Managing Change at Salesforce #LessonsLearned

I spent the last 4 years of my career working with Salesforce . It has been the most interesting, challenging and fun chapter of my career. After being #laidoff last week, I have been reflecting a lot about the #lessonslearned during my time there and wanted to share them.

For context, I was the only change management person for the Finance & Strategy (aka FP&A) department of 250+ people. So, I had to be very intentional about what I spent my time on and focused in what I wanted to accomplish.

Anyone who works for #salesforce knows that change is constant. You never know what to expect that day. You build a plan and the next day everything has changed. You have to be quick, agile and adaptable to work there. So my vision from the start was "to create a change capable organization able to thrive through change." During my time there, I experimented A LOT and today I want to share some of the lessons I learned.

Lesson # 1

As you know, being in a relationship with anyone requires time spent getting to know that person – their quirks, motivations, what they love, what they don’t love, what they are good at and what they are not so good at. Relationships are an ever-changing and growing dynamic which is one of many reasons that makes them so wonderful.?

As a #change professional of 1 to 250+, my #1 priority ALWAYS was to get to know the people I was serving. This was never something I wrote down formally as a priority in our yearly goal setting process but I always felt it was a critical component to my success. How would I help anyone on the team “change” or “transform” or “adopt something new” if I didn’t know what mattered to them, where they might get stuck and what the best ways were to communicate/ get key messages across?

My success was in the nuance of the relationships I held across the organization. The leaders and teams I was able to build strong relationships with came alongside me quickly and those I was unable to make strong connections with were the last on the change train or if I am honest, never got on.?

Take time to get to know the people you are ultimately there to serve. I promise you it will pay dividends seen and unseen in your efforts to change & transform your team or your organization.?

Lesson #2

Please articulate a real, aspirational jargon-free #vision . For everyone's sake!

This is best done by the leaders of the organization and unfortunately, much harder than one would expect. People are not motivated and inspired to work and be engaged by visions filled with jargon and vague language. People are inspired and motivated by real aspirational possibilities.?

Visions should be short enough to remember but what that vision actually means needs to be painted in the boldest, brightest, clearest and most accessible language you can get to.?I like to use Nike's visions statement as an example..."to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world." Love it. Short. Sweet. Inspiring. If you are unsure if your vision is compelling... ask your people. They will tell you. Not only that, they will likely provide the color, clarity and language you need to paint that picture of what your vision means.

Sit down with your leader and their leadership team and ask them to discuss their vision for the organization. They have one, it's in there... you just might have to help them articulate it. In F&S, we finally got one... "To create the financial future of Salesforce!" Yes! Short. Sweet. Inspiring.

Lesson #3

For some reason, talking about current state or "where we are today"in the level of detail that's helpful rarely happened. Unfortunately, at Salesforce things have gotten so complex so fast that understanding current state basically means trying to understand countless nuances based on function, role, industry, product, etc. So naturally, in a fast-paced change environment, capturing current state is almost nearly impossible, especially when it comes to enterprise-wide projects.

The problem with this, especially in the change space, is how will we get people to "transition effectively" if we do not understand what is happening today? How will we articulate what needs to change if we ONLY discuss future state.

It is okay for where you are at to be messy, disconnected and dysfunctional. Things evolve when you are moving fast. Just don't ignore it forever. Sit down with your people and discuss what is working, what is not working, what needs to change? Dig deep... don't stop at the surface, never assume you know all the problems or the answers, keep asking questions, keep digging until you find the roots.

When you have found the roots of a problem and everyone knows it, understands it and accepts it as reality...everyone is generally inspired to fix it. Change management becomes obsolete at that point because you have unleashed the power of the human desire to grow and improve things.

Lesson # 4

We have a tendency in corporate America to build thousand line project plans detailed with every step we will take over a multi-year journey to implement a new technology or design new process to scale but how often do these projects complete on time, on budget, and in scope?

I guess according to an article put out by Mckinsey on large scale IT projects ... not very many.

"On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted. Software projects run the highest risk of cost and schedule overruns."

The most success I found in managing change was because I planned my next steps after I took my last action. The last action always told me a lot about where the group was, what next step made the most sense and clarified who needed to do what to move things along. This meant I had to be, 1) Thoughtful about the actions I took 2) Clear about the outcomes I wanted to achieve and 3) Attentive to how the group responded.

Sometimes, the group rejected what I did completely, and sometimes they were so engaged they would eagerly commit more time to the process. Either way and at every step, I learned something about the people I was serving, where we were at in relation to where we wanted to go and what the next best step was.

I accomplished more than I could have imagined this way. The only downside, I had no detailed project plan to showcase all the work I had completed and progress I made. The upside, I didn't care. I wanted to inspire real change, achieve real outcomes and fulfill the vision I set out to achieve.

Closing Thoughts

The final lesson... people are "change capable" on their own. I did not have to create change capability, I only had to shine light on the capability that was already there. People are naturally gifted toward growth and innovation but sometimes we get lost, caught up, tossed around, held back or pushed back. As change people, we need to create space for the people we serve to step into the change they already know they need, not weigh them down or bait them with "fake benefits". The only way to do this is to get to know them, cast a clear vision, create space for them to understand and accept where they are, be open to not knowing the entire plan... and walk the journey with them.

Would love to hear from people if these lessons resonate or not. I am always open for good dialogue and learning!