Spending one day a month so you can say to fellow executives "I actually went and touched the problem, we need to fix it" and so employees can say to each other "he actually came and touched the problem, he must be working on fixing it" has real value.
Actually learning about the problem and coming up with a solution is best done by listening to the people like you said, but there's a role for the other thing too.
You're describing an incredibly toxic environment. Executives blowing each other off, employees not trusting executives, executives not considering a problem real until they've seen it themselves. All of this is a crutch in place of actual trust.
Yes, I realize this toxic environment is present in 95% of all companies in the U.S. That makes it worse, not better.
I don't know if toxic is the word for it. No human has infinite capacity for logic or empathy.
Being conscientious takes effort almost by definition. All of us need reminders to put that effort in.
That's why people talk about "getting a seat at the table." If you are physically in a room with someone and they hear your voice and see your face you become more real to them.
We face a choice of either denying the messy parts of human nature (and seeing how that goes) or adapting our processes to account for them.
> You're describing an incredibly toxic environment. Executives blowing each other off, employees not trusting executives, executives not considering a problem real until they've seen it themselves. All of this is a crutch in place of actual trust.
That's kind of the problem that Starbucks is having right now.
Or rather, it's a symptom of the war its executives are waging on its employees. The former are going to need to do a hell of a lot more then a shift a month to rebuild that trust.
> Executives blowing each other off, employees not trusting executives, executives not considering a problem real until they've seen it themselves. All of this is a crutch in place of actual trust.
You could apply this to literally 99% of any employer in the world.
Spending one day a month so you can say to fellow executives "I actually went and touched the problem, we need to fix it" and so employees can say to each other "he actually came and touched the problem, he must be working on fixing it" has real value.
Actually learning about the problem and coming up with a solution is best done by listening to the people like you said, but there's a role for the other thing too.