As first days on the job go, the last two days have been fantastic.
Official day-long orientation yesterday – thorough and informative –
followed by hellos, handshakes and how-to’s. Moment by moment, I feel
like I am really settling in. I definitely feel comfortable and confident.
The whole thing makes you excited to get up, grab the briefcase, throw it
into the Jeep and head into the office each morning.
The whole process has been orderly and very positive.
I couldn’t help but compare and contrast that to previous ‘first days’ I’ve
experienced. In my most recent job, the boss said he didn’t know I was
going to be there that day. Then he asked for the first draft of a
communications plan by 1 p.m.
“Gonna throw you into the fire right away,’’ he chuckled.
Thinking back to my first few days as the first editor of the Farragut
Press, that experience was totally different as well. Since we were
building everything from scratch, my boss and I would meet each day
and set out the plan for the day. It might include shopping for provisions,
meeting key community leaders or setting up a part of the office.
One of the most memorable parts of that experience was when I actually
spent days driving potential delivery routes for the paper, mapping
neighborhoods and counting houses. Today, of course, tools on the
internet could do that for you. In those days, though, you did things by
hand…with pencil and paper…street by street…home by home. 
I have no doubt that I actually drove on the street on which I live now;
probably even counted my house. I wonder who lived in that dwelling
back then?
Might be able to look that up on the internet, too!
‘First days’ extend to other walks of life, too. Can you remember your first
day of school? I sure do. I recall walking into the big auditorium at
Denver Elementary School in Memphis where all the other kids were
gathered. Each teacher called the list of his/her students and you ran
over to join that throng of youngsters when your name was called.
Talk about chaotic.
Then, there was the first time attending church at FPC.
Presbyterians are naturally shy.
So, what we tried to do was slip in the back of the sanctuary, observe the
service, slip out and then decide our next move. We liked what we saw;
we decided to come back (and come back, and come back…).
When I was coaching the baseball teams that pre-dated the Choppers
(think 5, 6 or 7 year olds) I’d always try to have some age-appropriate ice
breaker for the first day of practice. That was designed to get everyone
up and moving and make sure they felt welcomed to the team.
As a coach, I felt those first days were very successful.
And, I felt the last couple of ‘first days’ were successful as well. We also
had age-appropriate ice breaker activities. And whereas there weren’t
any packs of gummy bears or fruit snacks to pass out at the end of the
session yesterday, I definitely felt ‘welcomed to the team.’
JG
Originally posted 11/5/2013
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