Here is another excerpt from my in-progress 'What is RevOps?' book, the first half of the chapter about the people principle in RevOps, related to human behavior and related human-centered topics for success. It's currently chapter 3 in the book, after chapters about the definition(s) of RevOps.
The main research question in this portion of the chapter, asked to 35+ experts:
In your opinion, do you consider change management as a responsibility of RevOps?Click to scroll down to read:
Disclaimer for book draft excerpts:
This is an excerpt from Chapter 3: RevOps Principle #1: People
The hidden human side of RevOps: Ourselves, our teams, our peers, our customers, and more
Remind me, why is ‘People’ part of the definition of RevOps?
In the previous chapters, we discussed the expert opinions on ‘What is RevOps?’ and ended up with three main categories of responsibilities: people, process, and tools.
Since the topic of People is the most complex of the three categories, we could spend a lifetime researching and learning about people. I will try not to repeat myself too much in the success chapters later in this book that will also speak to the “people” component.
People are the core principle to consider in RevOps, because without this solving for this one, the other principles won’t work or matter much. For example, you can have the best tech and the best processes, but if you aren’t able to train and enable people to run the processes or tech, or get them to agree on the reasons why they should use the process or use the tech, your RevOps department or role will not be successful. This explains why I call the type of operations I teach as human-centered operations, thinking of humans first instead of the popular or ‘easy’ strategy of thinking the tech will do all the work.
There weren’t any specific questions about ‘Do you consider people as a core principle of RevOps?’ but topics related to human behavior and psychology wove their way throughout many of the experts’ responses and became a trend or pattern that was easy to spot, once I was looking through all the transcripts together. A lot of my interview questions were focused on what I called the human side of RevOps, to try to learn the information from experts that wasn’t making its way into written, searchable content. So while people aspects were discussed in other parts of the interview for different questions, the lack of people in most definitions could be causing some of the disconnect and disagreement on what RevOps is.
One question we will cover in this chapter in depth is:
Since the word “people” in itself is vague and could apply to any part of business, we’ll also discuss a few subcategories related to people who are part of a successful RevOps team or department:
Change management is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as “the planning and introducing of new processes, methods of working, etc. in a company or organization.”
It often involves all three RevOps principles of people, processes, and tools, but the people component is the most important to consider, so it is included first in this first chapter on RevOps principles.
The related research question asked to experts:
Responses:
Alana Zimmer, Senior Manager of Customer Ops at GoSite, clearly connected the people principle and change management in her response to this question. “I consider RevOps as process, systems, and people start working together, so change management is that people component, people alignment, people clarity, functional clarity, job clarity... It is such a big part of RevOps as far as mitigating change, influencing change, and navigating change environments. I think one thing with change management, and it plays out in strategy and documentation [which] are a major component of change management, I think they're critical and in relation to it. I really do think it is a responsibility because if you're not considering the changes, [when] you're developing a process or you're new and implementing a new system or toolset, [then] you're not considering how it influences the rest of the pieces in the system, meaning you haven't thoroughly assessed the environment,” Alana said.
Jerry Bonura, Senior Principal at TwentyPine, spoke about change management in the Wild West of getting salespeople to follow rules, a familiar struggle for many operations professionals. “Change resistance is huge, and I think when it comes to the systems side of RevOps, you could build the most top-of-the-line tech stack, but if no one uses it, or understands the value they're getting out of it, then it's just sitting there. That's something you encounter a lot, building beautiful stuff and no one uses it.” This response also illustrates another ‘people’ side of RevOps, our own psychology as ops people, and the disheartening effect when no one is using what you’ve built.
This section is categorized into the common themes and patterns seen in the responses:
As a department responsible for improvements, technology, planning, and similar topics that require a change in workday behavior, for all revenue teams and not just one department, RevOps roles, teams, and departments are the people making the change happen. Executing the changes in systems or processes won’t create the planned impact of the change unless people adopt the change, through good change management.
Jeff Ignacio, Head of Revenue and Growth Operations at UpKeep, said, “You don't want to be a strategic consultant, writing a white paper and then leaving the company to turn on devices. Here's the thing. When you introduce new processes, new systems, there is inertia to moving away from what someone is doing today…[for] sales reps, when you give them a new workflow or a new system, they're not going to figure it out on their own unless they have to. So what you want to do is go through your appropriate change management situation if you use a framework like ADKAR or whatnot. It helps transition the organization to something that is going to be better for them, but leaving it to their own devices means low adoption....My team will typically host three training sessions. One is mandatory, we'll record the sessions for on-demand [viewing]. We'll edit the videos so that you don't hear us building rapport every single time that first minute. And we'll go through live office hours on a weekly basis.”
Changes resulting from strategic planning and technology optimization are a common occurrence that Rosalyn Santa Elena, Head of Revenue Operations at Clari, included in her response about whether change management is part of RevOps. “Yes, absolutely. Going back to that process and documentation as well as systems, because of the thousands of tech stack tools available now for revenue teams. Often the ops person, the team, is the one managing those tools. So when you are rolling out a new tool, you're going to be responsible for building all the processes within it, configuring the system, and then rolling it out. So, managing that change with the team, the communication, the enablement, as well as driving adoption and the metrics to figure out if it's being effective, and then that whole feedback loop. I view all of that as part of operations…especially as quickly as things move,” she said.
Rosalyn continued, “Right now, we're going through the new year planning, and you think about if we change segmentation, in terms of what we define as enterprise versus mid-market, risk, commercial, or whatever the factors are in each organization, managing that change with the team is part of that. Naturally, it will fall upon the operations team, in partnership with the sales leadership, because you're the one who actually has to go and make those changes, help the team understand those changes, and then actually administer whatever those changes are. Whether they're quotas, accounts, territories, or compensation if your comp structure is changing. So definitely, I would say the change management piece in the adoption is part of RevOps.”
Adam Tesan, CRO at Chargebee, also discussed how the multitude of responsibilities of RevOps that involve changes to the way people work. “You're involved in products, product review, own process strategy, and you're going to change processes, systems, etc, then you have to be able to manage the change into the business, on the people in that, and the infrastructure side,” Adam said.
Emphasizing the amount of changes that RevOps is involved in, Karen Steele, Founder and Advisor at Alloy, said, “Absolutely, because it's sort of the heartbeat of the revenue engine. You're tweaking all the time, you're looking at this quarter's results, and how does that factor for next quarter? …It could come down to quotas, territories, and staffing. And what does that look like? Maybe we're running a direct model today, in one part of our business, and it's got to be indirect in the next part of the business. I think change management is a big factor.”
Briana Okeyere, Community Lead at AdaptivOps community and Community and Events Lead at Tonkean, spoke about the RevOps responsibilities of improvements in her response. “I think that change management is often the killer of anything, any improvement. And so I think it does fall on the ops team to minimize the amount of change required for any new process,” Briana said.
The long-term nature of the strategic planning RevOps is involved in, and the numerous departments RevOps connects while being a separate team was a topic several experts commented on.
The company-wide, long-term view needed to scale, and company-wide operating system, are topics Alison Elworthy, Head of RevOps at HubSpot, covered when responding to the change management question. “Yes. Developing a scalable approach to change can be one of the trickiest parts of RevOps. Change management becomes easier for Ops to navigate when you have a really strong operating system in place. That’s why RevOps should own the operating system. As you scale, communication and transparency gets tough, and change management is a valuable skill ops leaders gain as they navigate their ops responsibilities, not one they are necessarily taught. If you’re in ops, you know what I mean! The ability to change not only the way a team works, but to change the way it thinks is a highly valuable skill in the overall RevOps ‘skillbox,’” Alison said.
Sylvain Guiliani, Head of Growth at Census, discussed the benefits of the neutral position of RevOps related to change management, as well as the RevOps capabilities from the unique connections with other teams. “They are very good [choices] to do change management, because …people see them as a neutral person. And so they're very good to say, ‘Hey, don't shoot the messenger here, look at the benefit that you're gonna get by doing these things, and look at the benefit that they're gonna get from it, it's a win-win.’ They're very good at communicating change, because they have this kind of neutral position. And then also, they are the one that is capable, usually, of measuring and monitoring change, because again, they have those connections with the other entity. So I think that's really good,” Sylvain said.
Sylvain continued to discuss the unique problems of introducing RevOps at larger legacy companies, related to change management. “The only problem is [when] you're starting to grab territories from other functions in the organization, especially at the large size where you have the old IT department or even internal communication department where they are historically the one that could be responsible for that change management, [where] rolling a new tool across the company was like, ‘Hey, we migrating from this tool to this, let's do the onboarding training session for next six months,’ things like that. That's very much a legacy thing. But most companies still run on this type of process. So, at that point, you don't want to be having to fight that battle as RevOps, especially those environments, you're probably [doing] tons of battles to fight to justify your existence…So that's why I'm saying it depends on the organization. But if you're a small company, you should be in charge of a lot of change management regarding commercial change, like tooling processes, how to do things. I think that [paves] a clear path of earning the seat at the table…having a VP of RevOps or an alternative at the leadership table,” Sylvain said.
RevOps as the “champions of change” or perhaps the good examples or teachers of change management was a common topic Jenna Hanington, VP of Revenue Operations at Experity, clearly articulated. “I often encourage my team to be “champions of change” and to lead by example in this area,” Jenna said.
Lauren Nickels, Director of GTM Operations at Blackline, also used the ‘champion’ language when responding to the question. Lauren said, “I would think change management is a huge part of revenue operations in general. And I don't know that it's …one person's role necessarily, I think it's just a part of the leadership responsibility within a RevOps organization, they need to be Champions of Change Management and understand what that means and how to ensure that if it needs to be managed to, or trained to, or supported, that is getting done, either from them or from somebody within the organization.”
Leading in general and leading by example is a topic Leore Spira, Head of Revenue Operations of Syte, spoke about in response to the change management question. “We also must be leaders … teaching others [and] explaining the reason, what is the goal. This is [in] my emails, for example, and not just to management, explaining the changes that are the modifications or the new implementation that I want to form in the system, or in each department. I always explained the goal because I think everybody should understand. They don't have to read my email. They don't have to ask questions. But they should know. If this is not an interesting topic for them, that's fine. But for me, I want to explain the goal. I want to spend [time] reasoning and want to explain the result, how it will help us, how it will allow us to become much more efficient and productive but also succeed and be better and grow together to do different things together. I always speak in [this] way, because I think this is how leaders speak,” Leore said.
Is it easy to be the champion of change? No, and in fact, it may be one of the most difficult parts of the job, as discussed by Melissa McCready, GrowthOps Advisor, Founder, and CEO at Navigate Consulting and President of the Growth Ops Community. Melissa said, “This is one of the key things people ask, ‘What is the hardest part about working in operations?’ My number one answer: change management. You have to be a change agent. This is that soft skill that makes all the difference in the world. It's not what you're saying. It's how you're saying it….So that's the thing with change management, is it's breaking it down as much as possible for your audience in a way that [tells] why does it matter to them? And, frankly, that applies to anything that you're presenting, right?”
Change management is often discussed as a downward initiative, starting at the top of the organization with executive support. But the unique position of RevOps includes managing upwards, and that can include change management up to executive leadership. Melanie Foreman, Revenue Operations Manager at Slack, spoke about this in response to the research question. “I think [change management’s] one of the biggest parts, at least of my job specifically as a leader. I would say it's change management up, not necessarily change management down. You're hard-pressed to find someone in the weeds who wants to stay in the weeds, you're much more likely to find an executive who isn't sure if they should allocate resources your way…technical resources or money for a tool. A majority of my time is spent interviewing my team and finding what they think would be best for their job, what will be most impactful, and [then] facilitating change management to my boss, their boss's boss, etc. to drive it home,” Melanie said.
Though change management is included in the responsibilities of RevOps roles and departments, the change management of the entire company does not rest solely on the shoulders of RevOps in many organizations, especially to ensure their teams are bought in and supported.
Matthew Volm, CEO and Co-Founder at Funnel IQ and Co-Founder of the RevOps Co-op community, replied, “Yes, although they can’t do it themselves...partnership is needed from other leaders that are responsible for driving revenue growth as well...but if you think about the fact that RevOps is always driving change in order to generate more revenue growth and keep teams aligned, then all they really do is manage change and should be good at doing so.”
Who RevOps should partner with for changes depends on the change itself, who it involves, and what types of departments the company has in place. Nicole Smith, Revenue Operations Consultant at Winning By Design, said, “I think a level of change management is owned by RevOps but not for the entire business. I would say that it owns change management for GTM (go-to-market) teams. If a process or tool is modified, it should be clearly articulated across the GTM teams on what change is being made and how it affects them. Other elements of change management could be coordinated with general operations or a PMO (project management organization).”
Another benefit of partnering with leaders, other teams, or other team members is if change management isn’t currently one of your strongest skills. Dana Therrien, Senior Sales Specialist of Sales Performance Management at Anaplan, responded, “I do. And I'm personally terrible at it. So I think it's important that you surround yourself, as a revenue operations leader, with people who are passionate about that, and know a really good solid methodology. And we'll shepherd people through this [change], as they're making that transformation. I think it's exceptionally important.”
An executive who chose to remain anonymous discussed the types of change management or change RevOps may be involved in as opposed to the IT department or legacy ways of thinking of change management. “Yes, for as much as it supports the process. No, and so much as it is to support new systems or new tools to support set processes. And the reason why I say that is, again, in the spirit of a lighter approach to building the RevOps’ muscles and philosophies, if it's too heavy, I think those things tend to fail or get mired down….You have to have an incremental way to build up that kind of capability. And so therefore, change management is important, but it should be bite-sized change management, not ‘you come in today, and you're going to get three days of training on this really sophisticated new process,’” they said.
Several experts interviewed said change management is the biggest part of their role as a manager or leader in general, not just a RevOps manager, but any type of manager.
“Change management exists everywhere. We are always implementing new processes within our sales, CRM, and success management processes,” said Richard Dunkel, Global Head of Field Enablement at Celonis.
Hilary Headlee, Head of Global Sales Ops + Enablement at Zoom, said, “It's probably my biggest responsibility, change management that is communicated effectively and efficiently, that matches the culture of the company I am in. And that's sometimes the other way that I define operations. It's just change management, communications, and culture, to make sure that people are doing more or less, better and faster, usually of whatever it is you need...if I had to draw three things around the [ops] pie, the item that goes around the pie is change management. That's all you're doing every time we roll out territory quota [for example]. It's a change every time we roll it out, every three months at Zoom, for context. So we're always doing that. And it's a lot, and I have a lot of admiration for the reps who take on that much change. And it's tough to keep up sometimes, I know that. So we try to do our best at it.”
Change management might be such an ingrained or large part of management that you may not consider it a separate duty, which is what Jonathan Fianu, Head of Revenue Operations at ComplyAdvantage, discussed. Jonathan said, “I think it's more like it will come naturally, if you're doing your job right and if you can manage communications effectively. I don't think it's something that you should necessarily seek to do per se,...I joined the sales weeklies [meetings], and I've got an awareness of the reporting that we have on each of our tools. I can maybe see some changes that can be made and I'm there collating information across the regions. That's all great and I can prepare information for the different regional heads and talk to the CRO about what I should do. But then after a point it's to them to be driving lists. I can't continually focus on just delivering on, just pushing through. Basically, the question is a good one because I feel that it kind of does sit with RevOps a little bit, or you'll inherently be doing it.”
Agencies deal with so much change, both externally with clients and internally with their own operations, that it is part of every role, especially in management. Nicole Pereira, Founder and CEO at Remotish, said, “I feel like change management is the way in which you can make sure RevOps is successful... the way you make sure any new things are successful in any organization. So though it's important with RevOps, I think it's important with everything. People who are in smaller organizations are not familiar with that term. People who use tools that were built for smaller organizations are also not familiar with it. They just blame it on poor training, they don't blame it on the fact that you really need a process in which to help people change. They could be in an old tool and need to move themselves to the new tool. And it's not just a matter of mandating. You have to help them get there. You have to help them change their behaviors. I feel like people have whole titles called change management, which have nothing to do with RevOps. It's a tactic in which to get your RevOps deployed. Once deployed, it's a temporary thing. Once deployed, you don't really need it. So change management, I think works in the onset of trying to launch a new department, like a RevOps department…[or] it is making sure that people adopt the tool.”
Part two of this chapter will be published after I finish some related later chapters and know where best to place people-related info without repeating myself! :) The next excerpt will be about RevOps Principle #3: Tools.
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