The Grand Unifying Theory of Improvement

Let’s talk a little bit about Grand Unifying Theories. Grand Unifying Theories, if you’ve never heard of them, attempt to explain everything in some domain using one principle, or one idea. It brings together everything about everything, and it applies it back to everything. For instance, let’s say we wanted one principle to identify any food in the world. One way to do this would be to create an identification chart based on the location of the starch and how many sides of the other ingredients it touches. I don’t want to spoil the laughs for you, but let’s just say using this theory, pizza is toast, a hot dog is a taco, and pop-tarts are calzones. And it all makes perfect sense, because you’re using one rule to govern your entire understanding of food.

When there’s so much content and ideas that try to explain our world, sometimes we end up complicating a process rather than boiling it down to its core components. This is especially true with improvement. And I really do mean improvement with anything. There are so many rules and procedures about how to specifically learn something and get better at it, that sometimes it can be so overwhelming that we don’t take any steps forward.

My goal for today WAS a discussion of best practices in onboarding and orientation, but it morphed into something so much more important. Also, I want to get this idea out there before I do a Google search and find out that 67,000 other people have come up with the same concept. But right now, this idea is mine.

So here it is: James Schwabach’s Grand Unifying Theory of Improvement (TM?).

But first, a little more context:

Onboarding is a term used in the corporate world to define the process of integrating new people into an organization. It’s preparing them to contribute to the overall goals of the group, and it’s a cornerstone of the L&D industry. It may be one of the most important functions in the L&D space. And onboarding, or orientation, historically has been dedicated to equipping new employees to LITERALLY be able to perform their jobs, meaning they get an ID card and a laptop, sign a bunch of paperwork, and then get to it. And many times, employees are thrown an encyclopedia of new vocabulary, procedures, and people’s names that they’re expected to pretty much remember in its entirety.

Maybe this is a bit harsh, and we can laugh at the idea of watching a DVD in the back room of a store, but I’m not going to spend time on new employee orientation fails, because I’d be here all day. Organizations have gotten better over time when it comes to making their people comfortable and feeling like contributing members of the team. I found a bunch of examples of positive new employee traditions, from LinkedIn’s new employee roadmap, which lays out what the first 12 weeks looks like for new employees, to Zappo’s tradition of paying any new employee $2,000 if they quit during the 5-week orientation process, the idea being that if they hired you and it’s not a good fit, they want to know early. This is a positive shift, but the focus is still on a small point in time relative to a person’s career. It’s still largely focused on getting through those first few days, weeks, and rarely, months in the new environment.

But what onboarding and orientation processes have always seemed to put less emphasis on is the inevitability of changing circumstances. A great initial process works, but what happens when things change? What happens when you’ve onboarded your people and all-of-a-sudden that situation no longer exists? I’m looking at you, literally any manager that showed their new employee to their amazing workspace in the sleek new office in early March of 2020.

The issue I see with all this is the idea that onboarding is an EVENT. It’s something that takes place and has a definitive end. “There you go, now you’re onboarded. Good luck!” That’s just not how human development works. Onboarding with new employees, new players, new students, whoever, could be transformed with a shift in mindset toward onboarding as a process that is in constant motion by design, instead of focusing on one point in time.

Within this concept, the way to get everyone on board from minute to minute is through simplification. Think, the simpler the communication, the more your team is going to be able to get on the same page and work towards the same goal. Over longer periods, evolving your processes as the leader would help make necessary adjustments in changing circumstances, because nothing ever stays the same.

You can visualize this idea as a clock, with simplification as the minute hand and evolution as the hour hand. Time will always be moving forward, but the more you can emphasize these two concepts, the more you turn onboarding into a continuous process instead of a one-off event.

But you might be asking yourself, how is this a Grand Unifying Theory of Improvement? Where’s the universal application? Well, let’s look at a few quick examples and see how my theory holds up.

Want to improve in a sport you’re playing? Or, are you trying to help the players you’re coaching get better? In the immediate term, simplifying the next step is crucial. What needs to happen right now? Simplification. But, circumstances change. An injury occurs. You’re playing better competition. COVID hits and you’re needing to coach or be coached remotely. What’s needed? Evolution. Those adjustments that will be more helpful in current circumstances.

Want to become a better cook? If you’re trying to get better for your next meal, your best bet is to simplify with few ingredients and clear, easy-to-follow directions. But as you continue to practice, you’re going to need to challenge yourself, buy some better cookware, and experiment with new foods.

How about learning a new language? Overcomplicating the process will ruin motivation and take all the fun out of it. Start simple. Want to master a language? Go live in a foreign country and notice how different the slang used by native speakers forces you to revisit things you’ve learned before. Your language learning and usage will need to evolve.

Name the skill, and if there’s a challenge to be overcome, it can be helped through simplification in the short term and evolution in the long term. But hey, if you find something helpful to add to or change about my Grand Unifying Theory of Improvement, just let me know.

I’m willing to evolve.