I just listened to the first session of the Worth Working summit and it was terrific! I’m really looking forward to the rest of the 30 minute sessions scheduled for the remainder of this week.

In today’s discussion, Jo Ann Sweeney suggests that managers “Go to the lunch room and talk with people to understand what’s happening in the company.”

I’m really conflicted when I hear this type of suggestion. On the one hand, isn’t this common sense, and a well established Best Practice? But, then I think about all the managers and entrepreneurs I’ve worked with who just don’t do it!

As a PM, I love the feeling of ‘family’ that exists when the leaders make it a habit to interact on a regular basis. As a PM, my job is more difficult when the leaders are ‘out of touch’ with the workers. In such cases, the leaders excuse themselves with “I’m too busy. I have meetings with important people.” It was a standing joke in the IT group in one office that if the CEO was heading to your desk, it was to ask (again) ‘How do I connect to the network?’

I first heard that this had a formal name – Managing By Wandering Around (MBWA) – in 1982’s In Search of Excellence. My own experience and that of many others attest to the value of this very simple practice. In 2005, Tom Peters’ did an update on MBWA in his blog.

Today’s discussion described the Chinese character for listening. This character is made up by the characters for Ear, Eye, Heart, Undivided Attention and King. An internet search found an excellent quiz on Listening Skills. As a PM, I believe that improving Listening Skills is definitely Professional Development that has very strong Payback (and Pay Forward 🙂 too).

For more information on the worthworkingsummit, Go to worthworkingsummit.com

Note, the discussions are posted for one day – from 10:00 PM GMT (5:00 PM EST, 3:00 PM MST) until 9:00 PM GMT (4:00 PM EST, 2:00 MST) and are about 30 minutes each.