New Team? New Work? New Ideas?

What are the most important things to do when you first come into a new job which requires both supervision of staff, an excellent knowledge of the subject matter that the team you have joined is working on and a strategic outlook which can help the organisation achieve its corporate objectives?

I don't know about you, but I want very badly to understand what the team actually does, who does it, for how long and when and when I feel a little more confident - to what level of quality and timeliness.

Usually I ask for a work schedule from each of the staff who have been working there and ask to be pointed to the documentation of the work which the team does.

Unfortunately I am more often than not, disappointed by the results of my inquiries.

There are very few teams I have encountered which actually keep well documented processes, work flows, decision trees and the like. Most teams seem unable or unwilling to produce a work schedule either, and both requests usually result in a hostile reception, because there is a perception that the new 'boss' is 'checking up' on people.

The reality is anything but that.

The new boss is ignorant about how the team does its business and wants to learn about it - fast. The new boss is really worried about what needs to be done by when - assuming from past experience that most teams have a range of functions that are generally undertaken and required by certain deadlines, as well as many other functions which are undertaken on a more ad hoc basis.

With documented processes and work flows it is possible to see how regular and irregular work requests come into the team, are distributed among the team members and acted upon. In combination with information about deadlines, lead times, schedules and work loads it is possible to ensure that no staff member is either overloaded with work or underutilised.

One rule of thumb to remember is if the work is really difficult then do it more often. By having to do it more often necessity usually becomes the mother of invention and a way can usually be found to take the pain out of the activity or task.

My advice to new team leaders is that they sit down with the staff and set out what they would like to learn about the team and how they propose to do it and what information they would like to have. If the information is not available then I seriously recommend that one of the first tasks is to ask to have it made available.

Happy to hear other views.