New Employees Have Interesting Insights

Summary

• When a new employee joins, there is a brief "golden hour" where they can provide fresh insights before getting accustomed to the company’s usual methods.
• Intelligent hires will have valuable insights in the initial weeks because they see things without the bias of "this is how it’s always done.”
• Within one or two weeks, new employees will start assimilating and may lose their fresh perspective.
• Use this period as a free consultation opportunity to make improvements, leveraging their outside perspective before they conform to the status quo.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest implementing the "golden hour" strategy to leverage new employees' fresh perspectives. Here's how to do it:

Action Steps for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs:

1. Create a Feedback Loop:

   • First Week: When a new hire starts, ask them to observe and take notes on everything—policies, processes, and workflows.
   • End of First Week: Schedule a meeting to gather their insights and suggestions. Make sure they feel comfortable sharing their observations, reinforcing that their fresh perspective is highly valued.

2. Regular Check-Ins:

   • Daily Stand-Ups: Encourage daily stand-up meetings where new employees can voice any immediate thoughts or questions.
   • Mid-Week Review: Have a mid-week informal check-in to discuss any new observations they might have.

3. Specific Questions:

• Ask targeted questions like, "What processes seem inefficient?" or "What confuses you the most about how we operate?"
• Encourage detailed feedback on customer interactions, marketing strategies, and internal processes.

4. Implement Suggestions:
   • Quick Wins: Identify suggestions that are easy and inexpensive to implement. These can usually be done immediately with minimal disruption.
   • Evaluate Larger Changes: For bigger insights, assess feasibility and plan implementation steps. Make a timeline for these changes.

Action Steps for Personal Growth:

1. Seek Fresh Perspectives:

   • Regularly ask friends or mentors to review your habits and routines. Their outsider perspective can reveal areas you might not notice.
   • If you’re starting a new hobby or learning a new skill, get feedback early on from someone experienced.

2. Continuous Improvement:

   • Use personal reflection or journaling to document what new insights you’ve gathered. Schedule a weekly review to look at these notes and identify actionable steps.

By harnessing the fresh perspectives of new hires or seeking outsider input regularly, you can make meaningful improvements without a significant investment of time or money.

Full Transcript

there's this golden hour where a new employee comes into a company and they have no context as to why anything is done that way and if they're intelligent which hopefully you are hiring people who are intelligent then they'll have interesting insights and then it only takes a few weeks for them to just get assimilated and then everything just looks the way it looks and they're just used to it that way but there's this one or two weeks where they just see everything with outside eyes and so sometimes some huge opportunities for improvement can come from that because they don't have status quo bias it's like getting a two-e paid consultant