1.650.322.0230Management by flying around
Remember “Management By Wandering Around,” the somewhat old-fashioned notion that no amount of presentations, reports, meetings and conferences can substitute for getting out of your office and walking around (see Tom Peters’ great book: Little Big Things: Excellence). Great idea, but many experts say it’s impractical when your employees are spread all over the world. These days teleconferencing, phone conferencing, email, texting and IM substitute for face-to-face discussions. Unfortunately, good as is, electronic connections cannot replace genuine human relationships. And business teams who have healthy relationships are more productive.
Managing Waverley software development teams located worldwide, I’ve learned the importance of MBFA – Management By Flying Around. Software development is complicated, difficult work. Often there are unexpected problems and setbacks, so openness, honesty and trust among team members is critical to our success. There’s an old adage that says that the three most important keys to retail success are location, location, location. Well, at Waverley we believe the three keys to outsourcing success are communication, communication, and communication.
I believe that if engineers and customers haven’t been face-to-face in the past six months, our relationship is probably set back to zero. My visits (alone, with our Silicon Valley Management team, and with our clients) to our software engineers in their home offices creates goodwill. Flying our engineers to our clients builds relationships. Everyone knows that hiding problems creates problems. As we all listen to each other, air our concerns, share our solutions we create an atmosphere of transparency and accountability. And, we create better solutions for our clients.
