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Submitted by pmoriarty on
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I just finished Week 2 of a new job where I'm starting out using the MT approach from the beginning. Here's a rundown on how it's going.

I'm a director in an internal IT function for a high-tech company in Silicon Valley. I have 12 direct reports.

Taking a page from the recent "The First Rule for New Managers", I started O3's the first week. I used a slightly modified version of the email template provided in the first O3 cast to explain to my directs what I was doing and how it would work. I received some positive replies from my new team on the message. I'm currently doing O3's all day Thu and Fri morning. After re-listening to and agreeing with the advice in the O3 casts about not doing them on Friday, I will be rescheduling the Friday O3's to Wednesdays.

Taking another page from "The First Rule for New Managers", I will not start feedback until Week 5. I have been slowly introducing the concept of feedback during O3's. I have not started a group staff meeting yet. Surprisingly, there wasn't one before I arrived, so while I will eventually start one, I don't envision doing it until at least Week 6.

Next I used my boss and my team to generate a list of key contacts in the organization that I should speak to as far as how the team is perceived, how we can help the company succeed, how they keep score and any general advice. Again, I used a slightly modified message based on the template in "Jump Starting Internal Customer Relationships". I have 32 people to interview on the first pass and have received a few more names from those I have already interviewed. I'll probably end up talking with around 40 people before I finish. I got a great response from those I contacted, many saying how much they appreciated my reaching out to them the way I did.

If I had to do it differently, I would have spaced the interviews out a bit more than I have. As it stands, I will have completed almost all of them by the end of the coming week. While it seems trivial to schedule 30 1/2 hour meetings over a 2-week period, in reality I have found myself stuck more than once with back-to-back interviews. In two of those instances, the interviewees wanted to go longer but I could not accommodate them. I will circle back to them after I have completed speaking with everybody.

Having set up both the internal and external dialogues immediately, I can say that I am more up to speed at this company after 2 weeks than I have been at past companies after 2 or 3 months.

For fans of The First 90 Days, I believe I'm faced with a realignment in my new role. While this is supposedly the most difficult role for an outsider manager to succeed in, I remain excitedly optimistic that by continuing to apply the techniques I have been fortunate to learn here that I can not only succeed in this role, but do an outstanding job.

Folks - This stuff really works! If you're not already doing it, start this week!

Mark, Mike and the MT Community - Again, please accept my heartfelt thanks!

HMac's picture

Paul: VERY impressive! Keep us posted. I can't wait to get my next chance to be a new manager (or, an experienced manager at a new employer!), and follow your advice.
-Hugh

US101's picture
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Excellent start. I look forward to hearing how your initial feedback goes.

pmoriarty's picture
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I forgot to mention a couple of more things I did different in the key customer interviews process. The position I am filling was open for almost 6 months and there has been significant restructuring in the IT organization recently. I should have sent out 2 slides (sorry Mark), one like the one described in the cast and one with an org chart. Almost everybody I've spoken with so far has asked me to explain who's on my team.

Also, I saved the 5 questions for the meeting invite that I sent out as a follow-up rather than sending them in my initial email. About 1/2 of the people so far have read them prior to our meeting.

calvin_a_hobbes's picture

I am in a similar position, just starting in my first management position. I have heard the casts on O3's, but where is the cast concerning the customer interviews?

Thanks.

pmoriarty's picture
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kmhebert77's picture

I am getting ready to try this but having a little trouble formulating the questions I want to ask. Do you mind if I ask what questions you used?

BJ_Marshall's picture
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[quote="kmhebert77"]Do you mind if I ask what questions you used?[/quote]

I followed the Jumpstarting Internal Relations advice when I moved into my new position three months ago. I used the questions M&M post in the slides that accompany the cast, which you can access as a premium member.

I can't tell you how often I've referred to the slides/PDFs from various casts. Well worth it.

BJ

kmhebert77's picture

[quote="wmarsha1"][quote="kmhebert77"]Do you mind if I ask what questions you used?[/quote]

I followed the Jumpstarting Internal Relations advice when I moved into my new position three months ago. I used the questions M&M post in the slides that accompany the cast, which you can access as a premium member.

I can't tell you how often I've referred to the slides/PDFs from various casts. Well worth it.

BJ[/quote]

Thank you for the reply! I just finished listening to the cast (should have started there) and got everything I needed.

I did have one other question on the topic. How did you schedule the meeting? By this I mean did you send out the email as a meeting invite? Did you wait for their response and then send an invite? Did you call their AA and schedule it that way? I am not really sure how I should approach the higher execs; I know their time is valuable.

kklogic's picture

Paul,
Just posting support. If you are able, I would LOVE to be able to read this thread as kind of a blog of your progress. Congrats on the new job!

pmoriarty's picture
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[quote="kmhebert77"][quote="wmarsha1"][quote="kmhebert77"]Do you mind if I ask what questions you used?[/quote]

I followed the Jumpstarting Internal Relations advice when I moved into my new position three months ago. I used the questions M&M post in the slides that accompany the cast, which you can access as a premium member.

I can't tell you how often I've referred to the slides/PDFs from various casts. Well worth it.

BJ[/quote]

Thank you for the reply! I just finished listening to the cast (should have started there) and got everything I needed.

I did have one other question on the topic. How did you schedule the meeting? By this I mean did you send out the email as a meeting invite? Did you wait for their response and then send an invite? Did you call their AA and schedule it that way? I am not really sure how I should approach the higher execs; I know their time is valuable.[/quote]

I sent out individual emails requesting a 30 minute meeting, along with the proposed agenda. I then followed up the next day with an Outlook meeting invite for a time when they had a 30 minute slot free. In the invite, I included the 5 questions I planned on asking them.

mtietel's picture
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I sent out the email as a meeting invite. I scheduled the meeting about two weeks out when they had a slot free and was flexible to rescheduling requests. The email/invite included the 5 questions.

The response was fantastic from a building relationships standpoint - both with my internal customers, as well as my boss. All were very impressed! As far as the gathered data was concerned, some was directly actionable and some not. However, all the data was useful.

I plan on following the same approach at year end to recalibrate and continue building the existing and some new relationships.