Ep. 111 Are management walkarounds effective?

The research paper discussed is by Anita Tucker and Sarah Singer, titled "The Effectiveness of Management by Walking Around: A Randomised Field Study," published in Production and Operations Management.  Discussion Points:Understanding senior leadership safety visits and management walkaroundsBest practices for safety management programsHow management walkarounds influence staff perceptionResearch findings comparing intervention and control groupsConsequences of management inactionEffective implementation of changes Role of senior managers in prioritizing problemsImpact of patchy implementationHow leadership visits affect staff perceptionInvestigating management inaction Effective implementation and consultationKey Takeaways:The same general initiative can have very different effectiveness depending on how it's implemented and who's implementing itWhen we do any sort of consultation effort, whether it's forums, walkarounds, reporting systems, or learning teams, what do we judge those on? Do we judge them on their success at consulting or do we judge them on their success at generating actions that get taken?The answer to our episode’s question – Your answer here at the end of our notes is sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the resulting actions. Quotes:"I've definitely lived and breathed this sort of a program a lot during my career." - David"The effectiveness of management walkarounds depends on the resulting actions." - David"The worst thing you can do is spend lots of time deciding what is a high-value problem." - Drew"Having the senior manager allocated really means that something serious has been done about it." - Drew"The individual who walks around with the leader and talks about safety with the leader, thinks a lot better about the organization." - David Resources:Link to the PaperThe Safety of Work PodcastThe Safety of Work on LinkedInFeedback@safetyofwork