A Splendid Waste of Time

Is management by wandering around a good thing?

I was talking to a friend of mine today.  He used to work for the Royal Navy. He navigated ships in his 20s. Apparently getting H.M.S. Ocean around the Isle of White and into the Solent without sinking some fool in a yacht is no mean feat.  Particularly if the fool is hell-bent on killing himself.

Getting H.M.S. Ocean out-of-the-way of some well-trained fool in an enemy battle ship is an even bigger challenge.  Particularly if that fool is hell-bent on killing you.

In the Navy mistakes cost lives.

Sailors need to know what they are doing.

How does the Navy promote best practice?

The FOSTie, or more formally the Flag Officer Sea Training.  The process is quite simple.  The FOSTie turns up unannounced and checks that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing.

Is there a fix of the ship’s current location marked on the chart?

Yes

Has a fix been marked every 6 minutes?

Yes

Is there a prediction of where the ship will be in 6 minutes time?

Erh No

No…   What the bloody hell are you playing at?  Are you running a ship or a brothel?

You can imagine how the conversation plays out.

My mate hated visits from the FOSTies “in their stupid green jackets”.  They knew exactly what was supposed to be happening, and if it wasn’t… life would become pretty miserable, pretty quickly.

I am not advocating a military style of management

But I simply ask you this…

Next time you are out and about engaging in a little management by wandering around how do you know?

• How do you know what to look at?
• How do you know if there is a problem?
• How do you know how well things are performing?
• How do you know if people are doing what they should be doing?

What is the standard?  How do you know?

Would you be better off in your office?

When you are on your management tour are you being helpful or are you having the wool pulled firmly over your eyes?

If you don’t know what questions to ask or what you are looking at, is your management by wandering about a help or a hindrance?  Are you creating an open culture, or would you be better off locked in your office doing some PowerPoint?

Management by wandering around isn’t so useful unless you know what should be going on.