Seeing is Believing

In the 1960’s Bill Hewlett and David Packard pioneered something called MBWA – Management By Walking About. It was simply about getting away from your desk and walking about to see what the rest of the troops were up to, as well as building closer relationships with more people. And we all know that maintaining close relationships with colleagues, internal clients and suppliers is accepted as a vital part of an insight role.

 

A recent Economist article talked about the modern day equivalent – Management By Talking About (MBTA). The prevalence of phones, email and texting now makes it much easier to just keep in touch with a much wider group of people than you would necessarily meet at or around your desk. But somehow these communication methods don’t seem to have quite the same effect as talking to someone face-to-face.

 

With so many new ways of communicating, it is surprising that little research has been done into the best ways of communicating to maintain those relationships. But the Economist article referred to work done by Philip Evans from the Boston Consulting group, which showed that trust is the key. And even a short meeting can be the most effective way of establishing that trust.

 

Once this basic trust has been established, people will respond more happily to other forms of communication. There is no need to repeat the face-to-face meeting too often – perhaps just an occasional ‘top up’! So ultimately, making a little bit of extra effort in the early stages of a relationship can pay dividends in terms of its longer term effectiveness.

 

The need to communicate using modern technology (which also includes phone and video conferences) will become even more prevalent in the future. The number of mobile and flexible workers is likely to continue to rise – so anything that will streamline communication across disparate locations is going to help.

 

Once you have met someone, then the trust that builds will last a considerable time, and will make phone and email communication that much easier. All you need to do is just go out of your way from time to time to renew the face-to-face acquaintance, and the rest of the time you can use ‘remote’ forms of communication without problem.

 

So whoever your key contacts are, think carefully about the way in which you communicate with them, and the way you use the ever growing array of methods. But if you have clients or suppliers who you haven’t yet met in person, perhaps you should think about arranging that face-to-face meeting…

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