The MBWA theory was something I was taught on my first ship as a young division officer. My boss and the CO both felt compelled to share with me the idea that it was my job to visit every single one of my spaces every day. There was a brief time when I thought that meant that I should visit the work spaces because something like 73 spaces on that ship belonged to my division and to be honest, that was an awful lot of ladder climbing and hatch openings and closings but I soon learned that they were both sincere.
When the CO invites his newest division officer down to the forward ballast pump room and asks, "when did you first notice that none of the lights in this space actually work?" I kind of got the message loud and clear. He sort of tossed over his shoulder as we climbed up 4 decks of ladder in the access trunk that the lights also didn't work in the after ballast control pump room, ballast control room or the JP-5 pump room....
I spotted this the other day and laughed out loud. This is in a 20 building compound for older folks.
 |
| Things are beyond hope at this place of work and Nobody Cares |
10 comments:
As a former BM/RD I can state from personal experience that one of the most annoying things ever in life is an Ensign - especially Annapolis Grad- who practices MBWA
Ah, you would have loved me. I can honestly say I spent time going up and down access trunks, in and out of machinery rooms and passageways and never ever did I suggest by word, hint or deed that I thought any of them needed painting. That was the beauty of being the Auxiliaries Officer. By the time I was Chief Engineer I was running ships with 40% manning and the very last thing we had time for was meaningless work. We were the very opposite of the work it may, shine it must navy.
If you look at the header picture of the blog it shows the Esteem's port side and the one time I ordered up some paint was when we tore the vertical bits of the port bridge wing off the ship when alongside the USS Portland as a padeye welded to her starboard side demolished the bridge wing. My HTC and 3 other guys rebuilt it overnight and I suggested we paint it before heading into port in Bahrain.
On the gripping hand, some of my chiefs were fond of paint.
The USS Esteem had a long and distinguished history as an Agile Class Minesweeper until retired, stricken from the log and scrapped in 2000.
Is the picture topping your site her?
MBWA works - if you do more than just walk around. You know what is going on with your people and your spaces (I had maybe 10 as the ASWO). I learned a lot be going on a zone inspection (or three) with the CO. You'd better have taken action on the ZIDL by the next inspection.
Yep. That oil painting actually hung on the CO's cabin bulkhead. It is Rendezvous at the Strait by .....somebody listed on the about this blog page. I actually had the copy of the Proceedings of the Naval Institute that had that painting on its cover. I carefully deleted all that stuff and replaced it with more clouds. :)
Management By Walking Around is much more effective if you remember to carry around a clipboard under one arm....
Interesting. I was first introduced to that concept by John Blocker back in the 70's. He was the Division Manager at Hewlett-Packard's New Jersey Division. He would do the same thing. Wander around the division and poke his head in to everyone's business to check the pulse of the entire operation. It was even written up in some trade magazines as a new way of "Managing". Those of us that were careful observers knew what he was doing though. He was BUMMING CIGARETTES. ;-)
Ha!
I believe Jack Aubrey was known to do that. And to turn a 'blind eye' to an unimportant whitened sepulchre.
MBWA ain't jes fer the Navy; works well for any business, even small grocery stores
Post a Comment