 Chop an onion. This is the root. That's absolutely crucial. Leave that on there. To cut that off, the onion will start to bleed and you'll start crying rapidly. Slice going forward. Let the weight of the knife do the work. Three fingers, one in front, two behind. And this, part of the knuckle, is going to guide the knife. Fingers on top of the onion to point the knife towards the root and try to get as close to the root as possible. So what does a cooking video and say a music video have to do with designing a corporate onboarding program? Both tell us how learning experiences must be designed. Hi, my name is Abhijit Bhaduri and I want to talk to you about how to onboard new hires. So let us start by listening to MasterChef Gordon Ramsey, where he explains how to chop an onion and just watch the details and how he appeals to the novice and the expert. Now, this video has been viewed 34 million times and it uses the first of the four steps of designing a cognitive apprenticeship. The weight of the knife do the work. Three fingers, one in front, two behind. And this, part of the knuckle, is going to guide the knife. Fingers on top of the onion to point the knife towards the root. The conversation I had recently with the hiring manager of a music streaming company about a new hire. He says, we hired her because she's absolutely amazing as a machine learning expert, but she has no understanding of our business even after spending months with us. During the interview, you know, we only evaluated her machine learning skills and let's just say she is easily the best machine learning expert we have, but she does not understand our business and she was off to a great start from day one and then her lack of appreciation of our business simply limited her impact. We were so impressed with her academic background, you know, her work experience and her technical skills that we did not even stop to ask if she could potentially be the wrong hire for us. And after all, we are a music streaming platform and she does not understand the business of music. So did we make a wrong hire? Hey, Abhijit, do you think we should move her into a role where business knowledge is really a precondition for success or would that be unfair? Maybe we did not onboard her in the right way. Well, that's important because onboarding is really about bridging knowledge gaps. So whether it is the new vice president or the summer interns from college designing a great onboarding experiences complex. A well-designed onboarding program helps the new hire to become productive and well integrated into the organization. And that means bringing tacit knowledge historical context, you know, which explains how did we get here and what may potentially be critical to your role. So you have to design it like a learning experience. The interview notes that you take, for example, should tell you not just about what you think about the person, but specifically about the knowledge gaps that have to be bridged. And how long do you think it is going to take before that person picks up those pieces of information or knowledge or skills and becomes productive? For experienced hires, it could mean teaching how to avoid the being there done that kind of a mindset. But for the interns, it could mean helping them apply their freshly gained knowledge to a business context to solve a business problem. So the first design principle number one is match the content, which in this case means the knowledge and prior experience. So match that to the new context. One, you do that by teaching them new tricks, which means experienced people may get off to a quick start and draw on the talent pool of previous employers. But the experienced people are also slow to spot the unique opportunities and unfamiliar challenges of the business. So how do you do it? The suggestion is create opportunities for peer to peer learning with peers drawn from across the business. Spend about 15 to 20 minutes each day to connect with the peers. Second thing you can do is teach them about the business. I heard a Gen Z student mention on one of the conversations I had recently, how her recent internship experience was fairly unfulfilling. The intern does not have the business context and cannot create the impact they would have loved to. The business leaders are reluctant to spend time to bring the intern up to speed. So how can the learning be designed to create value for both? Which brings me to design principle number two. Workout loud. John Stepper talks about working out loud and the principle is very simple when you put your work out in the public domain, it benefits others. Feedback from others helps you improve. So make your work visible so it helps others. So now we come to the third design principle. Build key relationships first. The people we spend with shape our thinking. Yet when a new person joins an organization, this is exactly what they lack. Onboarding is a relationship building phase. Let me say it again. Onboarding is a relationship building phase, dumping them with information, business plans, etc. Just simply slows down the new hire. So you can do a couple of things. I want to share with you one create short videos and explainers to deconstruct the information the newbie would need. Secondly, ask the new hire in each department to write down the questions, which if answered would help them become effective at the workplace. Now use these to bridge the gaps and keep tweaking the onboarding experience. Third, conversations create clarity, being able to talk to experts as well as well as some experienced peers can really help the learning process. So Gordon Ramsay's video that we heard right in the beginning is a great example of working out loud and the first principle of creating cognitive apprenticeships. If you like any of these sketch notes that I have created, feel free to use them and thank you in advance for sharing this newsletter. Here is the music track that I promised. It has Sitar Maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar playing with his disciple come daughter Anushka Shankar and it's magical, simply magical. And if you have any questions for me, follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and the Mensa app at the rate Avijit Bhapani. Goodbye.