Even before I learned about lean, I felt that org charts are drawn upside down. The highest point in an organization is the front-line staff. The person at the bottom is the CEO, whose job it is to serve everyone above him.

Managers exist to serve their staff. Not to do the work their staff does, but to remove any obstacle blocking their staff’s work. When they do this they gain loyalty, results and most importantly the truth about why things break. And the truth is the best tool to get a project back on track.

You’re right, it’s very tough for Managers in these “information overload” days we live and work in.
I got around this to some extent by scheduling diary time for “Go Look See” and scheduling 1 to 1′s with my team.
Even then, sometimes other “stuff” would get in the way.

I couldn’t agree with you more. Without getting too caught up in lean jargon, managers and execs should make “go see/ask why/show respect” a focal point of their standard work. And yet, it’s often sacrificed because they’re “too busy.”

I think the key problem is that people feel that they’re too busy to do this. They’re confusing motion with action, whipping themselves into a frenzy while missing out on the opportunity to make substantive improvements. And the instant response environment fomented by email, IM, etc. makes this habit even tougher to break.