Onboarding Strategic, Operational, and Organizational Processes

PrimeGenesis partner Rob Gregory has a rare way of reducing complexity to a couple of pieces of common sense that most can understand.  He was the first to make me see the importance of working on strategic, operational and organizational processes separately and together.  They are critical to ongoing management of almost enterprise.  Jumpstarting them is the focus of our onboarding work over new leaders’ first 100 days.

Strategic Process

There are so many different definitions of strategy that it is often difficult to understand what any individual really means when they use the word.  I define it as the creation and allocation of resources to the right place in the right way at the right time over time.  It is all about choices.  Where do you play and how are you going to win.  Because the world around you is always changing, your strategies need to be constantly evolving.

When onboarding into a new role, it is important to jumpstart the strategic process.  The imperative tool in The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan provides one good way to do this.

Operational Process

If the strategic process is about fundamental choices regarding where to play and how to win, the operational process is about moving from theory to reality.  It is about making sure the right things get done in the right way at the right time.  Generally, this is more likely to happen if someone has clear accountability for making them happen.

When onboarding into a new role, it is important to jumpstart the operational process.  The milestone and early win tools in The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan provide good ways to do this.

Organizational Process

The organizational process is about making sure the right people are in the right roles with the right support over time.  We have been using an ADEPT model for this, thinking about people in terms of Acquiring, Developing, Encouraging, Planning and Transitioning them over time.

When onboarding into a new role, it is important to jumpstart the organizational process.  The role sort tool in The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan provides a good way to do this.

Three-legged Stool

The three-legged stool analogy works for these three processes because you have to have all three or the stool falls down.  Strategic choices help the enterprise move from random action to focused impact.  Operational discipline is essential for successful execution.  And neither of these are useful without the organization required to deliver.

George Bradt - PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding

Impact Over Action - Lessons from Obama and the Fly

There are some lessons to be learned from Obama and the fly.  Just to make sure everyone is on the same page,  Obama was in an interview when he got buzzed by a fly.

He recognized the fly as a problem.

He waited for his opportunity.

He squashed the fly.

He celebrated.

He cleaned up the mess.

The learning is applicable to onboarding as well as other situations: Prepare in advance; have a bias to impact over activity; follow through.

Prepare in advance

Just as Obama stayed aware of what was going on around him, so should those moving into new positions.  Stay focused on what’s important.  But don’t be so focused that you miss opportunities or fail to recognize problems as they present themselves.

Have a bias to impact over activity

Obama didn’t waste a lot of energy on the fly.  He waited for the right moment and squashed it.  Don’t waste energy or time in activities that won’t make a difference.  Save your efforts for those that can make a real impact on important things.

Follow through

Just as Obama celebrated his success and then cleaned up the dead fly, so should new leaders celebrate early wins, thank those that help, and get ready for the next opportunity or crisis.

George Bradt - PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding

Inspire and Enable: From 3E to 5E Onboarding

Procter & Gamble recently switched from driving 3E leadership to 5E leadership.  At a very high level, 3E leadership is Envision, Engage and Execute.  5E adds Energize/Inspire and Enable to the mix to get to:

• ENVISION:  Create the future
  
• ENGAGE:  Build relationships & Collaboration
• ENERGIZE:  Inspire others
  
• ENABLE:  Build capability
  
• EXECUTE:  Deliver outstanding results

My own definition of leadership has been evolving to:

Inspire and enable others to do their absolute best, together, to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose.

This is true for leadership and for onboarding.  It is certainly necessary to envision, engage and execute.  But it is not enough.  The degree to which new employees are inspired and enabled can be the difference between their complying with what is asked of them and their proactively doing whatever it takes to achieve their mission and vision.

George Bradt - PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

Team 100-Day Action Plans for onboarding or re-starts

Inspiring and enabling others to do their absolute best, together, to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose is the never-ending job of a leader.   Because everything is always changing around you and your team, you can’t stand still.  It’s not about mastery.  It’s about the pursuit of mastery.  That requires not just the new leader’s 100-day action plan during onboarding, but an ongoing series of team 100-day action plans building on the accomplishments of the previous 100-days’ actions.  Think about these in terms of context, stakeholders, message and building blocks.

CONTEXT

Pause to accelerate.  Start with a re-look at the context for your team’s actions.

1. What is the situation/mission?
2. Why is this the right team?
3. What is the team’s motivation?

STAKEHOLDERS

Map stakeholders and their biases looking at:

• Supporters who are particularly interested in the team achieving its mission
• Watchers who have not yet made up their minds.
• Detractors who are biased against the team achieving its mission

Think of these stakeholders as target audiences for your messages.

MESSAGE

You can’t get anyone to do anything different unless they believe that there is:

• a reason for them to do that (platform for change),
• they can picture themselves in a better place (vision) and
• know what to do to be part of the way forward (call to action).

These are the basic points you’ll be driving over and over again in your communication campaign.

BUILDING BLOCKS

Context, stakeholders and message set up the main work: setting the building blocks of the team’s next 100-day action plan.  This is as much a 100-day communication plan with actions in place to drive the message with stakeholders as it is a 100-day action plan with accompanying communication points.  Whichever way you look at it, think through and then implement preparation, launch, cascade, celebrate, reinforce and institutionalize.

1. Prepare and seed
2. Launch: Get the imperative in place: sell – tell – test – consult – co-create (by day 30)
3. Cascade: Role out the imperative and getting milestone management in place (by day 45)
4. Celebrate: ID, deliver and celebrate early wins and behaviors in line with mission (by day 60)
5. Reinforce: Sort/re-sort roles (by day 70)
6. Institutionalize: Embed strategic, operational and organizational process changes (by day 100)

George Bradt - PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

Leadership Paradox III. Who is it about?

One of the paradoxes of leadership I’ve encountered in new leaders is whether the executive should talk about “I” or “we” when discussing performance. Some new leaders use the term “I” when talking to their managers or their customers. They do this to convey ownership, to communicate their value, or to bolster their own egos. Others use “we” when discussing their work. “We” conveys teamwork and collaboration, communicates shared accountability and distributes responsibility. 

What makes this a paradox is that many of the new leaders I work with are told to use “I” if they use “we” too often, and to use “we” if they use “I” most of the time.  The answer is, of course, not a simple one - there are situations where one should use the singular, and situations where one should use the plural.

While this may seem like a trivial issue for executives confronted with restarting an organization, hitting stretch revenue and profit targets, or accomplishing major business objectives, it is actually a potentially critical issue.  If we assume that a leader cannot be successful without followers (and I do make that assumption), then minor language shifts tell people volumes about whether they are trusted and valued, and whether the new leader can be trusted and respected.

So when should you use “I” or “we?” If we operate on the assumption that the role of the new leader with regard to the organization is to convey “Something to believe in, someone to beleive in, and someone who believes in them,” then the rule of thumb for new leaders is:

• Use “we” when talking about successes, accomplishments, and other wins;
• Use “we” when talking about plans and projects;
• Use “we” when there is the opportunity to distribute credit or praise;
• Use “I” when taking responsibility for work to be done;
• Use “I” when someone needs to take accountability for failures or missed goals;
• Use “I” to convey that the buck stops here
• Use “I” to establish power or authority (which you should do, but sparingly);
• Use “we” to convey collaboration and teamwork

Using “we” when explaining missed objectives or targets suggests that you cannot handle failure, and may communicate a lack of leadership.  On the other hand, using I when talking about successes suggests that you don’t value the people around you, and may communicate arrogance or narcissism. 

Bill Berman, PhD
Partner, PrimeGenesis
Principal, Berman & Associates