Nothing is tougher and more time-consuming than having to replace people who haven’t kept up with the growth of the business.

Onboarding needs to be a celebration, not paperwork. It should create emotional connections between the new recruit and a maximum number of team members.

Verizon needed to hire new people who could help them to learn — a critical distinction in

organizational goals that our colleague Amy Edmondson has articulated.'' And there was no use putting these hires through a three-month training program when the company did not yet know what the job would actually entail.

Verizon needed to hire new people who could help them to learn — a critical distinction in

organizational goals that our colleague Amy Edmondson has articulated.'' And there was no use putting these hires through a three-month training program when the company did not yet know what the job would actually entail.

At Commerce Bank, if you recall, within the first ninety seconds, new hires learn that they (1) are part of a crazy tribe of congenitally happy people, (2) have a responsibility to go find others like them, and (3) must answer the phone with an attitude of "Wow!" In these three simple gestures, clocking in at less than two minutes, employees internalize what matters to the company. The firms that hand out binders in the first ninety seconds of orientation — what have they communicated as being important? The bureaucracy? Companies that really get it start the imprinting process in the recruiting phase. At this point, of course, it's part communication and part alignment. You want to identify people who are likely to be good cultural fits, but you also want to start making it clear what you're all about.