I seem to be hearing that phrase from my colleagues a lot lately. It used to be "Thank God it's Friday," (as in the hit disco song by Love & Kisses in 1978). For many people, Friday holds the promise of a leisurely weekend away from work. But for those of us in the performing arts, the weekend is one of the busiest times of the week. That fact seems to be lost on some we work with on a daily basis.
Our business is a seven day a week operation, and it does a disservice to flaunt your time off to those who work through the weekend to put the shows on stage. It's particularly galling when colleagues schedule a meeting with production or front of house staff on a Monday, oblivious to the fact that they've been working all weekend and deserve a day off. At the same time, trying to schedule company parties, team building events, or other staff engagement opportunities becomes tricky. It's no wonder there is a tendency for some arts organizations to become siloed and cliquish.
Leaders need to be aware of this, and their role to act as the bridge between all employees. One of the ways to do that is through a leadership technique called MBWA, or Management by Wandering Around.
The idea of a leader engaging with employees at all levels is not new. Military leaders such as Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great were known to walk among the troops (perhaps that's why they were considered great?). In modern times, Bill Hewlett and David Packard, co-founders of HP, practiced MBWA as part of their leadership style in the 1970's. They would frequently walk around their offices, interacting casually with employees, asking questions, and staying connected with the day-to-day operations of the company. This hands-on and approachable leadership style helped foster a culture of openness and collaboration at HP.
The idea was popularized further in the 1980's by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman in their groundbreaking management book, In Search of Excellence. They highlighted MBWA as one of the key characteristics of successful companies, emphasizing its value in promoting better communication, understanding the work environment, and boosting employee morale. Unfortunately, MBWA soon became a fad, and fell out of favor in the 2000's. Informal in-person check-ins have been replaced by advances in communication through technology (e.g. email), and data driven performance metrics like Six Sigma.
Another reason MBWA fell out of favor is because companies adopted the technique without developing the skills that managers and supervisors needed in order to have authentic engagements. Interactions with employees become awkward and forced, and there was a tendency for employees to feel like they were being spied on. I've said this before-- in a post COVID workplace, corporate leaders are not doing a great job of communicating why return to work initiatives are a key component of a successful corporate culture. Remote work and virtual teams make it impossible for managers to practice hands-on leadership and open communication. Employees seem to think it's all about real estate and management control. After decades of engagement that relies on technology and hierarchy, managers have lost touch with how to actually speak to their employees as human beings.
The best way to be authentic about employee engagement is by asking employees their opinions and advice on things that matter to them. It's entirely possible they are working on a problem you know nothing about, and they may have a solution that's worth considering. You have to meet them where they are. Don't just drop in on a departmental meeting. Pass them in the hallway, even if you had no real reason to go down that hallway. Or the lunch room. Or the snack machine. Or literally the water cooler. In other words, wander around with a purpose. Come in on a show day because you "forgot" a thing, or need to drop off a thing, or need to finish a thing, and see who you bump into. If you're going as a patron, make sure you spend some time back of house.
It's OK to be embarrassed if you can't remember their name (I'm the worst at that). Most employees understand that there are many of them and few of you. But you'll remember them if you have a moment with them. One of my production team recently said to me that the stagehands no longer call the management team on the second floor the "ivory tower." High praise indeed.