What do I do when I start a new job?
Jane Goodall is a world-renowned anthropologist. In 1960, without any academic training, she went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to study chimpanzees. After many years there, she became the only human being to be fully integrated and accepted into chimpanzee society. No one had done it before, and no one has done it since.
How did she do it? She didn’t have a formal degree, training, or experience. And what does her accomplishment have to do with you starting a new job?
Sigal Samuel, a senior reporter at Vox who interviewed Goodall in 2021 unknowingly identified the two-word phrase that sums up how Goodall was successful:
“When Jane Goodall was just 26 years old, she began trekking through the forests of Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees. At first, they’d run away from her, but after months of patient interaction, she actually became accepted as a member of their community — the first researcher ever to win that distinction. She had no academic degree, and yet she was making pioneering discoveries.”(1)
Patient interaction.
Goodall didn’t march into the jungle and start yelling about who she was. She didn’t walk up to the chimpanzees and say, “hey everyone! I’m Jane! So great to be here! I don’t have any experience, but I’m here! It’s pretty exciting. I love Africa! This seems like a great place!” If she did, they would have killed her.
Using patient interaction, she progressed very slowly. At first, she approached the chimpanzee’s territory at a distance, sitting down and being quiet. She was just there. And while she sat there, she observed, listened, and took notes.
Slowly, over time, the chimps began to get closer to her, recognizing she wasn’t a threat. And as more time went on, they started to play and engage with her. And as they engaged, she met all of them and learned. She watched, listened, and learned immensely.
She learned who the important players were: the alpha male, the bullies, the old, the young, the powerful females, the aggressive ones, the shy ones. Eventually, the chimpanzees welcomed her into their society.
And the reason she was successful in doing this, in my opinion, is because of her incredible ability to demonstrate the key to her success: patient interaction.
So what is patient interaction, and what does it (and Goodall) have to do with you starting a new job?
There are four parts to patient interaction, and they are the same principles you should use when starting a new job:
Shut up
Listen
Meet everyone you can
Don’t cause any problems
Let’s break them down.
Rule #1: Shut up.
Seriously. Stop talking. No one wants to hear your opinion, especially if you’re brand new to the workforce, right out of an academic program. You know that person I’m talking about. Highly motivated. Energized. Ready to tackle the challenges of the 21st century and bring peace and prosperity to the world! The world will be a better place with them doing what they’re doing!
Maybe this person is someone you’ve worked with. Maybe this person is someone you know.
Maybe this person was you.
Maybe this person is you.
I’ve seen people do it, I know people who’ve done it, and I’ve done it myself.
They’re the people who burst into a room and say “Hey, everyone! I’m here and I have all these great ideas! I don’t know how this place works or what’s really going on, but I’m just happy to be here and I’m ready to do everything I can to do my part!”
The energy and motivation are great, and they’re natural (at least for most people) to have when starting something new. But you also don’t know anything. You have high motivation but low competence. How much help can you be to others when you have no idea what to do, how things work, who does what, what’s happened before, or what the plan is to move forward?
Unfortunately, you can’t.
So shut up. Stop talking. Nobody cares about your opinions, what you think about a problem, how you would address an issue.
Sit down and close your mouth.
At this point, you’re not trusted, and you’re not going to gain others’ trust by talking when you don’t really know anything. So, just don’t talk.
If you're young without much experience, you were hired for your potential and basic skills needed to complete the job. And that background matched a job description. You’re qualified to do the job, and on paper your new teammates think you are, too. But it takes time, and it’s not going to happen on the first day, week, or month. So just don’t talk.
That might sound harsh, but it’s the hard truth. Instead of talking…follow rule number two.
Rule #2: Listen.
While you’re doing a good job of not talking, it’s time to listen. And not just hear, but listen…actively listen…and listen to learn and understand…don’t listen to speak. When you listen to speak, you’re focused on the next thing you want to say, and in many cases, you’re going to say it regardless of what the other person says. The other person’s statement might not matter if you’re just focused on when they take a pause so you can add your point.
When you use active listening, you’re truly trying to understand the other person, and you can eventually ask respectful, probing questions to learn more about the issue at hand. When you do that, you’re going to gain a larger perspective and therefore learn more about how your organization works. Yes, this is different than the point in Rule #1. Listening and asking for clarification is different than talking and providing your opinions.
When you ask your colleagues questions to verify if you have the correct understanding of what you heard, you’ve actively listening, and actively learning.
And as you do this, write down everything you hear and learn. Write down notes from meetings, things your CEO/boss says, and topics your managers are focused on. Then, take some time to process, analyze, and reflect on what you heard. Only then ask follow-up questions.
Every new team, unit, department, company, etc. has its’ own culture, its’ ways of doing things, and its’ own set of written and unwritten rules. The only way you can assimilate into that new culture and learn the ways that they get things done is by actively listening.
If you can do that, imagine how you’ll come off to your colleagues: an inquisitive learner who asks thoughtful questions to learn how things get done within our unique culture.
That sounds pretty great. That’s the type of person every manager wants on their team.
So, while you’re doing a great job of actively listening (and learning immensely in the process), ensure you’re doing it with everyone you can.
And that is the third rule of starting anywhere new.
Rule #3. Meet everyone you can.
Meet everyone. Literally everyone you can. Not just the people on your team, or the people you’ve been told you’ll be working with. Meet everyone. Your teammates, people they work with, HR, finance, logistics, communications, program managers, IT, operations, whomever you have at your organization. EVERYONE you can. If you work at an organization with 10,000 employees, no, you can’t meet everyone. But you can meet a lot of people. If you work at a smaller organization (150 people or less), yes, you can meet everyone. And you should.
Because it all comes down to the power of partnerships. Nobody gets anything done on their own, and you’re not going to be the first to make it happen. Things happen, especially in the 21st century, because of partnerships: the power of two people coming together to accomplish something great. You can only form these partnerships, or know who to partner with, if you meet as many people as you can.
And when you do meet people, a simple introduction is fine.
Ask about what the person does at the organization and share what you’ve been hired to do. Ask them, in their opinion, if you’ll cross paths/work together in the future. Share your excitement to partner with them and that you look forward to seeing them again.
Then, whatever they told you, write it down. Why? If you’re joining an organization with more than 10 people, odds are you’re going to forget some names, tasks, roles, ranks, etc. So write it down, and don’t be embarrassed to write down this information in front of them. If you do, you’ll remember things better. Additionally, it shows an incredible amount of care and compassion for your colleagues. You’re showing a genuine interest in learning (and remembering) their names, their roles, and maybe even their interests. Then, the next time you see them in the workplace, and you address them by their name, or ask them how their project is going, etc., imagine the impression they’ll have of you. (With this, don’t be an idiot and overdo it. Just because someone tells you they have a dog doesn’t mean you need to tell them about your favorite dog park or forward them an Instagram reel of a cute dog.)
And that leads to the fourth rule.
Rule #4: Don’t cause any problems.
The last thing you want to do is cause a problem early on in your tenure. You don’t want to be known as the person who left dishes in the office kitchen sink (yes, that’s a problem) or the person who left papers on the printer (yes, that’s a problem, too). Yes, these problems may be trivial over a long tenure at an organization, but it can give a reason for others to view you in an initial bad light, and there’s just no reason to do that. These small problems are not good reasons to delay your integration and assimilation into a team. Your colleagues might think, “Geez, who is this person? Started last week and already can’t clean up after themselves? Do we have a problem employee already? If they’re this sloppy here, I wonder how sloppy their work will be…”
That’s why you need to be extra diligent and careful not to cause any problems, big or small.
Again:
Shut up
Listen
Meet everyone you can
Don’t cause any problems
As you think about these four rules, think about how they’ll set you up for success in the future. Yes, first impressions matter, but impressions that are developed over the first four to eight weeks of you working in a new position are what really will shape how your colleagues, managers, and bosses see you. And that impression is the one that could stay with you the entire time you’re at your company. In fact, it’s almost certain to be the case. So give yourself time to get ingrained and assimilate into your company’s culture. Give it four to eight weeks.
Because then, you can start to break the rules. Because this is what is likely to happen:
Because you’ve been on your team for some time, people will start asking for your opinions. “You’ve been here for some time, what do you think we should do?” There’s your opportunity to speak up (breaking Rule #1).
While you’re speaking, you can’t listen, so you can listen a little less (breaking Rule #2).
By now, you’ve met everyone and know everyone, and now the organization is hiring new people who will come to meet you (breaking Rule #3).
You can cause small problems that generate minor setbacks because the result will be five steps forward (breaking Rule #4).
There are countless corporate examples to reference as well. Most of the time, new CEOs who take over a company follow the same approach. They get briefed on the status of the company and all its components (a combination of listening and not talking much), they get introduced to everybody at the company, and they don’t make any major changes. Then after about two months, you see them make changes.
So whether you follow effective corporate CEOs or an anthropologist like Jane Goodall, the principles of patient interaction are the same when you start a new job.
For the first two months: Shut up. Listen. Meet everyone you can. Don’t cause any problems. Then, you will be given the opportunity to break the rules. And when you do, you’ll do great things.
References: (1) https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22585935/jane-goodall-chimpanzees-animal-intelligence-human-nature
