All The World's a Stage...

As I have been working through an "onboarding" process for a new employee in my department, I found the book "Onboarding" by George Bradt and Mary Vonnegut to be an excellent resource for understanding and creating a process that will take full advantage of an important teachable moment in the life of a new employee and the team.

Working through the process over the last month, I have also found that there are great applications for ChurchWorld. Previous posts here and here have covered some of the basics. Today, I want to recap the excellent analogy used by the authors of a theater production to explain the process. Since my son and daughter-in-law are both in the theater, and I have developed a new appreciation for what it takes to pull off a production, the images really make sense!

Imagine your role as leader within the analogy of putting on a theater production, and your new team members are actors. At different times, you are:

• The Producer - while preparing for success and recruiting, think of yourself as the show's producer, assembling resources for the show.
• Then, the Director - while giving you new team member a big head start before day one, think of yourself as the show's director. You will co-create the plan, make introductions, announce the show, and generally get things ready.
• Finally, the Stage Manager - after your new team member walks out on stage, you will continue to Encourage - Align - Solve - End (Ease) their way by managing context and the things happening around them.

This should be a helpful analogy because it gets you off the new team member's stage. You can't recite their lines for them. You can't hit their marks. You can't make entrances and exits for them.

Your job is offstage.

The curtain is rising on your new team member's role - have you done all you can to make them the next star on your team?

Man Overboard!

Continuing a series of post on the book "Onboarding", but applied to ChurchWorld:

Yesterday I noted the author's process for onboarding. What happens when a process like that isn't followed?

I think you get the picture!

If we fail to bring a new team member onboard with the right process, we are setting them up for failure - man overboard! Bradt and Vonnegut have found that a new team member's failure to perform usually stem from one or more of the following things:

1. A role failure due to unclear or misaligned expectations and resources. That's a preparation miss.
2. A personal failure due to lack of strengths, motivation, or fit. That's a recruiting/selecting miss.
3. A relationship failure due to  early missteps. That's a head start/early days miss.
4. An engagement failure due to early days' experiences. That's a management miss.

Do you want to avoid having to toss a life ring to a new team member? Do you want to bring a new level of effectiveness to your team by improving and integrating the disconnected experiences of your enlistment, training, and OTJ learning processes?

You can.

The preselection contact, preparation, orientation, and training of your new team members can be a part of a powerful teachable moment.

Want to know more? Check back tomorrow for a trip to the stage to learn how onboarding can help your team become more successful.

All Aboard!

Onboarding is the process of acquiring, accommodating, assimilating, and accelerating new team members, whether they come from outside or inside the organization ("Onboarding", Bradt andVonnegut).

There's actually another "a" word that is a perquisite: align. Here's how the authors of "Onboarding" define the key processes listed above.

• Align - make sure your organization agrees on the need for a new team member and the delineating of the role you seek to fill
• Acquire - identify, recruit, select, and get people to join the team
• Accommodate - give new team members the tools they need to do the work
• Assimilate - help them join with others so they can do the work together
• Accelerate - help them and their team deliver better results faster

Now that's a list of "straight As" I will take anytime!

Though this list comes from a business book, and I'm currently making this application in my department at work, I think there are great correlations for ChurchWorld as well.

For example, if your church values your volunteer team members, then they would make sure something like the process above is a part of your volunteer leader development program. The role of bringing new volunteer leaders onboard shouldn't be an afterthought.

My church considers my role (as a leader on the guest services team at one of our campus locations) to be a volunteer staff position. I may not receive a paycheck, but the importance of my role in the total scheme of what we do is not diminished one bit.

What's it like at your church?