Category: Team & Culture
Gustavus Smith’s Onboarding
This is a true story of one of the worst onboarding cases in history as told by Wharton Professor Michael Useem. May 31, 1862. The Union forces were about to…
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Discipline in Onboarding
Routines, timelines, and structure to establish control are non-optional components of success. You don’t have to manage them yourself if discipline is not one of your strengths. But you must…
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The Most Important Onboarding Partnership
"Onboarding plans, no matter how well-mapped and detailed, should never result in a hand-off to the new leader. The onboarding plan should be a living document that both the new leader…
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Be Prepared
In general, the more prepared you and your organization are for a crisis, the better you will handle it. This is not about preparing in detail for every possible permutation…
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Onboarding in a Dystopian Obfuscational Corporella
The ideal organization is marked by a transparent focus by all on a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose. Unfortunately, many organizations are more dystopian than utopian, more obfuscational than clear,…
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100-Day Action Plans
"As time has passed, we have found line managers wanting more and more assistance in developing onboarding plans—to the point that we have trained all our HR leaders. Now, the…
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Leverage the Fuzzy Front End
At first, Nathaniel did not buy the concept that he should start before his “official” Day One. He wanted to take some time off so that he could show up at…
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Transformational Leadership
Webster defines transform as to change in outward form or appearance, composition or structure, character or condition. These correspond to three levels of change: Change in outward form or appearance…
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Managing Leaks
Betty was announcing a set of changes in her organization all at the same time. She wanted to let people know in the right order, make sure they all had…
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