The Psychology of an ERP Implementation.

Recently during an ERP go-live a colleague of mine remarked that during the go-live process the folks involved seem to go through stages similar to the 5 stages of grief. This got me to thinking about a joke I used to make about how ERP consulting is only 40% about knowing what you are talking about and the other 60% is being a therapist. While it always seemed super funny to groups of consultants after the 4th or 5th drink, I never thought of the statement as anything other than tongue-and-cheek. Until the stages of grief comment sparked a light bulb. The nuts and bolts of most ERP systems is going to be very similar. Sure, every business has unique challenges that need to be solved for and there are plenty of technical considerations and business processes to address, but at the end of the day it's all about what people do with the system once it's live and their perception of the system.

If you're not familiar with the 5 stages of grief they are as follows (straight from Wikipedia):

1. Denial – The first reaction is denial. In this stage individuals believe the diagnosis is somehow mistaken, and cling to a false, preferable reality.
2. Anger – When the individual recognizes that denial cannot continue, they become frustrated, especially at proximate individuals.
3. Bargaining – The third stage involves the hope that the individual can avoid a cause of grief. Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made in exchange for a reformed lifestyle.
4. Depression – "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"; "I'm going to die soon, so what's the point?"; "I miss my loved one, why go on?"
5. Acceptance – "It's going to be okay."; "I can't fight it; I may as well prepare for it."

We sometimes forget that when we walk through the doors of our office there isn't some magic switch that flips off and makes us not human anymore. Somehow there's an unspoken perception that we should be machines and be emotionally divested in things that happen in our professional lives and that just isn't possible. At the end of the day any change is hard and subject to emotional strife associated with that change. Whether that change is moving to a new state, a child leaving home for college, a loved one passing away, or (you guessed it) dramatically changing how your daily work routine goes.

During an ERP implementation and especially during the go-live stage people tend to experience similar emotions to the aforementioned stages of grief. So I present...

The 5 stages of ERP transition (grief sounds way too negative)

1. Denial - This stage starts the moment the implementation project is announced. And depending on how things are going the daily level of denial usually wavers between "meh, this really isn't going to ever happen" to "maybe I'll just find a new job before this happens". Then there's the moment you come in the first day of go-live and think that you're going to sit down at your machine and open up the old system. You've been through piloting and end user acceptance testing but there's still that little ray of hope that things went horribly wrong over go-live weekend and the project was cancelled. That first day is usually spent in a trance-like state where you're certain your're going to wake up the next day and everything will be back to normal.
2. Anger - It's been a few days now and you're realizing that the stupid new icon on your desktop still opens the same stupid new system and apparently it's not going anywhere. Someone has hid all your paper reports that you used to run and told you we are going totally paper-less! How is that even a thing?!?! And to top it all off they've deleted all your Excel sheets and said to enter everything into "the system". At this point you feel like your training consisted of someone waving their arms around and saying "click here, now click there, now... blah blah blah blah". You're in a generally surly mood and feel compelled to yell at everyone and you're not totally sure why but you just can't stop yourself.
3. Bargaining - This one is the simplest of all the stages. "If you just let me use the old system for this one thing and give me my spreadsheets back I promise I'll never take another vacation day ever, I'll work on Christmas and I'll stop stealing office supplies (maybe... the post-it notes are super nice).
4. Depression - This stage is marked by long stretches of staring deeply into your monitor and aimlessly clicking on stuff while you ponder the poor life choices you must have made to get to this spot. You've realized that management isn't going to pull the plug, your printer has been hidden in the bowels of the IT closet so no more paper reports, and now people are talking about "metrics" and "KPIs" that you are responsible for so you have to actually enter stuff in this new pile of crap. You start debating if you should come in tomorrow or just stay home and play some Celine Dion on repeat while sobbing in the shower .
5. Acceptance - This final stage usually sinks in anywhere between a week in and 3 months in. At this point you've come to the realization that things have in fact changed, the way you conduct your day to day business at work is never going to go back to the way it was, but hey, it's actually a lot easier now. And all the newness and scariness has worn off and what was foreign and frightening just a few weeks/months before has now *gasp* become routine. Your time is spent on more valuable endeavors now than going through reports with a ruler and trying to figure out why all the cells in your spreadsheet say #ERROR after changing one friggin' formula. And best of all you have more time now to steal those office supplies. Maybe everything is going to be ok!

Granted, all the above stages are predicated on the right solution being implemented in the right way, but that's a whole other topic. The idea is that as an ERP consultant we are responsible for more than just the nuts and bolts of making the system work. It's also just as important to help people understand that it isn't always going to be easy and there will be good days and bad days but ultimately there is a light at the end of the tunnel that is going to make life easier. Just because something has always "been that way" doesn't mean it should stay that way. Change and adaptation is what keeps today's SMBs going and during those transitions its important to understand that there are complex emotions that accompany that.

Remember, it's 40% knowing what you are doing and 60% therapy. And those are totally scientific and not at all made up numbers...