Calibrate Before You Accelerate: The Smart Way to Bias Toward Action in a New Role
Calibrate Before You Accelerate: Bias Toward Action in a New Role
Starting a new job often triggers an urge to prove yourself by making an immediate impact. But action without context is just noise. Drawing on his move from Monzo to Engine by Starling, the author outlines a three-phase approach: a collection period focused on active listening and mapping the terrain, a synthesis phase to connect dots and categorize opportunities, and strategic acceleration with small public wins and shared hypotheses. The key is to shift from 90% listening to 80% doing only after building a foundation of context.
Action without context is just noise.
- edoceo
I had a role, we got a new CTO. This man could not stop wiggling things. Almost from day one. Not just small things but larger things too (let's migrate to a new issue tracker/wiki thing (back when Redmine was popular)). Flipping staff to new focus (eg: moved a help-desk staff to top NetAdmin, replacing Cisco Certified guy, which caused some havoc during an audit). What a mess, just had to put his fingerprint on everything!
Another time we got bought, merged into a new company, their CTO was our new CTO. In one of the initial meetings said "things won't change much" and, naturally, we didn't believe. She moved slow on all the things, methodical. Spent some time with each component team. It was months before we started making changes to better mesh with the new company. Very little chaos. Still admire that management style.
- arnorhs
This article is highly AI generated. The first paragraph is probably not AI generated, but the rest is definitely.
I also double checked on gptzero me and it 100% agrees with me.
I'm curious to know though whether or not the "author" used Gemini. I've been using Gemini a lot in the past year, and the writing sounds exactly like Gemini. But it's possible that all the models sound the same.
Edit: I'd like to add that I still liked the article and agree with it, and in general I find Gemini's writing style to be quite enjoyable.
- emil-lp
Cannot cite Chesterton's fence too often.
In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."
—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...
Related:
- ChrisMarshallNY
Sort of the antithesis of "Move fast and break things." I find it quite reasonable, but also despair that this advice even needs to be given. It's just basic "horse sense."
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a5/b3/10/a5b31033a487595f913639c35...
- pm90
Solid article. Its worth calling out one thing thats maybe not emphasized enough though: while your contributions may start small make sure to publicize them appropriately. No need to cross post to every channel, but do post about it somewhere or socialize it somehow. Take a lot of time to craft a thoughtful and easy to read message.
Reputations are hard to earn and easy to destroy. Trust building at any new institution takes a lot of time and effort and can seem annoying. But just doing solid work and communicating about it consistently will make sure that like minded people notice you, vouch for you and then give you more opportunities.