Everything Old is New Again, or Why an Old Management Practice is a Big Deal Today

LEAVE IT TO Josh Bersin to push an old-school management practice in a AI-focused, 21st Century world.

This past week, Josh had an interesting blog post titled The Labor Market Has Totally Changed: Are You Really Ready? As always, he made some great points about how the labor market has changed as Baby Boomers like me slowly exit the stage.

Here’s his point:

“Over the last five decades, baby boomers defined the workforce. Today things could not be more different, and this change impacts all of us. … the expectations, needs, and demands of (today’s) workers are different. And businesses have struggled to keep up. Companies have vast amounts of unfilled positions, we suffer high turnover in almost every role, and labor unions are growing in number.

What do companies do? We have to accept and understand that the labor market has totally changed.“

Another insight from Josh Bersin

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED in how work and labor markets are dramatically changing and the impact of all of that on all of us, you need to read the latest from Josh Bersin for his latest insights and observations.

Surprisingly though, Josh also made the case for an old school management practice that he believes is important for dealing with the modern day workforce. Here’s how he put it:

“Today much of the intelligence we need to grow our companies is sitting with front-line workers. We need to ‘activate employees’ and listen to them directly. The worker in the store, plant, or front office who feels frustrated by some system or process is the person who should advise us what to do. The old idea of ‘management by walking around’ must come back.“

Don’t know what “management by walking around” is?

Carl Lindberg defined it like this back  in 2022:

“Management by walking around, otherwise known as management by wandering around (MBWA), is a management style that involves strolling around the work area in a seemingly unstructured manner. Managers spontaneously stop for a conversation with employees, learning more about equipment, functions, and processes in the workplace. As a manager stops by for informal discussions, they also make themself available for employees and any questions they might want to raise.

This approach builds participation and is an example of the democratic leadership style and MBWA requires a lot of Emotional Intelligence on the leader’s part. (Read our free e-book on Emotional Intelligence.) The method of Management by walking around depends on each company’s layout and everyday routines; walking on a factory floor or in a department store is different, but in the end, it is meeting the team members that is the point.”

A important key for successful leaders

I’M A BIG FAN of “management by walking around” because it speaks to one of the greatest complaints workers have about their manager — they never get much of a chance to talk to them.

Believe it or not, this style of management came about just as Baby Boomers were really starting to dominate the workplace. As an article on Cleverism.com explains it:

“In 1982, management consultants Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman proposed the concept in their book In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run Companies. In the book, Peters and Waterman examined the successful companies, realizing a common nominator between the most successful.

According to them, the successful companies had CEOs and managers who spent much of their time in the field instead of being confined to their office. Peters and Waterman noticed these managers were more aware of the operations and in general, had better ability to solve problems. Peters went on to write a book A Passion for Excellence in which he continued to assert the style as the core element of excellent leadership.”

Some say that a personal style of management like this has become obsolete in an age when so much work is digital and remote work, and Forbes recently made that point pretty clearly.

However, even with remote or hybrid work, the idea that good managers need to regularly connect with their people is an important part of being a successful leader.

 

5 steps you need to follow

HERE’S MY TAKE: I have embraced this very personal style of management for just about all of my career, and it has served me well for a very long time. Doing it right takes a lot of work, however, and here are my five essential steps that managers need to follow:

1. It can’t be perfunctory — Small talk is nice, but managers need to ask questions designed to get people talking about how their work is going and what the manager can do to help them with it.
2. It has to be a regular occurrence — Doing it regularly is good, but daily is even better. Employees will open up more if it is a regular, casual conversation.
3. It can’t be just another task to get done — Most everyone knows when someone is only talking to them to kill time or just because they have to. … and coming off like that defeats the purpose of it.
4. It has to be flexible and adjusted to what you hear from people — Conversations will vary daily as people and their needs change, so you must be prepared to give people the extended time they need when they really need it.
5. It has to be sincere — People can tell when you’re distracted, feeling pressured to be somewhere else, or just going through the motions. Better to talk to people later than to make them think you’re not really in the mood to chat.

Talking to employees and getting their insights and feelings is an essential part of being a good manager. In fact, it’s not surprising that it popped up as a key management priority for well-run companies in the book In Search of Excellence.

The fact that it has flagged it as a critical management issue in 2023 just as authors Peters and Waterman did way back in 1982 makes it clear  — again — that great management thinking never gets old.

Yes, the concept of “management by walking around” may be 40 years old, but you didn’t hear a lot about it after the year 2000, and pretty much nothing at all during the pandemic-driven lockdown that started in 2022.

But now, two years after the lockdown ended, a respected influencer and analyst like Josh Bersin is making a case for it yet again.

In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it is still being utilized 40 years from now.

After all, 2062 is just as close to us today as 1982 is. I’ll have to make sure I remind my kids and grandkids to remember that whenever “management by walking around” is a 2062 point of discussion.

 

Other trends and insights 

And if you need your weekly fix of AI news … 

• As AI Expands, Public Trust Seems To Be Falling (From Forbes.com)
• AI “apocalypse” could wipe out 8 million jobs in the UK — women and Gen Z are most at risk (From Fortune.com)
• Why American farmers are turning to AI and robotics (From BBC.com)
• Why are women being sidelined in the AI race? (From FastCompany.com)
• Why HR is probably not ready for generative AI (From HRExecutive.com)
• Generative AI could leave users holding the bag for copyright violations (From TheConversation.com)
• Research finds that Leaders Undervalue Creative Work from AI-Managed Teams (From HBR.org)

ALSO: You don’t hear about succession planning much anymore, so imagine my surprise when I saw a Forbes article making the case that Succession Planning is the Unseen Catalyst For Business Growth. Although its focus is on business owners, it makes a good case that ANY type of business needs to do good planning for the organization’s success beyond its current leadership.

ALSO-ALSO: Companies have been focusing more on employee wellness in the post-pandemic workplace, but what if all that organizational focus isn’t doing all that much? Fast Company tackles this timely topic in Why Most Workplace Wellness Benefits Don’t Actually Work.