MBWA (or Management By Walking Around)

Actually MBWA is usually seen as a form of micromanagement, not an alternative to it.

Ask yourself this - what is the first that comes to your mind if your boss walks into your office?  I'll bet its some form of either "what does he need" or "Gosh, am I in trouble?"  Why would you think that it's different with your directs?   They want to know what you want.  Why did you take the time to come to them and bother them?  What do they have to deal with before they can get back to their work?

Its good to stay informed about what is going on.  In a factory or industrial area, walking around is a good thing.  But mostly you should smile at people as you walk past and rarely stop to talk even if their work permits it.

In addition to the cost concerns associated with constructing offices within buildings, I think that the trend of relegating first-line managers to dwell in cubes (albeit slightly larger, one would hope) amongst the people they manage was intended to foster the concept of "we're in this together" and raise the manager's visibility with their DRs.  The fact is, it's not terribly helpful.  The boss is always hovering so the feeling is often one of "I can't say what I want" or "the boss is always spying on us."  

Managers are not able to have private or confidential conversations at their desks and have to pick up everything & schlep to a conference room where it becomes MORE of a big deal when the manager is in there with a DR - everyone sees it as different and different is usually bad.  (Or so the thought process goes.) 

Factor in the virtual world and managers in cubes becomes the most idiotic (IMO, of course) concept ever developed.  Furthermore, how is a virtual manager expected to MBWA to begin with?  My former team consisted of one person in the same geographic location and six others a thousand miles away spread across three locations.  The vast majority of my conversations should have been private/confidential but there I sat - in the open, for all inquiring ears to hear.  Sure, instant messaging and team chat rooms can be helpful but that's not (IMO) a reasonable "in the trenches with the folks" alternative.

If MBWA cannot be applied universally, is it really a valid approach?  By and large, pretty much everything MT offers can be applied unilaterally.  

That said, I am a big proponent of quick stand-up chats wherever and whenever possible.  I find it much more effective to have three 7-minute chats at individual desks than to hold a 30 (more often 60+) minute meeting with the same participants.  I operate as the central hub, taking in information, comparing against information from competing interests and can take charge of the distillation process with the least amount of disruption or ruffled feathers.  This approach can also work in the virtual realm as well - through phone calls or emails or chat - but I don't know that MBWA itself is applicable as a people-management practice.  There's something to be said for the message formality sends. "Gee, my boss has taken the time to prepare for this meeting and has carved out this block of time especially for me / us.  We started on-time which shows me that my boss values my time which is pretty neat."  A walk-up meeting or an impromptu call doesn't allow any of those messages to be conveyed which, IMO, undermines the relationship building process. I do encourage interactions and building rapport but not as a management style.

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Doing the right thing is more important than being efficient.  

MBWA may be efficient, but for whom and to what end?  One on ones are more effective: you will know more about your people and their work than you can from "walking around."  Well run project status meetings improve knowledge sharing, not just upwards reporting.  

That said, I like walking around.  It's a great "pulse check" on the level of energy and morale.  It should be informal; NOT a project status gathering exercise.  Interruptions are disruptions:  as BFlynn said, "mostly you should smile at people as you walk past and rarely stop to talk even if their work permits it." 

Walking around can be good.  Walking around, interrupting people and having unplanned and informal conversations as the core management behavior is not good.  

John Hack