Induction – To Conform or To Perform?

I was called in to address a group of 40 inductees, who were to join the workforce in a week’s time. This was the last day of a 6-week programme, and the participants were tired and brain-dead. These were going to “hit the ground running” in a week’s time? Looked unlikely.

The meaning of the word Induction goes four ways.

     i.        Install in office

   ii.        General inference from particular instances

  iii.        Production of electric or magnetic state in body by its being near (not touching) electrified or magnetic body

  iv.        In Internal Combustion engines, part of the piston’s action which draws gas from the carburetor.

Only the best managers/leaders or employees who are shining examples of the company’s cultures and beliefs are the carburetors, or the electrified/magnetized bodies.

They must be the only ones to address the new employees. This way, the new entrants get to see the best showcased, while also giving them an opportunity to bond with the best. However, it is not always the best who talk to new employees; it is the one who is available on that day.

Induction by association (Point ii above) is as noble and is best done by giving them the company lore – the hits and misses, the greats among the present and past employees, all that is good and bad, all that went well, and all that didn’t and what the company as a whole is currently excited and agog about. Leave it to the participants to take these disparate stories, and draw their own inferences about what the company is all about.

We need to use our new employees, who come with experience elsewhere, to change ourselves. We miss the opportunity of checking out the opinions of fresh, new pairs of eyes that may look at our worshipful workplace as a disorganized dump yard. They may want to change things for the better here – provided we ask them, and give them a chance to do so.

The word induction reeks of arrogance – “let me induct you into our ways of doing things around here.” We are worried that they may not comply with our conditions or conform to our ways of working, or that they may come and disrupt things. That is our real definition of their not “fitting” in. Is induction a way of softening them? Heed Nietzsche’s warning: “The surest way to corrupt (is to) hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”

A piece of advice to people who join companies: If whatever is happening is not useful to you or right by you, vote with your feet, protest, debate or ask for a discussion on changing things.

To agree to spend the day at training, and then to be there to show disdain for the proceedings is crass unprofessionalism and an ugly show of personal indiscipline. Here’s something I read on a T-shirt: “I am not weird; I am limited edition.”

What can the companies do?

First, identify behaviours in such programmes as an indicator of what to expect from the person when he/she joins the workforce. The respective business managers need to be warned on the package that will be joining them.

Second, maybe in looking for the ‘best’ candidates to hire, we are missing the ‘best fit’ candidates for our kind of workplace and work culture. Use this to fine-tune your recruitment practices in future.

Thirdly, when the new employees join their positions, we need to ensure that they get hard-to-do, visible and exciting projects with ambitious goals. Anything that will push them to the hilt, to the edge. Help them make a mark early.

Induction should prepare the new entrants for work, even if your existing employees have resigned themselves to being in a job. Like Seth Godin says in his book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“The job is not the work. The process of doing your art is ‘the work’. It is possible to have a job and do the work, too.”

 Ramesh has been a leadership coach for over 10 years. He counts CXO level executives at HP, DE Shaw, Taj Group of Hotels and Honeywell amongst his clients. He is also the CEO and Founder of i.e., a consulting and training firm. Ramesh writes and speaks about managerial leadership. Read his other posts here.