Leveraging the Stockdale Paradox in this Economy, Activating Pride within Onboarding & Managing Complex Change

16 September 2022 Newsletter

“Effective organisations are unnatural. The natural state of organisations is bureaucracy and turf wars, and once deprived of effective leadership they revert to their natural state with shocking speed.” Paul Graham

Hope you’re Thriving! Things are in full swing for the new Onboarded book release here, with lots of interviews and media interest.

I also spoke to a group this week about my first book Made to Thrive and had an email from someone who said they’d just finished reading it for the third time. It’s fantastic to know when you’re helping people.

In last week’s newsletter, I discussed the expansion of our team, with the addition of Andres and Briony, in an endeavour to help more people build great companies. This week I’m delighted to announce the launch of our new website — if you get a moment, check it out.

Activating Pride within Onboarding

Continuing excerpts from my new book Onboarded which is due for release on the first of November, here’s a snippet about how onboarding affects culture.

There’s a moment when a person signs an employment contract, and several of your worries lift from your shoulders.

“I’ve solved that problem,” you may think, “I’ve got a person in that role. Let’s see how they work out.”

But that’s not what the new hire is thinking.

They’re probably thinking, “I’ve solved that problem, I’ve secured that role; let’s see how this new employer works out.”

According to a survey by the Aberdeen Group, 87 percent of new employees aren’t fully committed to a new job for the first six months. A further study by BambooHR revealed that the average company loses one in six of its new hires each month for the first three months. Just because you’ve hired someone into a role, there is no evidence that they are committed to you or will stay.

In fact, the onus is now on you as their manager to increase their engagement, their connection to the team and the firm, and to activate their pride. Remember, they were probably speaking with other potential employers only a few weeks ago.

Let’s consider the onboarding period from two perspectives: the manager’s point of view and the new hire’s point of view:

When a new hire signs a contract and the recruiting phase has concluded, your firm enters a trial period with them in their mind for up to six months. If your recruiting process has worked well and produced a potential fit, you must understand that the new hire needs to successfully fit from both your perspective and their perspective through onboarding.

In my book Made to Thrive, I discuss the four prides of an employee.

Employees must be:

Proud of their company Proud of their team Proud of their boss Proud of their product

Or they will eventually leave.

One of the keys to successful onboarding is activating the new hire’s pride. A team with a great culture has pride that begins during onboarding.

On their first day, Apple employees receive this note:

There’s work, and there’s your life’s work. The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you’d never compromise on. That you’d sacrifice a weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People don’t come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the deep end.

They want their work to add up to something. Something big.

omething that couldn’t happen anywhere else. Welcome to Apple.

Managing Complex Change

A couple of weeks ago in episode 125 of The Growth Whisperers podcast, Kevin and I discussed Kotter’s 8-step change model and effective tool to use to plan for change in your organisation.

This week I came across the simple image below entitled ‘Managing complex change’; unfortunately, I don’t know who produced it and can’t credit them. Still, it’s a simple and interesting way to view the challenge of change management.

Myers Briggs ‘Scientific’ Origins

What’s the difference between your astrology star sign and your Myers Briggs type? No, I don’t know, either. Some assessments can be very beneficial — if based on empirical data and genuine science. But others, not so much.

This week I found an excellent 2-minute video that explains the origin of Myers Briggs that you might enjoy.

This week on The Growth Whisperers Podcast

How can you leverage the Stockdale Paradox in this economy?

During these turbulent times, with major events that are out of your control which could impact your company, how can you maintain composure and results?

The Stockdale Paradox from Jim Collins can be defined as — you must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

This week we’re talking about the Stockdale Padarox, how it applies to the current economic environment, and how you can use this principle to survive and thrive through these uncertain times.

Episode 131 of The Growth Whisperers Listen to The Growth Whisperers Apple podcasts

Or watch it on YouTube

If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter as an email, simply complete the “subscribe to my newsletter” form at the top of this page.

Keep Thriving!

Originally published at https://evolutionpartners.com.au on October 17, 2022.