are you leading from a dashboard?

"A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.” — John le Carré

Too many leaders today run their business from a dashboard. We're drowning in data, reports, and spreadsheets — all of which are proxies for what's actually happening on the ground. They're filtered, aggregated, and delayed versions of reality.

The antidote? An old-school idea that's more relevant now than ever: Management by Wandering Around (MBWA).

Popularized by HP's founders and author Tom Peters, MBWA is the deliberate practice of leaving the spreadsheets behind to get unfiltered insights from your people, customers, and partners. It’s a commitment to being in touch.

Consider the story of Allergan, who launched a new product for contact lens wearers. The clinical data from doctors was fine, but the Chairman, Gavin Herbert, insisted his team talk directly to users. They uncovered a common complaint of "itchy-scratchy eyes."

As Herbert noted, no trained ophthalmologist would write down "itchy-scratchy eyes" as a professional diagnosis. It wasn't "professional" language. Yet it was the real problem. That single, unfiltered insight unlocked a product line worth hundreds of millions.

MBWA for a Digital World In today's remote/hybrid world, "wandering around" is harder, which makes it an even bigger differentiator. It requires creativity. Here’s how to do it:

Get proximate to your customers. Conduct "naive listening" tours with a loose agenda — just ask a few consistent questions and then truly listen. Hold regular "office hours" on a specific topic. Or get out in the field — I once joined a Dominos exec on a 12-store tour in a single day. The insights are always worth the trip.

Get proximate to your team. Hold regular one-on-ones with your direct reports and, crucially, skip-level one-on-ones with front-line employees to get an unfiltered view. Or, sit virtually with a support rep for half a day and just shadow their calls. The most daring execs even handle a few calls themselves.

Get proximate to your product and process. When was the last time you signed up for a demo on your own website? Or attended a new customer kickoff call from start to finish? The friction and insights you'll uncover are immediate and invaluable.

Get proximate to the ground-truth data. Dashboards are proxies. The real data is in the details. Watch 5-10 recorded customer calls each week. Engage in the Slack groups and online communities where your customers and industry peers actually talk.

I can hear the objection now: "But Jay, none of these activities scale!" You're right. And that's the point.

To succeed in today's world, you must choose effectiveness and deep insights over the desire to scale every single process. Relying solely on proxies is a path to irrelevance.

Creativity is the only thing limiting how you get out from behind the desk. What's one "unscalable" thing you could do this week to get closer to your customers or your team?

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