Judo onboarding is the art of adapting well to changing circumstances and using someone else’s momentum to further your aims as you onboard into a new job.
There are three basic ways to go into a new organization, easily remembered with the pneumonic “ACES”
A – Assimilate
CE – Converge and Evolve
S – Shock
More on this in that amazing book, The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan. For now, let’s focus on Converge and Evolve since that’s the preferred mode of entry at least 80% of the time.
The fundamental idea is to move things in the right direction over time. Converge with the existing culture first, and then help it evolve over time as appropriate. If they are wearing green eye shades, you wear green eye shades. Then, at the appropriate time, you switch to grey eye shades on occasion. (If you’re a financial person, I’m told this would actually be pretty radical for most financial types in most institutions. So be careful you don’t jump over the line into Shock.)
Think Judo. You don’t have to change everything all at once. Take the organization’s existing momentum and redirect that in the direction you (and it) need to go.
George Bradt – PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration
