Managing your Salesforce implementation offers many exciting challenges. Planning, helping, tackling bugs, and handling improvement requests are all daily activities for the Salesforce Admin. When you are heads down in the day to day, it can be easy to lose inspiration. The good news is, inspiration can come from anywhere. On average, we will spend 9 years of our lives watching television. All this time doesn’t need to be mindless. Our favorite TV programs can teach us lessons we can apply to Salesforce!
HGTV
If you have watched any of HGTV’s home renovation shows you have seen demolition begin and unexpected things be found behind the walls. Renovating your Salesforce org is not that different. It’s important to make time for what you will uncover. You may think you understand how a process or solution is working but once you try to modify it, you may face unintended consequences.
The Lesson: Make time for the unexpected and document your changes to save time in the future.
Chopped
Gathering requirements can feel like opening your Chopped basket. On this show, chefs are challenged to make beautiful, delicious food under tight deadlines and featuring four mandatory ingredients. The contents of the baskets range from the mundane, like honey, to the wild, like horned melon. Sometimes sitting down to review requirements can feel like opening a Chopped basket. Users will ask for all sorts of things. The key is to understand the root of their request and understand all your options for meeting the request.
The Lesson: Be ready for surprising requirements and take the time to uncover all the possible solutions and deliver the best possible result to the ultimate judges, your users.
ESPN
Many Lab coats live in the Philadelphia Area. Everyone knows that Philadelphia sports fans are in a league of their own, but whether you root for the Eagles or the Seahawks we can all agree that playing by the same rules is important. Salesforce offers a lot of flexibility for users. As an admin, always remember to give users the right level of permissions and give them clear paths to submit bugs or requests.
The Lesson: Establishing fair rules helps everyone contribute and enjoy the game, no matter how busy your season.
The News
If you are a news junkie or a reluctant news watcher, everyone loves good news. Many days, the news cycle can make us want to crawl back into bed. Dealing with bugs and issues can make you feel the exact same way. When there is so much going on, it can be hard to remember the positive. Don’t lose focus on all of the good things too. Remembering what efficiencies you have gained or celebrating improvements go a long way to increasing adoption and user happiness.
The Lesson: Don’t forget to share good news too. When you make improvements share them with your users and get them excited too.
The Bachelor/Bachelorette
When you get to the end of a vendor or tool selection process, you may be so excited you want to get down on one knee. As we all know, only one can get that final rose. The Bachelor/Bachelorette shows teach us that making big decisions can be a roller coaster but when you stick to your priorities and ask the important questions, deciding who gets the final rose can be an easy decision.
The Lesson: Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs before you find the right partners
So next time you put your feet up after a long day of making awesome things happen for your team, don’t forget that you can learn something anywhere. Maybe even while you are Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
