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The Four P’s of Finance Transformation Success: Part 2) Politics

The second part of finance transformation success is dealing with people. It is well-worn territory and there are 1,345 cliches about work politics for a reason. This is the aspect of finance transformation I’ve found the hardest to get right.

The 4 P’s are:

There is no rocket science and all the below is common sense. However, they are easy to state but hard to put into practice.

Some Ideas for Success with Work Politics

Finance transformation consultants come in as outsiders with high expectations attached to them without the security and settling in time of a permanent employee. You have to quickly build professional credibility in the eyes of your stakeholders. At the same time, you won’t have instant expertise about the organisation you are engaged with. So do build up an internal network who can help you out. Be aware of differing personality and communication styles and adapt as needed.
In an ideal world, we should all see each other for who we are without any prior judgement or pre-conceptions. Sadly, this is not the case and we all have to play the work politics game to some extent.
Houses of Parliament in London with overlay text "The Four P's of Finance Transformation Success: Part 2) Politics," reflecting themes of workplace politics and finance transformation.

Don’t Expect to be Liked

You could be coming into a redundancy situation or encounter significant change resistance, so don’t expect to be liked. Everyone has their own agenda and it won’t be the same as yours. As an outsider, you’ll have to overcome the “us versus them” mentality. At its worst, I’ve been cut out of conversations and had my character questioned. Sometimes someone plain doesn’t like you and there is not much you can do about it. This could happen in any workplace situation, but is more common in finance transformation.

I can’t offer any simple solutions here: keep your eye on the goal and ensure you have the right internal allies.

Common Stakeholders

One of the exciting aspects of finance transformation work is dealing with different audiences. However, things brings its own complexities and considerations. The examples below assume a you are working in a larger organisation:

  • Finance leadership: a critical stakeholder group. The project sponsor will be in here. Finance leaders will be looking out for their teams and their business partners so they have the power to make or break a finance transformation project.

  • HR: if there is a potential reorganisation situation then HR are an important partner. A good HR team will help with employee engagement in tricky situations.

  • Global governance: larger projects will have a global project governance layer that a finance transformation consultant will report into. This adds complexity but can also be an important support source to help your project run smoothly.

  • Communications team: larger audiences will have a communications team that can help you craft your key messages and ensure it gets delivered effectively. Otherwise, try finding the right mailing list on your own!

  • IT: even the simplest projects involve an IT component, such as setting up new users with laptops. At the other extreme, new finance systems are IT projects in nature.

  • External suppliers: may be required to implement a system or provide additional consulting expertise.

  • Project team: other project professionals who you work with on a day-to-day basis

  • Finance itself: being every member of the finance team. Less senior than finance leadership but no less important.

A stakeholder map is a good tool to help identify different audiences and the level of engagement required for each one.

Overcoming Challenges

More important than the negative aspects of work politics is the satisfaction from overcoming challenges. Keep an eye on your communication style and aim to be assertive, not passive or aggressive. Usually, you have a team that you can work with. Keep things professional, not personal and remember that you can escalate issues when needed. In all situations, stick to your personal values and integrity.

At the end of the day, we need work politics. Change projects without positively impacting people is pointless. Also, what else would you talk about in the pub without work politics?