Starting a new position at a new company is one of those tasks that feels both thrilling and overwhelming. It's like setting out to build a bridge while the river below is still rushing past—exciting, but full of challenges.
Right now, I’m in the thick of it: understand how this new company operates as I'm building new workflows, documenting procedures, and creating training materials. Doing all of this with the mindset that I'll soon be hiring a team under me and preparing to roll all this documentation out to them. Although my position and division are new to the company, I’m mindful of how I can integrate new processes without causing disruptions to an already high-functioning system. The scale of the effort is daunting, and the stakes feel high. These processes need to work, but more importantly, they need to be adaptable. Here’s what I’m doing to navigate this process and my thoughts along the way.
Trusting the Foundation While Staying Humble
When you’re creating something from scratch, it’s easy to feel the pressure to get everything perfect on the first try. I’m relying heavily on my experience and research to build a solid foundation. But I also know that no plan survives contact with the real world.
That’s where humility comes in. I’m intentionally leaving room for feedback, staying open to ideas from the people who will actually be using these processes. The goal isn’t to build a perfect system; it’s to build a system that can grow and improve over time.
Planning for Adaptability
One of the hardest parts of this process is accepting that these workflows won’t work every time or for every scenario. Projects vary. Teams vary. Even the tools we use can change over time.
So, how do you plan for adaptability? I’m building feedback loops into the workflows, making them modular so pieces can be adjusted without overhauling everything. Regular check-ins and reviews will help identify what’s working and what needs to evolve.
Getting Buy-In
Processes don’t exist in a vacuum—they’re only as effective as the people who follow them. Getting team buy-in is critical. For me, that means being transparent about the “why” behind every step and showing how these workflows will make their jobs easier, not harder.
It’s also about creating an environment where feedback isn’t just welcome—it’s expected. If something doesn’t make sense or isn’t practical, I want to know about it so we can fix it together.
The people I'm working with have been in design positions, field positions, from west coast to east coast, and even internationally. This diversity in experience provides invaluable insights, offering perspectives from design challenges to on-site realities. It's these varied viewpoints that help shape processes that are both comprehensive and adaptable. One of the benefits of working at a big company is the breadth and depth of experience you can pull from.
Building Processes That Work with Change
Change is inevitable. The workflows I’m creating now will need to evolve as our projects, teams, and technologies do. That’s not a failure; it’s a sign that the processes are alive and responsive.
My approach is to set the tone early: these workflows are living documents. They’re not carved in stone, and they’re not “my way or the highway.” I make sure to work in collaborative environments and allow people from within my team and outside my team to provide comments on the diagrams and documents I'm creating. Once I get my thoughts down and make a solid first pass, I reach out to key stakeholders who I think would have valuable input based on their position, their historical viewpoint on what the company has done in the past, or their experience on different projects. If I build a process based on my implementation in high-rise residential, I want to make sure it works for hotels, stadiums, and data centers too. The goal is to create a culture where updates and improvements are seen as strengths, not disruptions.
Final Thoughts
Creating new processes at scale is equal parts art and science. It’s about finding the balance between structure and flexibility, trusting your experience while staying humble enough to adapt. It’s not easy, but it’s rewarding—especially when you see the processes start to click for your team.
For those of you who’ve been through something similar, I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you plan for adaptability while ensuring buy-in from your team? What strategies have worked for you when designing workflows from scratch?
Let’s share ideas—because if there’s one thing I’ve learned so far, it’s that great processes are rarely built alone.