What does an aquarium have to do with the status quo and a
new hire? More than you think. Read on and see how an
experience in ignoring the rules of good aquarium
management resulted in a lesson that has much broader
application.
At 12 years old, I was a partner in an aquarium. Four of us
owned it and the fish and plants that inhabited it. We got
the money to buy new fish by scavenging 5 cent deposit
beverage bottles. We'd gather the bottles, cash them in
and go to the aquarium dealer and buy fish.
We had developed a pretty good collection of Gouramis,
Angelfish. Mollys and Neon Tetras, along with the necessary
catfish and plants to make our freshwater aquarium look
good, provide cover, and yet remain uncrowded.
The one thing we had done was always buy two fish of the
same kind. But one Saturday we went looking for bottles
– pickings were scarce and we only found enough to
get money for one fish. We really wanted to add zebra fish
to our collection, so we bought just one fish - even though
the dealer advised against it - and brought it home.
We introduced our new fish with little fanfare - we simply
dropped it into the tank. All the other pairs had been put
into the aquarium in their plastic bags for a few hours in
order to let the community get to know them. We were tired
from scavenging bottles, it was getting late, and we were
in a hurry to see how our zebra fish looked in the aquarium.
Our zebra fish darted around and showed a lot of energy
– just what we wanted to liven up the aquarium. We
noticed that all the other fish seemed to get a little
tense with this new fish buzzing around the aquarium, but
none attacked him and we felt that everything would settle
down overnight. We put the cover on the aquarium, and went
to bed.
The next day we checked on our aquarium, and the zebra fish
was gone! The cover was still on, and it was heavy glass
that could not be moved by a fish. We had no other pets at
the time, and the house was free of rats and rodents. What
we did notice was that the other fish in the aquarium had
returned to their pre-zebra demeanor - everything was calm
and collected in this little community - no tension, and
all the pairs were in their places.
We came to the conclusion that our hard earned zebra fish -
all alone because we lacked the patience to wait until we
had the money for a pair, and introduced with little
preparation because we had not taken the time to introduce
him properly, had been eaten by the other fish in the
aquarium. That was the only possible explanation for his
disappearance.
See any similarities to what so often happens in business
situations? We spend all our time and energy on the
acquisition of a person, we want them to shake things up,
we're eager to have that happen, so we just drop them in
the tank! And they get eaten – figuratively - by the
status quo.
The purpose of this story is to suggest you spend at least
as much time and effort in the assimilation of people as
you do in the acquistion of people. Spend time with the new
person, and with the people who will be part of the
environment that the new person will have to live, survive
and succeed in. Build the bridges of understanding and
expectations that will allow the workgroup to be successful
in accepting the newcomer. If you just parachute them in
– sink or swim – you do so at your own peril.
Make sure the success of people that are hired is a goal of
the hiring manager, and make sure he or she understands
their own performance will be measured on the basis of how
well their hires succeed
Create a structure for followup that ensures the new person
has regular contact with their manager - a structure that
communicates expectations to the hiring manager for how
they are to develop the new person.
If you accept the attitude that every new selection, be it
a hire, promotion or transfer, represents an opportunity
to improve your organization, and you follow that attitude,
you will see a much higher proportion of successful
selections from both a retention and contribution
standpoint.
I wish we'd used that process with our zebra fish. As it
turned out our aquarium never did get another fish –
our little fish community liked things just the way they
were – and we didn't want to mess with the status
quo. Plus, our unsuccessful experience with the zebra fish
made it difficult to work up any enthusiasm for trying
again.
Sound familiar? .
----------------------------------------------------
Andy Cox helps clients align their resources and design and
implement change through the application of goals focused
on the important few elements that have maximum impact in
achieving success - as defined by the client. He can be
reached at http://www.coxconsultgroup.com or
acox@coxconsultgroup.com
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