OfficePrison

If you work in an office, you know full well it can become a prison. We can get locked in that "cell," often with some unsavory characters. Or, at least some unhappy or hair-on-fire ones. 

Not only does that prison confine us, it prevents us from collecting important data. Noted author Peter Senge (of The Fifth Discipline) advises that while the "hard data" are important, the "soft data" are often harder to measure but MORE important to our success as an organization.

When we get out of the office and move about the organization we can collect a plethora of soft data, which can then greatly inform the decisions we make. 

This concept has been described in the business literature as "Management by Walking Around." Whatever we call it, we see/hear/feel a lot of things when we move about the organization that we would never experience if we stay sequestered in the office. 

Soft data, anyone?