New starters typically try to demonstrate value quickly by producing something. The things that determine how the role goes are mostly not that.
Understand before changing
Every new person notices things that seem obviously wrong. Some of them are. Others exist for reasons that are not visible yet.
Proposing changes in week two, before understanding why things are as they are, is the most common way new people lose credibility. Ask why first.
Learn who actually decides
The organisational chart describes reporting lines. It rarely describes who is consulted before a decision, whose objection stops something, or who knows how things really work.
Finding that out early is worth more than any early deliverable.
Meet people deliberately
Short conversations with people across the organisation, asking what they do, what they need from your role, and what frustrates them.
This produces more useful information than any documentation and it builds the relationships you will need.
Find one thing to finish
Something small, visible, and useful, completed within the first couple of months. Not a transformation – a contribution that demonstrates you deliver.
Clarify what success looks like
Explicitly, with your manager. What does good look like at six months. Surprisingly often the answer has not been articulated even to themselves, and asking forces it.
Write things down
Your confusion in the first weeks is valuable and temporary. The things that seem strange now will seem normal in three months, and the notes are the only record of what a new person finds difficult.