Lateral career movements are inevitable in any organization. In many, they are celebrated as a way to help employees establish new career paths, fill role vacuums, difficulties acquiring external specialists, and foster continuous learning.

Not all careers are made equal, however, as some will require much greater technical aptitude than others, such as when someone wants to move from customer support to software development. As these movements are mutually beneficial, companies should promote them as the gold standard.

Unfortunately, wider adoption and guidance of lateral career move support are sorely lacking. These systems usually only have in mind high-achievers or, in other words, people who likely need little help either way. Whereas the rest of the employees are not even considered for the lateral career move, nor is research being done to identify whether the position matches the person.

A classic approach to lateral movements

Most companies and organizations use several approaches: supervised or unsupervised (self-paced) learning, which then is supported with text-book-like materials to support lateral movement. In the best cases, internally written guidelines, requirements, and materials might be available, which are often pure extracts from the team’s tech stack or resemble computer science literature. Depending on the desired position, these may be supplemented with some external sources.

Additionally, there will be descriptions of position requirements in varying degrees of vagueness, which are supposed to ensure that the candidate understands the necessities of their future work. Yet, these attempts will often result in prolonged efforts, demotivation, and relatively low levels of success.

While a theoretical understanding of any field of work is highly beneficial, these guidelines and tutorials often are a little too far removed from the daily processes of the company and the team. These issues can be slightly overcome with extensive internal materials, however, any external ones will be too broad, making the learning process inefficient.

Another side effect, unintended confidence, can also become apparent. In both cases (i.e., with learning or external materials), it may seem that the field has been covered so extensively that the employee is fully prepared for high-intensity work. Such a side effect may hinder growth within the role or even shrink confidence after work begins as the employee understands that only a fraction of the learning material was useful to fulfill his role.

Finally, job descriptions, while necessary, might not be as descriptive as a single day of hands-on experience within a role. After all, descriptions are usually intended for external audiences.

Shifting towards a different approach

The classical approach is marred by several issues that I have outlined above, but there is one that is the most pressing – motivation. Dumping a large volume of materials on any person can suffocate the initial drive towards moving to a new position.

Anyone who employs the classic approach should ask themselves whether someone who managed to move laterally would not have been as successful without a simple list of reading and training materials. That someone who can overcome a huge number of learning tasks on their own would have been equally as likely to find the necessary ones themselves.

As such, I find that the classical approach is of little help if we’re left completely reliant on the person’s motivation rather than supporting them in a more directed fashion. They should be involved in their prospective team’s activities from day one with, ideally, an assigned mentor.

An issue few people raise is that anyone delving into a new field operates through a veil of ignorance – they can’t know what they will actually need to know for the role. They have little to no expertise and, as a result, cannot adequately evaluate future requirements.

Any learning materials thrown their way will seem like a jumbled mess of knowledge. So, the team should aim to make the role’s expectations and work more understandable as the first step. Both of these aspects, ideally, could be done by providing gradual steps from simple to complex topics.

Job descriptions are a good starting point but, as mentioned, not sufficient. Teams that the employee in question wants to enter should also outline clear expectations and requirements of the role as they can provide significantly more accurate information and reflect the actual day-to-day activities.

Expectations, requirements and daily processes can be provided through shadowing the team and by creating a blueprint of how the team or product works. While it’s slightly more time consuming than dropping volumes of books and other learning materials, they provide a noticeably better result in aligning expectations and understanding day-to-day activities.

Additionally, shadowing provides an opportunity for the candidate to form a closer bond with their soon-to-be team, easing the transition into a new position. As onboarding a new team member is equally as important when the move is internal, the hands-on approach gives a better opportunity to outline the plan and strategy. Senior team members can also validate that the existing situation is as they thought from the onboarding experience.

It goes without saying that a clear onboarding strategy should be created and maintained. While one exists in the classical approach, they are usually scarcely updated offshoots or even copy-pastes of those that are dedicated to external candidates. After onboarding is finished, the employee can take over the maintenance of the material as he can see the shortcomings and required amendments.

Lateral moves provide a unique opportunity to make the transition easier and more efficient, so organizations should take advantage. A more directed and clear onboarding plan can be created based on the feedback from the team and the candidate, reducing the time and resources it takes before someone can begin quality work.

Finally, through direct work with the team and getting involved with hands-on processes, the learning materials that remain necessary can be understood in a different light. Getting involved with the team means removing the veil of ignorance – achieving an understanding of what one does not yet know but has to know to become a worthy contributor in their future role.