Cold openings surprise, engage, and sometimes shock people.  Very effective for Saturday Night Live.  Great way to start a speech, toast or talk.  Effective way to send a message to an organization needing to make urgent changes with a culture that is not open to change.

Generally not so effective for most onboarding situations.

It's clear that "warm" sales calls, following up on someone else's introduction, are easier and more effective than "cold" calls.  Doesn't it make sense that the same would be true for onboarding?

Instead of coming in with the big opening, the pep rally speech, the cold start.  Get a head start, starting to build relationships and learning about the organization before your first day.  This way you have warm start with some of the key people on day one and they can help ease your way with others.

What do you think?