By Week Three, It Is Too Late And You Have Already Lost The Window

If you run a team, steal this for every new hire.

I wrote before about keeping a WTF list when you first join a company.

A private record of everything that makes you stop and think, what in God’s name is this?

The same move belongs on the leader’s side too.

Give it a name and build it into onboarding.

If WTF feels too spicy for HR, call it the Fresh Eyes Report.

Same knife.

Safer label.

Hand the new person a blank doc on day one.

Tell them they have fresh eyes and their first job is not just to learn the ropes.

It is to spot the knots.

What feels off.

What feels vague.

What feels harder than it should.

What customers would find confusing.

What staff have quietly learned to live with.

Because every team goes half blind over time.

Slowly at first.

Then all at once.

Not from lack of care or low standards.

But from repeat exposure.

You do a thing a hundred times and stop seeing its flaws.

You stop hearing the nonsense because everyone now speaks it with a straight face.

You hear the same jargon every day and stop noticing it means five different things to five different people.

You live with a broken process long enough and start calling it ‘the way we do things round here’.

The new hire hasn’t been trained by the cage yet.

But give it time and the smoothing begins.

They adapt.

They blend in.

And they stop asking.

That is why the Fresh Eyes Report exists.

It is not just an admin trick.

It is an anti-numbness tool.

It catches nonsense before it hardens into folklore and hear the questions your old hands stopped asking years ago.

And let’s be honest.

Some of the best fixes start with what sounds like a stupid question.

Why do we need three approvals for this?

Why is this file named like a bomb code?

Why does sales promise one thing and ops say another?

Why does this process need a map, a prayer, and Gary from finance to work at all?

There is one catch.

You have to make it safe.

If the new person thinks honesty will make them look rude, negative, or naïve, the page stays blank.

So tell them the small stuff counts.

Tell them the obvious stuff counts.

Tell them the awkward stuff counts too.

Then check in after week one.

Review it again at the end of week two.

Not to defend.

Not to explain everything away.

To learn.

Because by then the window is closing.

Fresh eyes do not last.

By week three, the weird stuff starts to feel normal too.

Even if the hire does not last, the insight might.

And if they do last, you have taught them something rare from day one.

Around here, we do not protect nonsense.

We name it.

And we fix it.

PS. If you don’t know jewellery, know your jeweller. That’s Buffett’s rule. It’s the same with messaging. Smart ideas die in boring words. If you don’t know the game, find a partner who does, because your reputation is on the line. I help thinkers, rebels, and disruptors say what they mean and make it stick.  Step up. Bring your message. I’ll bring the punch. You’ve got one shot to say it right. I’ll help you take it.