Harvard Business School Publishing

Introduction: The First 90 Days

The President of the United States gets 100 days to prove himself; you

get 90. The actions you take during your first three months in a new job

will largely determine whether you succeed or fail. Transitions are

periods

of

opportunity,

a

chance

to

start

afresh

and

to

make

needed

changes

in an organization.

But they are also periods of acute vulnerability,

because you lack established working relationships and a detailed

understanding

of

your

new

role.

If

you

fail

to

build

momentum

during

your

transition, you will face an uphill battle from that point forward.

The stakes are obviously

high. Failure in a

new assignment can spell the

end of a promising career. But making a successful transition is about

more than just avoiding failure. Some leaders do derail (and when they

do, their problems can almost always be traced to vicious cycles that

developed in the first few months on the job). But for every leader who

fails

outright,

there

are

many

others

who

survive

but

do

not

realize

their

full

potential.

As

a result,

they

lose

opportunities

to

advance

in

their

careers, and they endanger the health of their organizations.

This

book

is

therefore

as

much

about

transition

acceleration

as

it

is

about

failure prevention. It provides a blueprint for dramatically condensing

the time it will take you to

get on top of the job

, regardless of your

level

in

your

organization.

If

you

succeed

in

this,

you

will

free

up

t

ime

to concentrate on fixing problems and exploiting opportunities in your

new organization. After

all,

your goal

should be to arrive as rapidly as

possible

at

the

breakeven

point,

where

you

are

a

net

contributor

of

value

to

your

new

organization

(see

“

The

Breakeven

Point

”).

Every

minute

you

save by being systematic about accelerating your transition is a minute

you gain to build the business.

The Breakeven Point

The

breakeven point

is the point at which new leaders have contributed

as much value to their new organizations as they have consumed from it.

As shown in

figure I-1

, new leaders are net consumers of value

early on

;

as they learn and begin to take action, they begin to create value.

From

the

breakeven

point

onward,

they

are

(one

hopes)

net

contributors

of

value

to their organizations

. When 210 company CEOs and presidents were asked

for their best estimates

of the time

it takes a

typical midlevel manager

in

their

organizations

to

reach

the

breakeven

point,

the

average

of

their

[

1

]

responses

was

6.2

months

.

The

purpose

of

transition

acceleration,

then,

is to help new leaders reach the breakeven point earlier

. What would it

be worth to an

organization if

all

its leaders in transition could reach

the breakeven point one month earlier?

Figure I-1: The Breakeven Point

Given

the

stakes,

it is

surprising

how

little

good

guidance

is available

to new leaders about how to transition more effectively and efficiently

into

new

roles.

There

are

plenty

of

books

and

articles

on

leadership,

but

few directly address transitions at all.

[

2

]

Also, excellent resources on

managing organizational change exist, but most implicitly assume the

change agent is already settled in the organization, with the necessary

knowledge

and

relationships

in

place

to

plan,

build

support

for,

and

carry

out transformation initiatives.

The reality is that

the process

of

leading change often

occurs

in tandem

with

a leader’s transition into a new role. This book is therefore

intended to fill a gap in the leadership literature. It offers a proven

blueprint

for

addressing

the

linked

challenges

of

personal

transition

and

organizational transformation that confront leaders in their first few

months in a new job.

Fundamental Propositions

From

observing

new

leaders

and

experimenting

with

methods

of

accelerating

transitions, I have developed strong beliefs about the challenges of

transitions

and

what it

takes

to

succeed

in

meeting

them.

These

beliefs,

summarized in five propositions, form the foundation of my approach to

transition acceleration

—

and to this book.

The

first

proposition

is

that

the

root

causes

of

transition

failure

always

lie in a pernicious interaction between the situation, with its

opportunities

and

pitfalls,

and

the

individual,

with

his

or

her

strengths

and vulnerabilities

.

Failure is never just about the flaws of the new

leader. Indeed, the failed leaders whom I studied had all achieved