On Making a Smooth Transition

This Week’s Topic: Avoiding the Transition Trap

1 Strategy 🎯 

Starting in a new role at a new company with new people is exciting.

I vividly remember landing my first job out of grad school, and not being able to sleep the night before my first day. 

I showed up on Day 1 bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and over-caffeinated. 

When I asked my manager what he wanted me to focus on first, he handed me a 200-page technical manual from his book shelf.

"I’d start by reading this, since you’ll need to be familiar with the products you'll be supporting".

I dove in head first, determined to learn as much about the company's technology and systems as possible. Unfortunately, the material was dense, full of acronyms I didn’t understand, and mind-numbingly boring.

Looking back, it wasn't an effective strategy for getting up to speed.  

Everyone wants to add value as quickly as possible when joining a new team.

But their is always a period when a new team member consumes more value than they produce.  

Your goal in any transition is to reach your break-even point as quickly as possible, such that you've produced at least as much value to the business as you've consumed.  

In his bestselling book "The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter", Michael Watkins uses this visual: 

In the example above, it took an individual six months to reach their break-even point. 

There are several things most new team members do, often unconsciously, that cause them to spend more time than necessary on the bottom-left of the graph.

The behaviors are collectively referred to as transition traps, and the most insidious is the trap of "Engaging in the Wrong Type of Learning”. Watkins describes the trap like this:

"You join the team and spend too much time learning about the technical part of the business and not enough on the cultural and political dimensions of your new role. You don't build the cultural insight, relationships, and information conduits you need in order to understand what's really going on."

Of course it's important to understand the technical elements of your role. Just don't get bogged down in a 200-page technical manual like I did, at the expense of building relationships and cultural awareness.

Does this topic resonate with you? Reply to this email and let me know!

Also, I need your help…I’m considering several topics for next week’s newsletter and would love to know which topic is most relevant for you.

A.) How to have more productive feedback conversations

B.) How to build trust and connection among distributed teams

C.) How to be a better delegator

D.) None of the above (propose a topic if this is your vote) 

Reply with your vote and thanks in advance for your feedback!

See you next Wednesday,

Darin

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