MBWA - Yes it works

Today is a day off, and I was indulging one of my newer guilty pleasures: reality television.

On our last trip to Panama, we found the UK version of Undercover Boss on the cable/dish TV one rainy afternoon in the mountains. The premise of the show is that the owner/CEO of a larger corporation goes "undercover" for a week (5 days) doing some of the front-line jobs in order to learn more about how the company is currently providing service. One of the shows from the UK that I remember was about a fish and chips chain, and some of the stores were in English resort towns. After the week undercover duty, the CEO does a reveal to the individual managers and then to all the folks at the facility.

Today, I was watching TLC and the US version of the show. Unfortunately, I could not find a list of the shows and a link to the one which impressed me.

That show was about Hooters, the restaurant chain. There is an article about the show, but it does not talk about what impressed me.

First of all, Hooters makes its own sauces. That plant was "the baby" of the founder of the company. When he died, one of his sons was suddenly, and unexpectedly, thrust into being in charge of the company. The CEO (son of the founder) made a visit to the plant as part of his undercover experience. What he heard from the employees there, including the plant manager who was a family friend, was that morale was not good. This was partly the result of the fact that folks from the management were no longer visiting the plant. The plant workers felt appreciated by the attention, limited as it was, by having the CEO publicly visit the plant and walk the floor.

This "management by wandering around" (MBWA) is what caught my attention. MBWA is a management practice that can be very important, not just in larger organizations. As a manager, even of a single location organization, I found that it was important to get out of the office and see what was really happening. I also found out things that I might not have heard otherwise. When I was in someone's regular workspace they would sometime tell me things that they thought were not important enough to bring up to my office. It also helped me to visually be able to understand the physical spaces or items involved.

When I was in my MBA program, we did talk about this as one part of a style of management. But many librarians do not get any formal management training, so perhaps this tip will help a new manager somewhere.

Links?

Cognitive authority. Is this the explanation for the reason that many young people today do not respect copyright and other "intellectual property" related issues? Rory Litwin points to an article which discusses this [Bad link removed 2022-02-17]. He does not totally agree with the author, but does note that it is an important observation which deserves more discussion.

Library management and "moving on up."

- ALA-APA's Library Worklife [Bad link removed 2022-02-17]

- In the Library with a Lead Pipe has a thoughtful post

- Meredith Farkas on becoming management

-Jenica Rodgers on [Bad link removed 2022-02-17] lessons learned as a manager and micromanagement

E-books, DRM, and Britain

- Andy Woodworth has a post on the current flap

- Closer to the source is a [Bad link removed 2022-02-17] post from the British Bookseller web site

- And there is a reply from a British public librarian

-[Bad link removed 2022-02-17] Thoughts from the LJ/SLJ virtual presentation by Emily Williams

- And Steven Harris on the same topic, cleverly titled "[Bad link removed 2022-02-17]I got your ebook manifesto right here!"

Meredith again (this time in American Libraries)[Bad link removed 2022-02-17] about the importance of reading the fine print of licenses.

There have been couple posts about anonymity on the web, in both blog posts and comments. Bobbi Newman has some interesting comments on pseudonyms.

And finally, one of my alma maters (my undergrad one) is now offering its alumni access to some of the Ebsco databases in a two year trial. I wonder how far this will spread? Is it because this is a private institution with a significant endowment? My other two alma maters are both state schools. It will be interesting to watch.

And adding two more items on anonymity:

First from In the Library with a Lead Pipe a long and thoughtful post about pseudonymity and anonymity. [It is interesting to read this while listening to a biography of Benjamin Franklin who wrote a great deal using both!]

Second is a [Bad link removed 2022-02-17]snarky take from Salon.com which reflects what is happening on some news web sites with comments.

Management Techniques

I had been quite behind in reading my RSS feeds. Over the holiday, I caught up.

I don't remember where I picked up this one, but it could have been Karen Schneider's Free Range Librarian. It is about "Employee of the Month" programs. In several of the places I have worked, comments have been made about recognizing good public service. In offices and in fast food establishments, you often see plaques with photos. I know at least one car dealership I have used has a program. Even the grocery store near my apartment has a parking space reserved for the Employee of the Month. (Actually, so does Best Buy. I parked in it once when I was in a hurry and knew it would be a quick visit.)

Many times those parking spaces are vacant, and I have seen plaques which months or years out of date.

Once I informally proposed the parking space idea. I received immediate, negative feedback from the "middle managers" of that organization. I think that Ask a Manager is right when he/she says "Recognize employees who are doing a good job in ways that really matter -- with strong evaluations, great raises, good management, new challenges (if they want them), and ongoing positive feedback." I am beginning to realize that I have been successful because I have done all but give the "great raises." That is really tough in public libraries today!

It is an interesting and thoughtful post. If my list of RSS feeds was not already ridiculously long, I would add this. It seems to be a good source of thoughtful ideas and comments for managers.