When Chieko Okazaki served as an elementary school principal, she arrived at school early to do her administrative paperwork, then spent the day in classes and later visited with teachers about their concerns, their students, and what was happening in their own lives. Chieko most often spent recess on the playground so she could talk to children individually or she would chat with them in the hallways or at the bus stop. She knew every student in her school of 500 or more. She said, “When the parents came to school or to conferences, I could share my observations of their children, and they appreciated that.”
Karen Gasparac Dissel, who teaches gospel doctrine in my ward, shakes hands and briefly chats with class members prior to the start of her lesson. While she does not have time to talk at length, class members feel that she knows and cares about them as individuals.
A bishop in Salt Lake City likes to spend a lot of his service time outside of his office. His rather affluent ward also includes an apartment complex with a transitory population. This bishop feels the best way to meet and reach the apartment residents is to walk around the complex, sometimes knocking on doors and other times talking to people in the parking lot. One evening he felt impressed to introduce himself to a young couple, who he learned were not members of the Church. They had moved to Utah from another state, were out of work, and didn’t know anyone. When the bishop invited them to attend church, they said they didn’t have those kinds of clothes. At the bishop’s request, ward members donated Sunday attire for the couple and their two daughters, and they started coming to church. The bishop also helped them in applying for jobs. He never would have met this family if he had waited for them to come to his office.
MBWA, “management by walking around or” management by wandering around,” is now a well-known principle of business management. It was, however, an innovative approach in the 1940s when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the two founders of the computer company that bears their names, decided they wanted an “open” corporate culture rather than the closed-door, traditional mode of business. They not only made themselves available to their employees with literal open doors, they hosted employee parties and picnics and asked that all HP associates call each other by first names.
With MBWA, managers or leaders reserve time to walk through employee’s work areas to talk and be available for impromptu discussions. Managers spend time away from their desks and get to know individual employees. Managers also provide opportunities to visit with employees at lunch or in the hallways.
A Harvard Business School graduate and corporate executive noted that MBWA provides an excellent source of data and that good data equals good management. It is the only way to “triangulate,” which is essential in the relationship between managers, employees, and clients. Mingling with employees also instigates innovation, and without innovation businesses grow stale.
MBWA is also an effective tool in Church settings.
In 1975 President Spencer W. Kimball introduced regional conferences, replacing the MIA June Conferences held in Salt Lake City, in order “to take the program to the people.” President Gordon B. Hinckley said that as long as he was able, he wanted to “get out among the people.” And travel, he did, meeting with Saints throughout the world. From the time President Thomas S. Monson was called as a bishop at age 22, he has been known for mingling with the people he has served—the widows in his ward, his associates at the Deseret News Press, the sick and the afflicted, missionaries, and those who were struggling. One of the many such stories related in President Monson’s biography is of his going to the home of Harold Gallacher to invite him back to church. When Bishop Monson knocked on the screen door, Harold, smoking a cigarette and sitting in his chair reading the newspaper, and without even looking up, said he was too busy. Years later, Harold apologized to President Monson and told him that invitation had changed his life; Harold was then serving in his bishopric.[1]
Throughout my long Church life, I have interacted with many leaders and teachers in numerous ward and stake settings. Those who have had the most impact on me and who, I believe, have been the most effective in their callings are those who have “managed by walking around.” I remember sitting in the chapel one morning waiting for a stake conference session to begin. O. Brent Black, then our stake president, walked up and down the aisles, shaking hands with and calling each person by name. The bishop of our married student ward, Garth L. Mangum, made it a routine practice to follow his weeknight meetings at the church with a walk through our student housing complex, visiting ward members in their apartments. One doesn’t have to have a leadership position to effectively manage by walking around. I’ve noticed that after our three-hour block of meetings ends, there are many ward members who linger and make it a point to find out how others and their families are doing.
Jesus Christ was the perfect exemplar of going about meeting and blessing people during his ministry in Galilee, in Capernaum, in Jerusalem, and in other places, and in the New World after His resurrection. One such instance is noted in Matthew 11: “And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed then to teach and to preach in their cities.” Another is in Matthew 14:14: “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.” The feeding of the five thousand came about because Jesus was out among the people: “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.”(Matthew 15:2).
Some of our Church experience requires solitude, such as in preparing lessons, studying, or praying for inspiration to fulfill callings. Attending and participating in meetings is also a significant part of our discipleship. Yet some of the greatest Church work we can do is unscheduled, informal “management by walking around.”
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[1]Heidi S. Swinton, To the Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2010), 160-61.