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This is not a very famous acronym, in fact, I am not sure its an acronym at all, I may have just made it up. Anyway MBWA (according to my definition of acronyms) stands for Managing By Walking Around. I stopped by the sales department today and started to chat with some people and it was really very nice. It got me thinking back to the old days at Argos. Back then I used to sit in the office and I used to wander into different rooms and just chat with different people, or see them in the kitchen (Tomek D, talks about me walking around with a stick threatening to hit people, not so sure it looked exactly like that…, but he did mention it rather fondly).

Then one day, we ran out of space for me (we were growing so fast) so I started working from home. I really got addicted to remote work and have basically never been able to go back. I tried a couple times, but I just didn’t like it as much as working from home. The way I look at it is if I am going to be in a room by myself, I might as well be at home. I am a phone call, an e-mail or a Skype message away and not more than a 10 minute walk from the office. I am close, I am just not in the building.

Now from a work point of view I think this is fine. Still, this remote work definitely has its drawbacks and I guess the main one is that I am detached from daily company life. I don’t run into people making coffee in the kitchen, eating lunch, etc. I also don’t just pop by someone’s desk like I used to (I Skype these days).

So, the key question for me is whether this is important or not. I have had managers tell me in the past that it would be great if I could just stop by and chat. I think it would be nice, but at the same time, today was very natural, I just happened to be there dropping off a digital video recorder for the marketing department. I am not sure it would be as natural if I just came walking in saying, “Hi everyone, I am just popping in as part of my MBWA initiative.” I guess most of you wouldn’t be used to that and would think, “What a freak…”.

If there is a way for me to work from home, but at the same time do the managing by walking around in a natural way then I think I’d do it. I am just not too crazy about doing it as a duty or something. I don’t think it will work out as well. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Is this something that is at all important?