Episode 4 -- How do onboard a new team member?

Adding a new member to your team can be hard. How do you help make that person more welcome and comfortable contributing? Deanna and Kara are hear to share some thoughts.

Read more at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/managers/comments/zmw5iu/how_do_you_all_onboard_new_team_members/?rdt=51883

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/join-team.html

Transcript

Track 1: 0:05

Hi, I'm Deanna, and this is the Got PS Podcast, where we talk about all things psychological safety.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 0:13

Deanna, how was your week? Actually, two weeks. How was your two weeks?

Track 1: 0:17

That's right, we didn't meet last week. Why didn't we meet last week?

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 0:21

Because I'm awesome. Actually, because I pushed myself. I pushed myself beyond what I thought I was capable of. I ran a ten mile race.

Track 1: 0:28

Ew.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 0:29

yes, it's not everybody's way that they want to push themselves. nor does this sound like a fun time for most. There was a point, halfway through, I wanted to just walk off the course and not do it. But, I did. I proved to myself I could. but that just wasted me for our typical recording day. Ended up, we ended up taking a break.

Track 1: 0:47

I took a nap in your honor.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 0:50

I took a nap when I got home too, in my honor as well. We were in agreement on that.

Track 1: 0:54

Yay!

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 0:55

Yay.

Track 1: 0:55

My week was a series of ups and downs and I am doing well because I'm living in denial.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 1:01

Sometimes you just got to bury your head in the sand. Sometimes you just have to.

Track 1: 1:04

It helps if you're self aware enough to know that you're burying your head in the sand. I know darn well I'm living in denial and I know sooner or later I'm going to have to face the problems, but I am not doing it today. I'm hopefully not doing it tomorrow, but you never know.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 1:20

How does the week look for you?

Track 1: 1:22

I'm going to a cousin's wedding.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 1:24

Ooh, that's right. wE're not going to be able to record next weekend either. We're going to have another two week

Track 1: 1:28

may be able to. I'll be back by then.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 1:31

Oh,

Track 1: 1:31

I may be beat tired, I'll have to play it by ear.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 1:34

it sounds like a plan. That's fair after my, screwing up recording plans last week.

Track 1: 1:38

How dare you.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 1:39

I know.

Track 1: 1:40

How is your week, and what are you up to?

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 1:43

For me this week, it's been work wise a lot of ups and downs and I have to say family wise as well. I think I've spoken a little bit about having a child that's struggling a little bit right now mentally and trying to help them. But the week ended on a high note, where they're feeling comfortable. We went to school, talked to some teachers. They're feeling more comfortable. Yay, it's kind of one of those things. You just take it as it rolls. Got to take it

Track 1: 2:08

is awesome. Week?

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 2:11

Hmm. I went to a concert on Thursday. I wish I had another concert coming up. The last week was really big with lots of things going on. I dyed my hair pink. That was another thing. That was kind of cool as well. It was something I wanted to show the kids that no matter your age, you got to have fun in life. Dyed my hair just to have some fun.

Track 1: 2:29

got to be yourself. If you feel yourself should have pink hair, then have pink

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 2:33

That's right. Screw conservative corporate America.

Track 1: 2:36

Conservative corporate America has changed a lot over time.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 2:40

Very true. It's loosening up quite a bit.

Track 1: 2:43

Thank goodness. it's a good thing. Some people would be uncomfortable because there is a certain amount of formality between the various different roles, but I would argue that embracing informality and creating more of a flat structure actually improves things because you've got less layers to go through that are going to take whatever message you've got. and transform it. It's a game of telephone. if you've got five layers to go through, that's five times your message can get changed. If there's only two layers above you, there's a good chance that whatever you were trying to say may remain at the core of the same.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 3:19

That commentary goes off of what we were talking about the last couple of weeks about the cultural part of full stack psychological safety. What you're talking about is that having a flatter or a more layered organizational structure can have a big impact on your psychological safety. That's not one thing we talked about. We talked about a couple of other things, deanna, why don't you do a review of what full stack psychological safety is and let everybody know what we're going to talk about today.

Track 1: 3:44

It's my turn this time. There are five layers. I'm going to talk a little bit about cultural safety, and I'm going to talk a little bit about how the company, and the way it works with people in its rules and regulations, help either encourage psychological safety, We're going to be starting out with team psychological safety, which is sort of the base psychological safety that honestly every team should have. And without you cannot get to a safer team. After community, we get conversation. We're going to be starting out with team psychological safety, which is sort of the base psychological safety that honestly every team should have. And without you cannot get to a safer team. contribution, and commitment, which we will be talking about in later episodes. Today, let's start on the ground floor and building the foundation for psychological safety.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 4:42

community safety is that base level team safety. It's making sure when somebody new joins your team that you're welcoming them. If you don't have this, if somebody joins your team and they don't feel like they belong, that you have welcomed them in. There's nowhere for psychological safety to grow with inside your team.

Track 1: 5:02

That is true, if you do not feel valued, then why are you on the team and why are you going to do your best? If you feel that your contributions are not being valued, then you're not going to want to make said contributions. a healthy community is really about everyone. You want everyone being invited to activities, everybody having access to what they need, everybody knowing where they fit in the group, Everyone's actions being valued, today we're going to talk about onboarding, which is what happens when you have a new person join your team. We are assuming at this point in time that this is an existing team. Next week we're going to talk about team formation if it's a brand new team.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 5:45

wHen it comes to onboarding, it's just like what it says. Are you making sure that when the person comes on the team, You're giving them all the tools, accesses, team meetings, all those things. So they kind of can fit right into the existing norms of your team. They can, as seamlessly as possible, join into the conversations. They know who else is a part of the team. They know what roles each person has. They know what the goals of the team are. You're giving them that base, introduction to the team.

Track 1: 6:18

This is a chance for you to sit back and actually think. Kara said, letting them know what the team norms are. Most of the time, team norms evolve over time and it's not something you really consider. having a new person join your team is a great moment to stop and think and figure out what your team norms are. You probably have never given it that deep of a thought. Pause for a minute. Think, what does our team care about? What do we value? How do we best work? How do we communicate? Do we have certain rules such as, on Fridays we have no meetings. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to reflect on the team and where the team is and what their norms are so that you can better communicate it to a new member joining.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 7:00

another thing to consider too is within our organization, people have a level that they're at and it's usually indicative of how much experience they have professionally. there's level ones, twos, threes, upwards to about, I think eight is the max. Ones would be college new hires and go up from there. the thing that we've noticed in our organization is if you have somebody who's, say, a level five, they may have 20, 25 years of experience,, they usually technically might be able to hit the ground running if they're given something within their wheelhouse. But like Deanna just laughed, you still need time to get used to the new project. You need to understand who your customers are. You need to understand what the goals of the project are. You need to figure out how you can best fit and contribute. Within the team. You need to just observe the team and how they're working and what they're doing and figure out what can I take on that's really going to contribute instead of get in the way. There's all those things that you need to think about and to have a concrete training period.

Track 1: 8:07

don't want to break in too much, but I wanted to add some stuff. It doesn't matter if the person has been on this team before or worked for a specific client or project before. Because things change over time. I have left a project. Come back to a project. Left it again. Come back. Every time it's different. Sometimes it's new team members. Sometimes the client has changed a little bit. Every time the goals have changed. Sometimes there's been such huge sweeping changes. It's a whole new project. It's not one that I remember. That can be a real problem because my memory of what used to be may hold me back when I rejoin a team that I've been on before.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 8:48

I have to say not allocating a training period for somebody coming on the project, especially when they're considered to be an experienced professional. that is the biggest barrier between me and feeling comfortable on a new team. Everybody has expectations that I am going to perform at a certain level immediately. That makes me really nervous. I don't know about you, Deanna.

Track 1: 9:09

know about nervous because I am awesome. But It's not going to happen. can watch me fake knowing what I'm doing, but it's going to take me a little while to learn what all's going on. This is really frustrating because nowadays there's an assumption that you can hit the ground running whenever you join a team. And you can't. There's always a learning period. There are some things that you can do to help speed up that learning period and to help make sure somebody is acclimated to the team. One of the things would be to make sure you give them access to everything. To all the files, all the tools. I have been on projects where it took a month to get access to something. Then, suddenly, 4 months into the project, I'm discovering there's this whole other tool that I didn't even know existed. remember how I was saying that when you have a new person join your team, this is a chance to reflect about the team norms? This is also a chance to reflect on what does the team have, and where do they have it, so that you can make sure that somebody has access to it. There is a nothing more frustrating than having to wait months to get access to something when you're still expected to produce, even though you can't access what you need.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 10:22

I was on a project that Deanna was on as well. It was a large scale project. There was probably, 40 or 50 people on it. My main role was to support the lead over our project and to support bringing new people on, because we were in a phase where we were constantly bringing new people on the project. this project had sub teams. And those sub team leaders, we're doing the more personalized, welcome aboard and inviting them to meetings and all that, because each sub team had a different cadence. But I made sure when people first came on to the project, they had access to all the files. They knew where they were. I started to invite them to all the team meetings and explain to them, what the goals of each of those meetings were. and I would email them even a couple of weeks after they joined to say, Hey, checking in, how are you doing? Do you have all the basic things you need? Can I answer any questions, anything hanging you up? They at least had one. face they could talk to until they got more acclimated in their little sub team on the project. That was a big goal for me.

Track 1: 11:23

I want to tell you a real story that happened this past week. I was having to fill out some forms for a client, an NDA and a few other forms. And the person who'd sent me the form said, don't hesitate to ask me any questions you've got. Sure enough, I had a question on something. I wasn't sure if I should answer yes or no. So I emailed them. Here's the problem. Here's my situation. Do I answer yes or no to this question? And the response I got back was, I'm not authorized to help people fill out forms.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 11:53

Oh geez. what were they supposed to help you with?

Track 1: 11:55

bugger if I have a clue. I answered yes, and I'm not sure if it was right or wrong, but. It may affect the speed that I can on board and do things on this team because I answered yes to a question that I think they were expecting everyone to answer no to. That means I'm probably going to undergo extra scrutiny. And who knows how much longer that's going to take.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 12:19

That's I, I'm sorry you had to put up with that. I'm sorry that that person didn't give you the help that you were looking for. you feel lost. The

Track 1: 12:28

frustrated, I don't know if I should have answered yes. I don't know if I should have answered no. I decided the safest way to do it was to do the broadest interpretation of the question possible, but I may have caused myself and somebody else trouble just because of that. Now they're going to have to go dig deeper It is frustrating when you don't have the help you need because you're left to flail about. And you know who gets punished if you make the assumption wrong? You do. Even though you don't know what you're doing and you're guessing, but it is still your fault.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 13:02

which brings us to another way that you can help on board people Especially where Dean and I work. We have the opportunity to work a lot of short term projects and by short term I mean three months here six months there, we could be hopping around quite a bit I'm boarding on teams and getting comfortable with what we're doing Relatively quickly is something we've had to adapt to, but it always helps when you get assigned a body, somebody who, you can start building a relationship with right away. When you do onboard on a team, not only are you building a relationship within the team, the whole team has kind of a relationship and a working dynamic, but that becomes better as you build individual relationships and having one person right from the get go that you feel like you're given permission to bug constantly because most of the time people think you're supposed to hit the ground running by hitting the ground running you don't have to bug people to ask questions. You should be able to go solo heads down. But to get that permission because you have a buddy to bug them. Is really great.

Track 1: 14:01

That's a really good idea. And just because you leave the team doesn't mean you leave that relationship. You can develop a great friendship with someone, or even maintain a mentor mentee relationship. I was on a project last year. I left it at the end of March, but I still am mentoring one of the persons who was on that project.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 14:22

I randomly tried to reach out every once in a while to people that I've worked with on previous projects as well. When I'm reaching out to people and I feel comfortable with them across the company, it, makes the culture feel more welcoming to me. It's almost like I'm injecting my own flair into it, it can just make the whole place seem more welcoming when you walk through the door.

Track 1: 14:41

That's why most people consider psychological safety a team thing and not a corporate thing. You can't have that kind of close relationship with your corporate leadership. At least not in most companies. Most of us, the people who we're going to deal with on a day to day basis, are the people inside of our team, and the people who we've worked for in the past. Maintaining relationships with them, not only helps foster a lower level community that you want to work in, but people leave jobs. You're going to probably leave your job. Your friends are probably going to leave their jobs. You may not be in the same job for years and years and years, and then you're going to bump into somebody again. Or you're going to need a job and you're going to reach out to people. Having and maintaining those connections can help you in the long run. You may not think about it now, but 15 years down the line, who knows?

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 15:37

Most people leave their jobs because their immediate coworkers or their manager are people that they don't feel safe with. And they feel it's a toxic environment. And they leave, even if the broader culture within the organization is really great. Like Deanna said, those immediate connections that really make a difference.

Track 1: 15:54

I worked one job and I left and I moved to a whole new state. Three years later, the guy who had run the project I'd been in reached out to me and said, Hey, we're starting a new project near you. Are you interested in joining? Sometimes, building a good relationship and having a reputation helps. Having a bad reputation can hurt too. I remember, I was on one job, and I'd been talking to someone and I was complaining about my manager and how awful they were, and how I would not want to ever work in another company with this person. Sure enough, six months or a year later, this person applied for a job at this guy's company. And he tossed it away because of what I had said.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 16:37

Wow. you saved them from stepping in a landmine,

Track 1: 16:41

Looking back on it now, I was too harsh. I didn't give enough credit to what was going on in the background and corporate pressure That's actually a good thing to remember. Sometimes somebody can be a complete jerk, not because they want to, but because they're being forced to by outside forces.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 16:57

Very true.

Track 1: 16:58

if you've got someone and you have a decent relationship, and it suddenly goes down the tubes, it could be you, it could be them, or it could be an outside factor that's interacting and causing problems in the relationship. Something to think about. What else can we do to help people on board?

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 17:16

it's always, kishi to say, let's have an icebreaker and join hands and trust fall and kumbaya and all those kinds of things, but making people aware you bringing somebody new in raising the awareness that they're going to have a transition time. Also just sharing a little bit of personal information amongst the team. Have each person, say whether or not they have a pet and what their pet's name is and how old they are or something like that. Sharing some personal information, just breaking the ice that can be helpful.

Track 1: 17:44

am going to counterpoint. If you've got a team full of introverts, where nobody's comfortable sharing, asking them to do this is going to cause problems. They don't like sharing, and they're going to be resentful about it. Be aware of the people in your team and the person you're bringing on. Because some of these icebreakers, are really, really painful for some people.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 18:06

I agree. That's why I said pets. Something surfacy but personal at the same time may be good enough. Some of them are intrusive as all get out. You need to be a little bit careful. we'll agree to disagree.

Track 1: 18:19

Yeah.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 18:20

you if Deanna, if it was Star Trek versus Star Wars, that was one of my suggestions for an ice icebreaker. I bet you there'd be. I start, yeah, see, I can start Deanna talking just by saying that.

Track 1: 18:31

But here's the thing. I am an extrovert. I am the queen of oversharing. This is not a big deal. But if I were to ask some people I know, they would just look at me and be super uncomfortable. Likewise, just because somebody said Chatty Cathy online, in your internal social media or something like that, Whether it's teams or slack or anything doesn't mean they're comfortable verbally sharing. You have to think about it. I mean, two truths and a lie? Oh my god, I know so many people who absolutely hate that icebreaker. Some people don't like to lie, even if it is just as a fun little game. Other people feel that it's way too personal. you've got to gauge the comfort level of your team.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 19:16

I'm going to do one more counterpoint, working in a tech company I find when people get a chance to introduce themselves, they actually tend to share more than less, even if they are introverted. We see people for what they produce more than we see people for people. When they get a chance to be seen as a person, they go for it. Do we see people as human or do we see people as resources, that produce things that we need to give to the customer?

Track 1: 19:41

We are not resources. We're people. We have unique needs, likes, hatreds. Don't ever use the color orange on a slideshow around me or I will throw a hissy fit.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 19:52

With profanities.

Track 1: 19:53

their own things.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 19:54

With profuse profanities, because I have been in that meeting with you.

Track 1: 19:58

it wasn't just the orange. It

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 20:01

It wasn't,

Track 1: 20:02

lost my temper on.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 20:03

I still was on mute and laughing like crazy. I'm sure the person you directed it at was not feeling that way.

Track 1: 20:11

I was very embarrassed by my little fit. Happily, I picked something as trivial as the color orange and not all the issues that had been building up that finally broke with the color orange. That would have been very uncomfortable.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 20:29

What else can you do to welcome people on a team? one thing I was thinking if you are in a company that doesn't have a lot of minorities or it doesn't have a lot of women, and a woman or minority joins your team, it may take a little longer for them to feel comfortable on your team. There may be baggage that they're bringing or uncomfortable feelings that they're bringing that they then need to ease into this team a little bit more. There's external, dynamics going on for them.

Track 1: 20:57

Sometimes you can do all the right things to welcome somebody into a team and onboard them, and they still won't feel comfortable because of where they are in life. Sometimes there's nothing you can do about it, which is really sad because it's going to impact your team and how the team functions. I don't know what to do about that. You have to treat each and every case individually, talk to the person, see if there's something you can do to help. Maybe they work really well with one other person and you create a sub team of those two. The people who are like that, they're far and few, but sometimes they do come up and you need to be aware about it. Sometimes it's not your failing. It's not their failing either. You're in very different places in the world.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 21:40

This whole conversation is part of why Dan and I are going to start work on a different way of looking at psychological safety, which is from the individual, that person that is going to be joining the team because how you feel comfortable on a team, what you bring to the table, what baggage you have past hurts, past problems. That impacts your feeling of psychological safety in the team as much as what the team's doing around you. Right, Deanna?

Track 1: 22:06

What are some things we could possibly do to help you join a team. First thing is being yourself. If you pretend to be somebody at the beginning of the team, you're going to be expected to be that person forever. I'll never forget having a boss turn around to me one day and say, you were not like this during the interview. Of course I wasn't like this during the interview. I wanted the job. Now, I pretty much play myself in every interview because I'm done with that. I'm old. I don't care anymore.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 22:35

Not only does the team have a relationship, like a joint relationship, how you work together in meetings, et cetera, but you each have individual relationships with each other, so make sure you're working on those schedules sometimes, especially if you're onboarding. See if you can talk to Tim for 15 minutes just to get to know him a little bit better. Not necessarily work focused, just personal focused, just start building those individual relationships with the team members.

Track 1: 23:00

And don't be afraid to ask questions. Now I understand not feeling comfortable to ask a question when you're in a huge meeting with 40 other people. Find one or two people that you're comfortable with. Maybe it's that buddy that you got assigned. And ask them questions. Even if they feel incredibly stupid. You never know. Like, what does this acronym mean?

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 23:24

Actually, when I ask for help, that's my number one thing. Where Dan and I work, and for the types of customers we work, they love themselves an acronym, and they love to reuse acronyms. You'll have this an acronym and it'll have like three or four different meanings. Speaking to somebody about something like that, or just the history of how did you get to this decision, all of that stuff, feel free to ask that. Once you get the information, usually you're able to then move in group. It's worth the momentary feeling of what are they going to think about me? You're going to ask that question and then you're going to have the answers you need to move forward and it'll make you more

Track 1: 23:58

I've been on one project for over four years, and I finally, only this year, learned what one of the acronyms meant. Four years.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 24:09

I'm usually the person, when I join a team, I start an acronym list. A lot of people try to memorize all of them and I'm not even memorizing this stuff. That's how I usually start onboarding to a new project is creating an acronym list and understanding what they all build out to because then I start getting into the lexicon of the project and then that helps go from there. That's usually my whole thing to do when

Track 1: 24:32

I so don't do that.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 24:35

Well, and that's okay. We all have our different ways. Speaking of having all our different ways is just give yourself grace to onboard in a speed and in a manner that is comfortable for you. It's not going to be the same for everybody.

Track 1: 24:49

have grace for your team, because they're having to, get you on boarded. Depending on how long it's been since they've on boarded someone, it can be a little awkward. Be forgiving if two weeks later somebody goes, Oh crap, I forgot to invite you to this meeting because it only happens once every three months. Have a little grace. Not just for them, but for yourself. It does take time. Imposter syndrome is real. Don't feel like you don't belong. Figure out how you can belong.

kara_1_04-14-2024_123109: 25:18

I think that's a great place to end Deanna.

Track 1: 25:21

good to me. Thanks everybody talk to you later.