Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Walk among your Sailors


Whenever you become fed up with endless meetings, exhausting protocol and mountains of paperwork, you can refresh yourself by a simple visit with your Sailors.  By walking among them, talking with them as individuals, listening to each others' stories, you will be refreshed and reassured that these men and women are among our Nation's finest and that our Navy is indeed in good hands.

Now, grab that folder of PowerPoint briefs and get to that meeting on time so you don't violate protocol.

More from the awesome Scott Adams HERE.

3 comments:

Steve Jobs Lover said...

MBWA — in which managers actively get out into the trenches and listen to and engage with their employees — was first coined by HP’s David Packard in the 1940s. By the time the computer age was in full swing four decades later, business guru and best-selling author Tom Peters revived the spirit of this relatively simple but effective approach to corporate success, one that he said was proven to deliver far greater dividends than any amount of computer processing and bean counting. Get to know what employees are thinking and what they’re up to, and let them know that you’re available to help.

CID CPO said...

The Navy's prospective MCPON took a walk among the Sailors at the Center for Information Dominance Corry Station and achieved this very thing recently. There's nothing quite like our Sailors.

Steve said...

CAPT Gene Sullivan (where is he today?) combined MBWA with an eagle-eye, a pinch of blarney, Ruckover's Rules 2 and 3 - "Know your job AND know your peoples' jobs," and combined them with humor ("Comtroller responsibility he referred to as "light indoor work - no heavy lifting.") His people skills were exceptional and he could talk details of our engineering trade with the best of the folks in the GX inner sanctum. On top of it all - he was a genuinely nice person. Result: a leader who achieved and taught. Gene was a mentor who, IMO, was surpassed only by one crusty old MMCPO who observed LT(jg) Me floundering about and decided to challenge and/or amuse himself. MBWA is its own reward, as I learned from Gene Sullivan.