The First 90 Days

After I announced that I was changing churches, someone reached out to me and suggested that I read this book. This is not a Christian book, but it is a useful resource for thinking about transitioning from one workplace to another. It takes time for someone to settle into a new place, to learn the culture and how it all works. This can cost companies lots of money. Some people can misread the culture or their boss, and this can be detrimental to how they start and are known. This book, written by a PhD from Harvard Business School, is for those going through a job transition to help them start well and to give them tools and exercises as they go through different phases in their first three months.

In general, there is nothing that seems extraordinary or unusual in what is said in this book. It may seem like common sense to prepare and learn as much as you can about the company before you start, to make a plan when you start, to understand your boss and direct reports, to get to know the people and culture before making big decisions and to win people to your side, but it is helpful for someone to say it by someone who had thought about it a lot.

One warning over and over again in the book, which I took to heart, was that your biggest mistake will be to import everything from your previous job into the new one. 

"It’s a mistake to believe that you will be successful in your new job by continuing to do what you did in your previous job, only more so."

When I first started, and to some extent still, I find myself saying "At St Matt's we would..." This is because that is my main framework of ministry, but with this book in the back of my mind, I would always try to allow for the differences and not try to change anything.

The book would like you to set certain goals every 30 days as you try and sort out the culture and understand the people in your new organisation.

Your key outputs at the end of the first 30 days will be a diagnosis of the situation, an identification of key priorities, and a plan for how you will spend the next 30 days.

At the 60-day mark, your review meeting should focus on assessing your progress toward the goals of your plan for the previous 30 days.

By the end of the first few months, you want your boss, your peers, and your subordinates to feel that something new, something good, is happening. Early wins excite and energize people and build your personal credibility.

Each wave should consist of distinct phases: learning, designing the changes, building support, implementing the changes, and observing results.

One key thing they stressed was to work out what state the organisation is in through a grid of four different types of models. The Start-up, turnaround, accelerated growth and realignment. Each of these models came with its own challenges and opportunities, from changing the culture, to recruiting and resources, and how teams work at different phases. 

Another key thing was to learn your boss's communication style and to take 100% responsibility for that relationship. Key conversations to have with your boss are on the theme of your situation, expectations, resources, style and personal development. For each of these categories, there were suggestions on how to go about those conversations early on.

There was a whole chapter on creating alliances, which I am not sure how political that was needed for my role, or ideally would not be needed in my role at a church. However, it is good to know who does have influence over things, even if they are not in some sort of direct reporting line. 

I also appreciated a section on your family, as they also undergo a transition, more so maybe in ministry, when they have to leave one community they have been a part of for another. Friends and support networks are removed, and you have to start finding those people all over again. This was one of my biggest fears of the transitions, but by God's grace, I think my family have integrated better than I expected.

The book said "The most important decisions you make in your first 90 days will probably be about people", and that is probably more true in a church setting. People are key to the very existence of a church; they voluntarily give their money to come and give up their time to serve there. You can not threaten layoffs, and you can not encourage with bonuses. They serve because they are willing. The meaning of the word "minister" being "servant" is key here, for the role I am to do is modelled on the Servant King. He sacrificed for others and not for his own gain.

Over all I thought the book was helpful in some areas, and in others, not in a church setting. With the primary meeting of everyone happening only once a week, getting to know people is much slower than if you worked with everyone five days a week. Because of that, I think things move more slowly, so 30-day goals can be harder, as you try and meet with those people who are available during the week and then try and speed date as many people as you can on the Sunday. Thankfully, there is a coffee break during the service, so there are two main mingling times where you try and learn people's names (coffee break and after church).

For my own unique situation, I came on for 6 weeks, and then my boss is away on long service leave for 6 weeks, and then I go away for 6 weeks, with no overlap. This meant going in, I was trying already to learn everything I needed to from the get-go, while perhaps at the expense of getting to know people. I am nearly at the 90 mark, and I might have made a quick win here or there, without any disastrous blunders (or no one has told me about them - the people are quite charitable to me so far). Because I did have a long trip already planned, that meant I wasn't going to make any (intentional) change till I come back, so in the short term I would just try and learn how things are. It is still early days, and that is probably all that the book covers.