From Resistance to Acceptance and Adoption, understanding the journey

[fim]

Last week I received a number of congratulation messages on my work anniversary. Wondering if completing a year on a certain role really matters, I started to think of my contributions during the year. I realized there’s much I could be proud of and be happy for. So I’m grateful to all those who congratulated and indirectly reminded me to look back and assess my Change Management work.

Challenges and Resolutions of Change Management

It was my third year on the same role, introducing the changes in systems, functionalities and processes to impacted groups of people and handling different activities to ensure these are accepted and adopted throughout the organization. From the time I have assumed the SAP OCM (Organizational Change Management) role, I have interacted with variety of people, working in different functions, and as such have developed a better understanding of the

• challenges associated with the transitions of different types an organization goes through when it acquires SAP or any other technical solution, and


• resolutions required to mitigate the impact such changes bring to individuals, the roles they have and the processes they handle.

So if you have Change Management related questions, I hope I can answer these : )

Experience which may benefit you!

Here I’m sharing with you the key lessons I learned, the experiences I applied, the knowledge I gained, and the steps I took, during Mar 2017 – 2018 while managing change, in a hope that it may help some of the audience here. So if you are a

• Project Manager or Change Practitioner, you may find the narrative useful as it describes some of the settings in which user readiness is handled differently, or


• Consultant, you may find some interesting facts, as the context of my story is IT and SAP in particular – referring some of its solutions such as ERP, SuccessFactors, FIORI, SRM, and BI.

Have a read and leave your comments to let me (and others who are reading this blog) know your area of interest.

1. Learned New Lessons

There were some interesting projects I was involved in and I learned that the

• New Functionalities provided to system end-users are welcomed more than the Changed ones. I described my experience at Different feedback on “Changed” and “New” Functionalities,


• Solutions built to meet statutory requirements are respected and supported better. I summarized my learning at Value Added Tax (VAT) Implementation and Organizational Change Management,


• Complaints about a certain solution may have different background reasons which need to be worked out. I mentioned an example scenario which I and my team had faced at From Operational to Analytical Reporting – The Value.

2. Applied Previous Experience

I also learned that if the Change Manager has some knowledge of the Systems or Processes s/he is supporting, managing change becomes a lot easier. Since I’ve worked on SAP Consulting, Training and Support roles, prior to taking my current job, I could relate my previous experience and knowledge to new implementations. For instance,

• Assisting Consultants in developing training material of Accessing SuccessFactors through mobile devices


• Guiding Employees on Better Learning Experience with LMS,


• Supporting stakeholders with Travel Management Implementation Experience.

3. Gained Extra Knowledge

Another important thing, which was unique during the period, and helped me in performing better on Change Management role was the

• trainings I attended as part of professional development program run by my employer. I could understand the Change Management function better by knowing the Enterprise Architecture and Service Management after attending TOGAF and ITIL trainings, which I’ve explained at Non-SAP Qualifications as well,


• Knowledge I gained by continuing the openSAP (MOOC) courses, which I started earlier and mentioned at How I benefited from openSAP course, some tips to help you in your learning. It has helped me in understanding (to some extent) the challenges my colleagues – SAP Consultants, face in delivering certain solutions, and in assisting them in managing the impact such changes bring to different parts of the organization.

4. Took Few Steps

While managing the impact of changes in systems and processes the Change Managers may find gaps, not directly related to Change Management function, which they are required to handle. I also have faced few gaps and have volunteered myself to address these, including the

• Post Go-Live Knowledge Management, which is important to help end-users of implemented systems. I’m working on the initiative to help my colleagues in handling SAP Solutions better.


• Documentation of Change Requests – an element of a Change Control Procedure, in absence of which it is hard to keep track of the changes requested and implemented in the system. Working in close collaboration with technical teams, I’m hoping to have tools installed to support end-to-end process.

Earlier Experience

The above is a quick summary of what I could do during last one year at my current role. To know more about the challenges of Change Management function, in a SAP Support environment, please read Change Management Lessons Learned in a Year and on Different Projects.

If you enjoy helping end-users, as I do, in knowing and operating SAP / other solutions effectively, you may develop yourself as a Change Management & Training professional. And to do so my story may help you. Let me know if it has anything of your interest.