Admins migrating teams from Classic to Lightning know that success goes well beyond technical know-how – change management is just as important. I’ve been involved in a Lightning implementation in my role as a consultant at the Australian Academy of Science. For me, the key steps are:
- Setting the scene
- Promoting the core benefits of change
- Conducting a health check
- Co-designing with a representative working group
- Creating a positive context
- Dealing with resistance to change
Setting the scene
Managing the process and getting buy-in is essential, so it’s important to provide a general overview of the process that everyone involved can understand and relate to.
You need to set the scene and have people understand they’ll be going through another implementation process. To help people forge that path I often use the example of Microsoft Office updates. It provides a good reference point.
When you upgrade your Microsoft Office, there is a familiarity there. A few things have changed and a few things are better, but it’s the same experience at its core. And people understand a change will happen every few years. They’ll open up Microsoft Office again in the future and there will be another version. It won’t bother them because they are ready for it and have been through that change before.
Promote the core benefits
Alongside understanding what is going to happen, users need to understand why — we need to illustrate the benefits of the new system to them. The benefits to the business are important, of course. But to get that buy-in at an individual level, the user has to understand how it will improve what they do — how it will make their work lives better.
Look through the benefits for users across different functions to tailor your conversations and communications with different user groups.
We constantly need to remember that, as admins, we might have a clear idea of what change is going to happen and why, we may have a clear view of life on the other side of the project, but others are yet to see this. They are still dealing with the process. Consider where they are in the change process, empathise with their concern about what the future will look like and what it means for them.
Guide them down the path you have already traversed. Use your knowledge and experience to take them through to the other side.
Conduct a health check
Just as with a new implementation, a migration from Classic to Lightning requires a data health check — and the state of the data in Classic will determine the scope of the migration process.
I use Salesforce Health Check to see what the status of the current system is because, while we don’t need to oversee a data migration to Lightning — the data is already there — we do need to make sure we’ll see it on the other end and we know how it will appear.
Co-design with a representative working group
A representative working group allows you to co-design with the people who are passionate about what you’re doing. The group should include an executive / decision maker and users from all levels of the business. It can’t simply be managers of the users.
The group also needs to be cross-functional — if users sit across sales, marketing and service, bring people from all three functions in to co-design. This will reassure each team that their needs are being heard and incorporated into the new experience.
Create a positive context
Your working group will become your change champions across the organisation — they’ll bring everyone else on board and support everyone in the transition if you can create a positive context for change.
And that’s what’s so great about getting people involved in designing the new experience — they start to sell the journey for you.
Trailhead’s seven-module ‘Get started with Lightning Experience’ trail talks about considering influencers, like your change champions, and the impact these influencers can have in the workplace. Lean on them for help.
Dealing with resistance to change
The reality is that a percentage of your workforce will be resistant to change, and are uncomfortable with it. To make sure you have all your bases covered, documentation is vital.
That’s why it’s critical to have a change management policy, and review user policies and user agreements, so they are current and reflective of where you’re going. These are the tools you can use to win over people who are struggling to come on the journey with you.
Documentation can often be the best way to reach those who are change-resistant, by providing clear communication at each stage of the process.
Also, consider all the different types of learners you have in your organisation — ensure you have a strategy to communicate with each and provide them the time they need to consider and digest what you’re asking of them and what you want to do.
