Saturday, December 29, 2007

MBWA

A term I learnt from my big boss recently. I think this is again one of those army terms ? Probably the guys will know better.

Anyway MBWA meant Management By Walking Around. My interpretation of his explanation was : to manage by walking around, "feeling the ground" so as to see, know, understand what's going on.

It was sort of like a wake up call to me. Though he wasn't referring to me when he talked about MBWA, but I thought it was very relevant to me. To manage a project, I have to be in touch with what's going on. I can't constantly hide in my cubicle and work through emails (which is what I'm most comfortable with ... which makes me think I previously should have continued being a programmer! haha!). I have to MBWA, I have to get out and see the people, talk to them and gather the latest news and info.

I tried that out yesterday with a small selected group of users who are friendly and kind. My first baby step.

A good lesson to end the year. *thumbs up*

1 comment:

Tekko said...

Hmm I like this term. In the army, there is a similar term KLKK but it refers to the foot soldier and not the officer.
Looks like must learn to do MBWA. Good excuse to eat snake:)
Cheers and a happy 2008 to you!