New CEOs arrive with a deck. The ones who last arrive with questions.
A plan written before you have met the people who must carry it is a guess with formatting. It also tells the organisation something you did not intend: that you decided before you arrived. The first ninety days are not for executing a plan. They are for earning the right to write one.
Listen in a structured way
Meet every direct report, the board members who hired you, and a dozen people two levels down. Ask each of them the same four questions, and write the answers down in their words, not yours.
What should I not change?
What has this place been waiting for someone to fix?
Who should I listen to that I might miss?
What would make you trust me by Christmas?
Publish what you heard first
Publish what you heard before you publish what you will do.
A short note — this is what you told me, this is what surprised me — does more for your authority than any strategy. Then make a very short list of promises, and keep every one of them.
