One on the most effective ways, leadership team members can gage the health of the organization and their respective departments is to take periodic “walkabouts”. Walking the floors is valuable as it provides a snapshot in time of security, safety, worker interactions, organizational compliance, workload distribution, etc. It also provides a great opportunity to meet employees, answer questions and discuss organizational performance, hot topics, goals, and customer feedback.
Walkabouts are very effective in any size organization, but more effective in larger organizations involving hundreds if not thousands of workers. The very thought of the CEO and other leadership team members walking the floors and meeting folks is basically unheard of. It sends one hell of a message to workers of caring!