The First 90 Days – Book Review
A need for a plan
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, by Watkins, is a classic book on employment transitions. Watkins’ strategies focus on an employee doing well in their first 90 days, which significantly affects continued success.
Break-even point for employees
Watkins focuses on getting the employee to the “break-even point” as quickly as possible. This concept is the point in which the employee contributes as much as they receive in compensation. It is easy to imagine starting a new job and focusing on trying to get your bearings which causes you not to accomplish anything for the first 30 days. During this time, the company is pouring in many resources without receiving much value.
This goal has two crucial aspects:
- Employees need to make economic sense to their employers
- The faster this happens, the more future confidence employers will have
The latter point is vital because if employees can’t gain confidence quickly, the rest of their time at the job will be tainted. On the other hand, if it is bad enough, the employee may not be at that job for a long time.
Getting to the beak-even point faster
A majority of the book centers around ways to show value quickly. If the whole book could be summed up in a single word, it would be proactive. For example, an employee may come into work the first day with the attitude of “You hired me, so let me know how I can add value.” This attitude is very different from an employee who arrives and says, “I will find a way to add value this week.”
Throughout the book, Watkins presents charts, tables, and procedures that can aid someone who doesn’t know where to start. These resources are invaluable for those with a bias towards inaction or struggle to step out.
For those continually asking, “How can I add value today?” And then proactively seek those opportunities or make them for themselves; this book is more of a summary of your experience with a few new nuggets.
Analyze, Early Wins, and Make Decisions
Like many who have just transitioned to a new job, three key actions can help give you a leg up in your role.
Analyze
Make sure you have a clear understanding of your goals. Get to know the political landscape of the workplace, understand the stated and unstated goals, and understand what it would mean for you to succeed in the role. Don’t let the first week go by without quickly understanding the landscape. Without this, the rest of the process will be uninformed and, at worst, cause you to become part of the problem.
Meeting with key individuals and getting a solid understanding of the circumstances will always help inform later decisions.
Early Wins
As stated previously, the more quickly you can generate value, the quicker you cross the break-even point and create a cycle of success. So, while you analyze, look for low-hanging fruit that allows you to provide positive change quickly. These possibilities can be everything to improving a process, alleviating stress from other team members, or finding a new opportunity that was otherwise not realized.
The one caveat? Just because fruit is low hanging doesn’t mean it is meant to be picked. So ensure that you understand the overall culture and processes so your actions won’t become a net-negative decision.
By getting a couple of early wins, you will have diminished any doubt in your supervisor hiring you, made the workspace overall better for everyone, and set the expectation that you will continue to provide excellent work in the future. In addition, you will affect how others perceive you, especially in your early actions – make sure it is a positive perception.
Make Decisions
At some point within the first 90 days, you will need to make fundamental, seismic shift-type decisions that will alter the trajectory of your project, team, or department. There is a gravitational pull to procrastinate those decisions so as not to make poor decisions. There is some wisdom in taking enough time to analyze the company before making rash decisions. However, there comes the point of diminishing return when you need to make a call based on the best information you know to move forward. So make the decision.
It would be better to be marked as the leader who made a poor call accidentally, owned the mistake, and fixed it than to be the leader who never made a decision and was promptly fired for not adding value. Humility paired with informed decisiveness offers the greatest opportunity for success.
