The First 90 Days (61 page)
Authors: Michael Watkins
Tags: #Success in business, #Business & Economics, #Decision-Making & Problem Solving, #Management, #Leadership, #Executive ability, #Structural Adjustment, #Strategic planning
Working with a Team
If you are building a team, consider using the framework to accelerate the team-building process. One virtue of the transition acceleration model is that it supplies the team with a common language for talking about shared challenges.
This can be especially powerful if your team mixes people who have been around for a while with people transitioning into new roles. By introducing a new framework and language, you level the playing field between the old guard and the new.
Start by providing your team an overview of the transition acceleration framework. Then focus the team on doing a shared situational diagnosis using the STARS model. Push them to clarify the key challenges and opportunities. Then move onto alignment issues—strategy, structure, systems, and skills. Next, focus on how the team will define its A-item priorities and secure early wins. Finally, explore the kinds of coalitions you and the team will have to build to marshal the support you need.
Bringing in People from Outside
Healthy organizations bring in people from outside, ideally midlevel people, to seed new ideas and energy. But few organizations do a good job of helping outsiders become insiders. As a result, promising people make unnecessary mistakes, often in the spheres of organizational culture and politics.
How do you avoid this? Get them to create their own 90-day acceleration plan. Start by using the STARS model to identify the jobs that are appropriate for outside hires. Don’t set them up to fail, such as by putting them in a realignment situation without adequate support and advice. Teach them the same transition acceleration vocabulary that insiders speak so they can converse easily about, for example, what is considered a “win” in your organization.
Develop a primer about the company culture, perhaps a video of leaders who have successfully transitioned in from the outside talking about what works and what doesn’t.
