developers in a corporate environment (2nd/3rd level support issues, just to name one). Talking to individuals regularly let’s me know if there’s something I can do to help them focus on their work. This usually boils down to helping them with non-technical tasks. Some examples include: prioritization of work; doing some admin tasks on their behalf; helping them negotiate with unreasonable customers from the business; assisting with documentation etc.
Obviously MBWA needs to be done in a non-intrusive way - the last thing one wants to do is to make people feel like they’re being spied on or micromanaged.
The technique works well with customers (end-users from the business) too. Often, when someone sends me an email requesting assistance from my team, I’ll walk over to their office and have a chat instead of responding by email or phone. Face to face communication is almost always better than a disembodied voice via a telecom device or, even worse, words on a screen.
MBWA is a great way to communicate with your team and your customers. Apart from the immediate benefit of getting a first hand view of people’s problems and needs, it helps build relationships. Which, in the end, is a large part of what management is about.
Original article can be found at http://eight2late.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/going-walkabout//
Kailash Awati currently manages IT development at a multinational in Australia. Over the last several years, he has managed IT projects at companies ranging from startups to established firms. He has also worked as a business and technology consultant for companies in Europe and the US.
On the technical side, he is a seasoned database architect and administrator with wide experience in designing, implementing and administering databases for transactional and analytical applications.
Earlier, in what seems to him like another life, he did research in fluid dynamics and other areas of physics.
For what it’s worth, he holds doctoral degrees in physics and chemical engineering together with assorted certifications in project management and database administration. An admittedly strange mix, which he sometimes finds hard to explain.
He blogs at eight to late, where he writes about project management and other (at times distantly) related topics. Oh, and he also maintains a web presence at www.orafusion.com where he publishes longer articles on his professional interests and the occasional cryptic crossword.
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