Post go live tips for Salesforce to help your team embrace change

In my last blog on managing change related to Salesforce, I discussed the need for organizational change management skills to support the successful adoption of Salesforce. I recently had the opportunity to work with one of our leaders in Customer Experience who focuses on Salesforce and implementing CRM technology. Together, my colleague and I worked with a client that was implementing Salesforce and rolling it out to their high-performing sales teams across the country. During my time with Mallory, I asked her to share with me a few of her key tenets for helping employees adapt to a new system such as Salesforce. I thought these might be helpful for anyone getting more involved in supporting the change effort necessary for successful Salesforce implementations.

Here are a few pearls of wisdom my colleague shared:

Stay curious and wonder what else can be done

Remember, the power of cloud is asking not "When are we done?" but rather "What else can be done?" Tune into the very active Salesforce Success Community to learn and share tips with others and discover what works for others like you in the ecosystem and on this cloud technology.

Build community in your workplace to empower ideation and initiatives to always improve

In Salesforce, with the switching on of Ideas and Chatter, anyone can take initiative and anyone can share an idea to improve your implementation or instance. When ideas are contributed, shared, and promoted, remember to take time to celebrate and it will prove to lessen the resistance to adoption over time. Also, don’t forget about the power of a unified system. Think about using internal cases to receive user feedback and drive user adoption by having ticket tracking in the same system.

Don't confuse initiative with ownership

If someone takes initiative to propose a change or new feature, don't make them own it singularly—to your busy employee, that can feel like punishment for raising the issue in the first place. Acknowledge them and thank them for bringing attention to an issue, and then connect them with a team to help solve the challenge identified. It is easier to go together than go alone.

Change criticism into creation

Critics will always be out there, and will always want to be heard. Hear them and then ask them to help you create a better experience for users. They may back down or they might just step up. Now you have a team to help you next time you implement an enhancement or upgrade. That's what we call a Change Network.