Invest in yourself – One step at a time

I have recently returned from SAP Education, at Clockhouse Place, Feltham, Middlesex (near London Heathrow Airport) having undertaken the HR310 Time Evaluation with Clock Times course.

This is the fourth course I have completed at SAP headquarters and felt it was about time to commend SAP on its education programme. Please don’t get me wrong, the 5 day courses (in particular) can be hard going and if you are not ready to learn and get underneath the ‘bonnet’ (or ‘hood’ to my US and Canadian colleagues) you are going to find yourself falling short of understanding some very complicated information. It’s a two person dance where SAP Education lead, very well!

From experience, I have found that Time Management and Payroll are not only complicated to understand but in my case, I don’t think I have enough head space to balance all of the factors at any one time in order to understand the bigger picture. On previous courses, I have (on occasions) found myself lost, struggling to grasp the method (or madness) of the information being explained to me. These gaps in understanding and knowledge have done me no favors either and I still have to take a deep breath before tackling issues such as absence quotas! I always get there though… I would like to point that out!

But on this most recent course, something appeared to have clicked in the Will Jackson brain space. I’m not entirely sure what it was but if I was to guess, it was that I suddenly realized that when configuring SAP, in order to understand the bigger picture, there are things that are to be assumed… trusted.

I consider myself a bit of a control freak and I have always insisted on knowing everything about something, firmly believing that this ethos will make me a better and more informed employee or consultant. But this attitude (whilst wholly commendable) has been a detriment at times because all it has done is cause me to lose the bigger picture, obsessing about the little bits that ‘just are’.

This attitude isn’t about giving up, I can reassure you, its more about having faith. I think that I have finally accepted that I will never actually know all here is to know about my particular field of expertise. I have accepted that this is the reality and I have stopped beating myself up about it and letting it hold me back.

My eyes are nothing but wide open and I have finally realized just how deep SAP actually goes. I have yet to find a resolution to a configuration scenario that has not, at some point, been addressed in SAP. From my experience of configuration, I find that there will usually be a solution available to resolve my conundrum. It may need a little tweaking or bending but there will be something there.

So if you are fortunate enough to embark on any training of this nature, my advice would be to take it easy. Don’t assume you will understand everything and walk out of there without any doubt. It’s all hypothetical until you apply it to your experience and your knowledge; relating it to your people in your place.

Throughout the training, make it clear in your notes where the gaps are and make sure you fill those gaps as soon as you can when you get back to reality. Otherwise they will remain there and each time you try and understand that particular method of configuration, they will slow you down and cause you to lose the bigger picture.

Invest in yourself. People can show you what they know but it’s up to you to apply it.

Finally, I have an analogy and it goes a bit like this…  SAP have provided all of the stepping stones needed for you to get across the river but you might occasionally need to use a couple of extra rocks to make the larger strides more manageable.

Thanks for reading,

Will Jackson

@SAP_Jackson