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“See for Yourself”, an article in the latest strategy+business magazine by Tim and Larry Laseter takes Tom Peters’ Management by Walking Around one step further. The authors suggest that in order to be a truly effective and great manager, you have to get away from your reports and dashboards and get in front of people. You have to have first hand observations of the people on your frontline, your competition, your customers and your suppliers.

The Laseters rail on management fads by comparing them to diet fads. They say:

Diet fads and management fads alike offer recipes for success but rarely get at the fundamental changes needed to delivery more than temporary improvement.

Exercise is the key to both weight loss and good management. You need to exercise your legs to get out from behind your desk and into the field and make first hand observations. The authors recommend a regimen of firsthand observation. The Japanese call this genchi genbutsu…which means “go and see”.

As you are walking around, poking your nose into your operations, supply chain and customer’s businesses, you should be looking for problems. Don’t be a tourist. The authors reference Disney “Imagineers” – Disney’s creative team, who spend a lot of time just watching the behavior of guests in their theme parks. This observation has lead to many creative solutions.

Once you find a problem, find its root cause. Toyota uses the “Five Whys” approach. There are many root cause analysis tools. The 5 Whys asks several “why” questions in order to determine a problem’s beginning point.

Lastly, it is important for you as a good manager to teach others to observe. You will naturally lead by example. Your employees will see you out and about and they will follow. Share with them your analytical skills. Share with them your root cause analysis skills. They will quickly learn that first hand field observation is better than anything they can see in a power point presentation in a meeting room where no one is paying attention anyway.

The authors summarize their theory with the follow statement:

The well-meaning leader who considers management an art equally applicable across any industry, be it, aircraft engines or banking, can never match the leader who truly understands the business at hand and continually invests the time to learn more about it.

Go.

Get out there.