An example of a previous situation where I experienced change was when my
company decided to combine the two instances of Salesforce we used for our two product
lines. The IT team created the new system without input from any of the departments that
were actually using the system and it was a disaster. We were previously told the new
system was coming but did not receive a lot of formal training before the go live date.
When we started using the new system it was completely chaotic, when we would ask
questions of why this was missing or that wasn’t there, we would receive answers like
“we didn’t think about that” or “its not important” (even when it was). After about a
month or two of complaining, we finally were able to schedule weekly meetings with IT
to go over what our pain points were and what needed to added/adjusted. Progress was
slow at first but these meetings were mutually beneficial to both my team and the IT team
because we learned a lot about each other’s jobs which gave us better understanding for
the issues we were facing.
I think initial approach taken by both teams were wrong. The IT team should have
consulted with my team when creating the new system to understand what was needed for
us to do our jobs and probably could have given more formal trainings before going live
with the new system. Me and my team could have been more embracing of the change
and less frustrated every time something went wrong. The main disconnect was the fact
that IT did not understand our jobs and we did not understand what went into their jobs.
After months of having meetings and communicating with each other things did get better
and almost all of our issues were resolved.
b I am transitioning from my current role on the accounts payable team to a staff
accountant role. The change management skills that I will I have found most relevant in
this class that I plan to apply include approaching this position with an open mind,
effectively communicating questions and comments during training and actively listening.
