Concept
Learning before acting
Learning before acting is Michael Watkins's rule for the first weeks in a new role: because the transition is when you know least and are watched most, run a structured listening tour with the same questions for everyone and diagnose what you inherited before the first real decision.
The instinct on arrival is to act fast and visibly to prove yourself. Watkins's research on transitions shows that the leaders who fail are usually the ones who did: they came in with the answer, stuck with what they knew, and changed things in week one that they did not understand. The alternative is a schedule. In the first two weeks, meet every person on the team one-on-one with the same few questions: what is working, what is not, what would you change if you were me, what should I not touch. Meet your manager and ask what success looks like at ninety days. Meet the teams you depend on and the ones that depend on you. Write it all down. At the end there is a diagnosis, and it is usually not the one you walked in with, and it tells you whether you inherited something that mostly works, which needs you not to break it, or something that is on fire, which needs decisions.
A real-life example
Selin becomes head nurse of a surgical ward in Ankara and redesigns the shift rota on day one because it looked inefficient. Two nurses ask for transfers within a month; the rota had been built around a colleague's chemotherapy schedule, which nobody had told her. Her mentor has her start again with fifteen one-on-ones in two weeks.
How to use it
- 1Book a one-on-one with every person in the first two weeks, with the same four questions.
- 2Ask your manager what success looks like at ninety days and write it in their words.
- 3Change nothing structural in the first month unless it is on fire.