亲爱的安妮：我的公司最近进行了一轮全方位的业绩考评，自从我两年前升职到管理层，这还是头一遭。我领导一个约30人的团队，大家对我的工作都给予积极评价，除了一个缺点：我收到的书面评估指出，除了事先安排的会面，他们很少遇到我，没机会问一些突如其来的问题或是就当天发生的事情得到反馈。我得承认我大部分时间窝在办公室里，忙于自己的工作，但他们要是想和我交流，也可以直接来找我。

    总之，老板给我的建议就是“多试试MBWA”。对此我毫无概念，只好求助谷歌，原来是“走动式管理”（management by walking around）。好吧，具体怎么做呢？就是到处走走，随便聊聊？听起来纯粹是浪费时间，更别提这种不宣而至的拜访还可能打搅别人的工作。我肯定没有找到要领，对吧，能否指教一二？——困惑的匹兹堡人

    亲爱的困惑者：就像你从网上学到的那样，走动式管理（MBWA）就是指经常性的到处走动，与人面谈，了解大家对公司现状的看法，倾听他们的担忧。这就是惠普公司的创始人比尔•休利特和戴维•帕卡德管理公司（惠普公司的英文名就是两位创始人姓氏的组合——译注）的办法。由于汤姆•彼得斯和罗伯特•沃特曼在他们的畅销名著《追求卓越》（In Search of Excellence）中的推崇，走动式管理成了细致和个人化管理方式的代名词。史蒂夫•乔布斯将这一方法发挥到极致，甚至越过员工，直接用到了顾客身上，他会通过电话来回应他们的抱怨和置评。

    不请自来的拜访确实可能打搅别人，但支持者宣称这一方法也有实实在在的好处。波士顿高管培训公司ClearRock的执行合伙人安妮•史蒂文斯就说：“走动式管理的好处很实在：让人更多地感觉到你的存在，促进你和员工的交流和分享想法，鼓励大家提出合理化建议。”

    除了让你对公司的状况了如指掌，你的时常出现和频繁交流也会促进员工的工作热情和工作效率。史蒂文斯指出，虽然是老生常谈，但在很多公司电邮已经取代了以往常见的面谈，有的老板会显得高高在上和难以捉摸，就像《绿野仙踪》（Oz）里老是躲在幕后的巫师奥兹一样。

    “现在的趋势是通过电邮、备忘录和正式会谈来管理员工。”她说，部分原因是由于很多经理（就像你一样）觉得自己忙得没时间和员工非正式地会面，也可能“年轻和新近升职的经理”根本就不知道走动式管理的概念。

    对那些想尝试走动式管理的老板们（而不是想当甩手掌柜的家伙），史蒂文斯给出正确实施这种管理方式的6点建议：

    1、养成习惯。只有在没有固定时间表的情况下，不期而至的闲谈才最有效率，因为“在大家没有为会面特意做准备时，你才能看到真实情况，你的走动才能获得最大回报，”史蒂文斯如是说。但如果可能的话，请在自己每天的日程安排上为走动式管理留出专门时间，就算只有半个小时也好。“经常做，效果就会更好。”

    2、单枪匹马。经常性地与员工进行一对一的谈话是走动式管理的最佳形式。带着助手参加很可能会形成压抑的氛围，员工会不自在，甚至感觉你在仗势欺人。

    3、平等对待。如果你了解办公室传言的来龙去脉，你就知道，和某人闲聊次数多一点，就会有人传闲话了。试着在下属之间平均分配你的交流时间，这一点即使在一天或者一周之内难以做到，也要在长期的过程中实现。

    4、论功行赏。史蒂文斯说：“对每一个人都要问问他/她对改进产品、流程、销售、服务有什么想法。”然后，如果某人的建议起了效果，一定要公布他的身份，以显示你会论功行赏。

    5、有始有终。史蒂文斯建议，如果无法当场回答员工的问题，之后要记得回复他/她。除了显示应有的礼貌，也能增进信任。

    6、避免冲突。记得你的主要目的是了解事实，其次是促进和谐。为了避免损害这些目标，史蒂文斯建议：“如果你发现某个员工的工作状况不佳，请不要当场解决问题。相反的，先记下来，再找个合适的时间、合适的场合来处理。”

    显然，走动式管理会花费额外的时间和精力，但除了在未来可能有看得到的好处，你也许会发现你喜欢上了这种方式。不妨试试看吧。

    反馈：如果你是经理，你试过走动式管理吗？如果老板喜欢搞突然袭击，你会觉得受到打搅还是欢迎这种交流方式？敬请留言评论。

    Dear Annie: My company did a round of 360-degree performance evaluations recently — the first time we've done this since I was promoted to management two years ago. The team of about 30 people reporting to me all had positive things to say about my work, with one exception: The written appraisal I received said they feel they don't run into me enough, outside of scheduled meetings, to ask spur-of-the-moment questions or get feedback about things that come up during the day. It's true that I am so swamped with my own work that I am stuck at my desk most of the time, although nothing prevents anybody from stopping by if they want to speak with me.

    Anyway, my boss wrote in my file that I should "do more MBWA." I had no idea what that meant, so I Googled it and found out it means "management by walking around". Okay, but how does it work? Do I just walk around and talk to people? It really sounds like a waste of time, not to mention a possibly unwelcome distraction for the staffers I'd be dropping in on. I must be missing something here, but what? — Puzzled in Pittsburgh

    Dear Puzzled: Management by walking around (or MBWA), as you probably know from your Internet search, is the habit of stopping by to talk with people face to face, get a sense of how they think things are going, and listen to whatever may be on their minds.

    This was how founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard ran their eponymous computer company. After Tom Peters and Robert Waterman wrote about it in their 1982 blockbuster bestseller In Search of Excellence, MBWA became a buzzword for up-close-and-personal management. Steve Jobs was the ultimate practitioner of this approach, taking it beyond Apple (AAPL) employees to customers, whose complaints or comments he often answered with a phone call.

    It may be that popping in on employees unexpectedly is, as you say, a distraction — but enthusiasts say the practice also yields real benefits."Management by walking around really helps you be more visible, connect with employees and share ideas, and invite suggestions for doing things better," says Annie Stevens, managing partner at Boston-based executive coaching firm ClearRock.

    Beyond the obvious advantages of keeping your own finger on the pulse of the organization, employees are likely to be more engaged and productive if they see you and speak with you frequently than if they don't. That might sound commonsensical, Stevens notes, but email has replaced ordinary face-to-face contact in many workplaces, so that some bosses have come to seem as remote and inscrutable as Oz behind his curtain.

    "There has been a tendency to manage employees via email, memos, and formal meetings," she says — partly because many managers feel (as you do) that they just don't have time to meet with employees informally, and partly because "younger and newly promoted managers" may never have learned the basics of MBWA.

    So, for bosses who would like to manage by walking around (rather than, as one wag put it, manage by walking away), Stevens offers this checklist of suggestions for doing it right:

    1. Make MBWA part of your routine. Dropping in on employees' workspaces for an informal chat is most effective if you don't do it on any fixed schedule, since "you'll realize the greatest returns by seeing what is going on when people aren't prepared for you," Stevens says. But do plan for a bit of MBWA on your own calendar every day, if you possibly can, even if it's only for half an hour: "The more often you do it, the more beneficial it is."

    2. Don't bring an entourage. MBWA works best as a continual stream of one-on-one conversations with individual employees. Bringing aides or assistants with you will probably just inhibit the discussion by making people more self-conscious or, worse, make them feel you're ganging up on them.

    3. Visit everybody. As anyone might guess who's familiar with how office rumor mills get spinning, dropping in on some folks more often than others is likely to create the wrong kind of buzz. Try to spend roughly the same amount of time — not necessarily all in the same day or even the same week, but over the long run — with each person who reports to you.

    4. Ask for suggestions, and recognize good ideas. "Ask each employee for his or her thoughts about how to improve products, processes, sales, or service," Stevens says. Then, if someone's idea leads to a positive result, make it known whose suggestion it was and show you're ready to give credit where it's due.

    5. Follow up with answers. If you can't answer an employee's question off the top of your head, don't forget to get back to him or her with an answer later, Stevens suggests. Besides being common courtesy, it builds trust.

    6. Don't criticize. Remember, you're on a fact-finding mission, with the secondary purpose of building rapport. To avoid undermining those aims, Stevens says, "If you find that an employee isn't performing his or her job correctly, don't attempt to change the behavior on the spot. Instead, make a note of it and address the problem at another time and in another setting."

    Clearly, MBWA takes some extra time and effort, but apart from any tangible payoff it might yield down the road, you might even find that you enjoy it. Stranger things have happened.

    Talkback: If you're a manager, have you tried MBWA? If your boss is prone to dropping in on you, do you find it distracting or do you welcome it? Leave a comment below.