I Have an Open-Door Policy. Great. Now Close It and Get Outside.

There’s a phrase I’ve heard throughout my career that always makes me cringe a little: “I have an open-door policy.”

Great. But I have a question: How many doors does an employee have to walk through before they get to yours?

I know what a leader is trying to communicate when they say it. I’m approachable. My employees can come talk to me. That’s a good intention, but I’ve always viewed the traditional open-door policy a little differently.

To me, it can be a warning sign that management is becoming disconnected and losing the pulse of the business.

An open door still requires the employee to walk through it.

Your Open Door Puts the Responsibility on Them

That’s my first problem with the concept.

The manager sits in the office and says, “If anybody has an issue, my door is always open.” Then waits.

You’re putting the responsibility for communication on the employee. They have to decide their concern is important enough, leave their work area, possibly explain to their supervisor where they’re going, find your office and then have enough confidence to walk in and start the conversation.

Compare that with you walking onto the floor and asking, “How are things going?”

One approach waits for information. The other goes looking for it. I prefer looking.

Is Your Door Really Open?

Then there’s the physical problem.

Maybe your office door really is open. Congratulations.

But I’m fairly confident there are a few closed doors between your office and the employee loading a trailer, running a machine, picking an order or repairing a piece of equipment.

There may be a supervisor’s office, an operations office, administrative areas, hallways, badge-access doors and an organizational chart or two standing between you.

Your door could be wide enough to drive a forklift through and still not feel particularly accessible.

Physical barriers also have a funny way of becoming mental barriers. The farther leadership gets from where the actual work happens, the easier it becomes for employees to think, “They don’t want to hear about this,” or worse, “They wouldn’t understand anyway.”

That’s when you’ve got a problem.

Go Knock on Their Door

My approach has always been the opposite: go to them.

If you’re leading a manufacturing operation, get onto the plant floor. Running a distribution center? Walk the warehouse. Transportation? Get into the yard. Maintenance? Visit the shop. Office environment? Walk over to someone’s desk instead of scheduling another meeting to discuss the possibility of having a meeting.

And don’t make every visit an inspection.

If employees only see senior management walking toward them when something has gone wrong, they’ll eventually react to you like you’re a check-engine light.

Sometimes just talk.

Ask what’s working. Ask what’s not. Ask what makes their job unnecessarily difficult. Ask what they would change.

Most importantly, listen—not the management version of listening where you’re already preparing your answer while they’re still talking. Actually listen.

The People Doing the Work Know Things You Don’t

I don’t care how good the reports are, how impressive the dashboard looks or how many green boxes appeared in this month’s PowerPoint.

The people actually doing the work know things you don’t.

They know which process looks great on paper but doesn’t work. They know which piece of equipment is becoming unreliable. They know where time is being wasted. They know the shortcut everyone uses because the official procedure makes no sense.

Your KPI report may eventually tell you there’s a problem. The employee standing next to the problem can probably tell you today.

That’s valuable information. Go get it.

There’s a human benefit too.

When a senior leader walks into someone’s work area and genuinely asks about their job, it tells that employee something: what you do matters to me.

I’ve found that people generally take pride in showing you what they do when they believe you’re genuinely interested. You learn more about the operation, they gain a stronger connection with leadership, and that invisible wall between management and employees gets a little smaller.

That’s good for everybody.

Of course, there’s a catch. If you’re going to ask people what they think, you have to do something with what you hear.

You won’t implement every suggestion. Sometimes the answer is no, and that’s fine. Explain why. Nothing kills employee engagement faster than management repeatedly asking for input and then sending every suggestion into a black hole.

Keep the Open Door. Just Don’t Sit Behind It.

I’m not actually against open-door policies. Employees absolutely should know they can approach leadership.

I just don’t believe that’s enough.

An open door shouldn’t be your communication strategy. It’s the backup plan.

If you really want to know what’s happening in your business, don’t wait for information to climb the organizational chart until it eventually finds its way into your office.

Walk the plant. Walk the warehouse. Walk the yard. Talk to the people doing the work. Ask questions, listen and occasionally act on what you hear.

You might find a problem before it becomes a KPI. You might hear an idea that saves the company money. Or you might simply remind an employee that the work they do matters.

Keep your office door open.

But if you really want to keep your finger on the pulse of the business, there’s a much better strategy:

Try not being in the office.