Last week, Vena’s annual virtual conference was back for a third year. Not only was it our biggest event yet, it also featured more keynotes, more workshops, more instructor-led training and more panel discussions than ever before—all of which were designed to help power your personal, professional and business growth. Here are just some of the many highlights from Vena Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022. Missed a session? Click here to watch all of last week’s amazing content on demand. Vena CEO Hunter Madeley kicked off day one of Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 with an inspiring keynote that set the tone for an action-packed week. With more than 50 speakers and sessions, 10 keynotes, 20 instructor-led training sessions, interactive workshops and product demonstrations—plus the opportunity to earn over 25 CPE/CPD credits—Hunter elaborated on Vena’s mission to elevate the Office of Finance and enable organizations to drive operational excellence through both technology and methodology. He then brought up one of this year’s core conference themes—community. “Community is powerful. It’s essential. It drives innovation, supports rapid learning and extends the value of one to many well beyond our individual networks,” he explained. “There’s strength in numbers, and that’s why we’re here. Our purpose is to excelerate your growth through the power of community.” On the subject of community, Hunter unveiled some exciting new initiatives designed to “level up” your strategic finance skills and help achieve Vena’s mission to build the industry’s most engaged community: Our all-new PlanToGrow.com, featuring live and on-demand content including livestreams, monthly meetups and more.  Vena Plan To Grow Forum™, where you can dive deeper into the topics that matter most to you while conversing and exchanging ideas with your peers.  The brand new Vena Academy, featuring instructor-led training and CPE/CPD courses on demand. Vena Templates, where users can share and leverage best-practice templates for a variety of use cases. Highlights From Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 1. Keynote: The Science of Ethical Influence How do the principles of ethical influence apply to work? Dr. Robert Cialdini, world-renowned psychologist and author, explained that having the ability to influence your team and others helps you outpace your competitors who can’t do this. Using stories from research cases, Dr. Cialdini presented evidence of increased ROI gained by brands such as Bose and McDonald's and other businesses. He talked about the “Moment of Power” after someone thanks you, the three qualities of giving that increase the likelihood of reciprocation (and why you should give first) and the worst platform on which to negotiate. 2. Keynote: The Complete Planning Advantage In his keynote, Vena Co-Founder and Chief Solutions Architect Rishi Grover explored the Strategic Office of Finance and the transformation of finance as a critical business partner through the power of people, process and technology. Rishi shared some of the most common questions he hears from today’s finance leaders who are confronted with constant change and complexity, and touched on the evolution of the finance-business partnership. "By repositioning finance as a strategic business partner, the department will be empowered to guide more informed, agile and proactive decision making with a focus on value creation and growth," he explained. 3. Workshop: Introduction to Financial Modeling Paul Barnhurst, also known as “The FP&A Guy” in the finance community, delivered an Introduction to Financial Modeling workshop which he alternatively named, “What I Wish I’d Been Taught.” Paul defined a financial model and presented eight common types of financial modeling. Earlier in his career, he designed and built financial models that weren’t good practice, describing them as “barely held together.” Paul highlighted the importance of simple formulas and not overwhelming your users with excessive assumptions in your financial model. 4. Keynote: The Power of Vena and Microsoft In this keynote by Vena CTO Hugh Cumming and Microsoft Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer Wendy Braithwaite, the pair discussed how businesses are benefiting from the latest product advancements in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft 365, Power Automate and Power BI, and how these capabilities are empowering finance teams to solve complex real-world problems. On the Vena side, Hugh explained how the Vena platform helps orchestrate complex financial workflows, creates relationships between data across the organization and turns static financial planning processes into dynamic, agile business management processes.   In order to navigate today’s climate of increased volatility and uncertainty, Wendy discussed how her team at Microsoft is currently racing to harness ever-growing amounts of data and derive forward-looking insights. As a result of their efforts, the team has been able to advance the business conversation from describing what has happened (descriptive analytics) to what will happen (predictive analytics). 5. Session: The Kansas City Chiefs Excelerator Showcase The Kansas City Chiefs finance team was using data from disparate systems for budgeting, forecasting and reporting. They couldn’t upload their Excel spreadsheets themselves. Their users called their Accounting department to whom they then emailed their information. The accountants would then upload the data to their ERP on behalf of the finance team before converting the reports to PDF. The tipping point to find a new solution? Version control problems and inefficiencies when producing budgets and reports for the monthly reviews to the executive team. When these poor user reviews reached the Kansas City Chiefs’ Chief Financial Officer Dan Crumb, he asked Director of Strategy and Analytics Michael Ragsdale to evaluate vendors. In this session, Michael explains how he came to choose Vena for its security, collaborative capabilities and familiar Excel-native interface.  Since implementing Vena, the Chiefs have been winning on—and off—the field. They’ve significantly improved how their users consume information by growing their use of Power BI to produce different ways of consuming information. “We want to be leaders in the sports industry, but also in business in general,” Michael said.   6. Workshop: Data Visualization in Excel Back by popular demand, Purna Duggirala (a.k.a. Chandoo), took the virtual stage for his second year in a row. Chandoo led an interactive workshop on building dynamic budgets in Excel that incorporate the latest best practices in data visualization. 7. Keynote: The Art of Gathering There’s a purpose for gathering, but as Facilitator and Author Priya Parker explained in her keynote as she was joined by Vena Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer Allison Munro for a lively discussion, there’s also an "art" to gathering—and it has everything to do with how we meet and why it matters. Priya defined a gathering as “anytime three or more people come together for a purpose with a beginning, middle and end.” It’s where people come together for a shared purpose—whether that’s to identify with a community or vision. But the conversation didn’t end there. What else did Allison find out about Priya’s research, experiences and upcoming work? And what else can leaders and facilitators do to drive more meaningful interactions in today’s world? Catch the full session on-demand to find out. 8. Panel: Agile Revenue Planning Best Practices In this panel discussion hosted by Howard Dresner of Dresner Advisory Services and featuring Venanites Thomas Krolak, Ruslan Valeev and Andre Proulx, the panelists discussed the benefits of agile revenue planning, sharing best practices on how to align finance, marketing and sales departments to power organizational growth. 9. Panel: Agile Business Forecasting Best Practices Today, finance teams are at the forefront of change—leading their businesses as they plan for today and tomorrow. With this responsibility comes the need for a new way of working: an agile methodology for business forecasting.  In this panel discussion, led by Vena VP of Sales Shaun Jansen and featuring fellow Venanites VP of FP&A Tom Seegmiller, VP of Revenue Operations and Strategy Burzin Contractor and VP of Global Talent Acquisition Laura Victoria, the panelists shared best practices for connected planning across finance, human resources and revenue operations to drive agility and resilience in the face of ever-changing business conditions. Throughout the engaging session, the trio shared their own personal experiences of achieving cross-functional alignment at Vena and how adopting an agile approach to business forecasting helped them get to where they are today. 10. Session: Contemporary Skills for the Strategic Finance Professional To be a strategic finance professional, which contemporary skills do you need? Vena VP of Customer Lifecycle and Community Marketing Truman Tang who moderated this panel posed this question before asking the panelists (Paul Barnhurst, Olivia MacDonald and Muneerah Kanji) what they believe is the most important skill for strategic finance professionals to have in order to thrive right now. Each panelist provided their personal opinion and also shared anecdotes about their respective journeys to their current careers in finance.  They discussed over communicating, automation, change management, mentors and mentees, telling a story with data visualization, the importance of asking “why” and the strategic importance of partnering with internal teams. 11. Keynote: The Art of Negotiation As an FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss persuaded “bad guys” to see things his way. In this highly-anticipated keynote session hosted by Vena Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer Allison Munro, Chris shared some of his field-tested strategies to help you negotiate and get what you want in everyday business situations. Chris and Allison kicked things off with an eventful hostage negotiation roleplay where Allison played the role of negotiator. The pair then looked back at the role-playing scenario, and Chris shared the “science” behind the changes in his tone of voice and the physiological effects these nuances were designed to have on Allison in her role as negotiator. Chris then explained how you can incorporate best practices in tonality when negotiating in business situations, and how you can achieve your desired outcomes by understanding the foundational concepts of negotiation and psychology. Looking to grow your communication skills and get game-changing insights into human behavior? Then this is one session you won’t want to miss.  

Also known as “The FP&A Guy,” Paul Barnhurst has been a leader, influencer and educator in the FP&A community for years. Ahead of his two sessions at Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022—the first on financial modeling, the second on contemporary skills—we sat down with Paul to chat. We talked about the essential skills that finance professionals need for the future, how you know you’re adding value to your organization and the business plans he designed in high school. Here’s the final installment of our two-part interview series with Paul Barnhurst, “The FP&A Guy.” If you missed part one where we discussed Microsoft Excel, how Paul cultivated a community of FP&A professionals on LinkedIn and where he believes the future of FP&A is heading, click here to check it out. Why do you think it’s important for finance teams to elevate their role within their organization and become strategic partners to the business? Paul Barnhurst: I would say there's a couple of reasons. One would be from a career perspective—it's a much more exciting job in my opinion It also makes you invaluable. If all you're doing is the reporting side of FP&A, a lot of that can be automated. And when [businesses] look to either automate or outsource, you’re going to be a key candidate. But, if you're viewed as a trusted advisor and somebody that’s indispensable, then you provide real value.   I still remember I had a general manager at one job that said to me, ‘Paul, many people in FP&A just report the financials. You help shape them.’ And what he meant by that was [as an FP&A professional] you actually influence the business—you're helping make a positive difference in the business’s results. And I knew at that point that I had a job with that person for as long as I wanted. I ended up moving on to something else, but I had become invaluable by essentially acting as a “right-hand man” to the general manager of that business. And for that reason, the general manager viewed me more as a “value-adding asset” to the business instead of just someone he had to deal with for planning season.   How can FP&A professionals be sure that their insights are helping the business? PB: Great question! In my case, there were times where I felt like I wasn't adding value. I worked with one general manager and he chose somebody else to promote into a role and didn't give me a chance because he felt like I was too detail-oriented and wasn't providing the strategic value he was looking for. And so that's something that I consciously worked on for quite a while—focusing on the bottom line and the big picture instead of the minutiae. Now there are signs I know to look for that confirm that my efforts are making a difference—like when the business turns to me as a trusted advisor and asks questions that extend beyond finance. I've always prided myself on knowing every organization I’ve worked at really well, and I’ve always made a concerted effort to build relationships with individuals across the business in order to truly understand how it functions outside of the finance department. I can think of two different jobs where I was trusted enough that people [within the company] would ask me questions that had nothing to do with finance. They would come to me for advice on different things they were doing instead of just telling me, ‘Oh, hey, you need to put this in the plan.’ They would come to me with questions like, ’How do you think we should manage this?’ Or, ‘Hey, we're thinking of rolling out this new campaign. What do you think about that?’ And that's when I knew I was adding value because I wasn't just being viewed as the numbers guy, so to speak. They weren't just coming to me when they had to—they were coming to me because they felt like I could add value.   In another role, there were times when the product and marketing teams would ask me for advice on pricing. And I’d say, ‘My job isn't to set the price. I can tell you what we need from a financial standpoint to make this product viable, but it's your job to understand the market.’ At that point I realized that if people across the business trusted me enough to ask me those types of questions, I must be adding value.   The first of your two sessions at Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 is a workshop on financial modeling, and we’re excited to share that it’s one of our highest registered sessions. Why is financial modeling so important in 2022 and beyond? PB: Being able to build a good financial model is essential to FP&A—you have to be able to do it. It's the “bread and butter” [of FP&A]. When someone can build a good financial model that understands key drivers and is flexible, it can add a lot of value to the business. Conversely, a poorly designed model can cause a business to make the wrong decisions based on the information you’ve provided. And that can be—I don't want to say fatal—but it can certainly make a big impact that could lead to negative repercussions. So following best-in-class design principles and having the ability to create good financial models is absolutely fundamental to the role. You just have to be able to do it. Your other session is a panel discussion on “Contemporary Skills for Strategic Finance Professionals.” What’s one contemporary skill you think finance professionals currently lack that you see a need for in the near future? PB:The biggest skills finance professionals need to work on to prepare for the future are what we often refer to as “soft skills”—those non-technical, essential skills we all need to have. As I've heard it said before, ‘Your technical skills get you your first job. Your soft skills get you promoted.’   Another essential skill I think the FP&A community needs to focus on is business partnering—and storytelling and influencing go hand in hand with that. It's critical to be able to effectively communicate and help influence and drive business decisions based on the analysis you've done. That's the last mile, and it's just so critical. Let’s finish with your journey to becoming “The FP&A Guy.” For those who don’t know your story, can you walk us through it? PB: As a little kid, I always talked about starting my own business. When I was in high school, I finally got the opportunity to write my own business plan in an entrepreneurship class. I ended up taking the class twice, competed in a national competition and went on to major in entrepreneurship. But I was always afraid to start my own business—I just never really felt like I had a great idea. So I shelved my dreams of being an entrepreneur for a few years, got married, had a kid and came to accept that owning my own business might just have to remain a ‘dream’ for me. But more recently, a few things came up and I found myself saying, ‘Hey, I think I can actually turn this into a viable business!’ When I first mentioned that to my wife she thought I was crazy, but after a month or two she came around to the idea. In the meantime, I kept looking at [the business plan] and going, ‘Okay, there's enough here. I can actually do this.’ So that's really how the “shelved dream” became a reality and the business itself came about. That’s exciting, we’re rooting for you! There’s one detail we feel like we’re missing, though—what was in that business plan you created in high school? PB: I actually wrote two different plans, the first of which was in my junior year. That business plan was for a new and used computer store and with that plan I was entered to compete in DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), which is a state competition that encourages the development of business and leadership skills. The following year, I wrote another business plan, this time for an indoor running track with a shoe store—I believe “Running Soul” was the name of the company. I got to participate in DECA for a second year in a row and competed in nationals. I went on to write another business plan in college because I majored in Entrepreneurship, so I've written around three or four business plans altogether. Do you have any hobbies or passions that your followers might be surprised to learn about? PB: There's actually a couple of passions I have that I don't necessarily talk about online. I'm a big fan of running, hiking and working with youth. I’ve done Junior Achievement, I taught Toastmasters in a high school classroom and I also participated in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. In fact, I still keep in touch with a kid I worked with about 12 years ago when I acted as his first mentor. I also did Boy Scouts for years—I was a leader for young men, so that's another passion of mine. I've always enjoyed working with young people and I love the outdoors. Any plans on teaching financial literacy? PB: At this point in life, my focus has really been on business and my family. But obviously I plan to teach my daughter all about financial literacy. Actually, I have a funny story somewhat related to that and teaching children about our jobs. My daughter was listening to one of my FP&A podcasts the other day and heard me talk about PowerPoint. So last week—and every time I see her now—she wants my computer so she can ‘play with PowerPoint.’ I have to tell her, ‘Daddy needs to work right now.’ And she’ll reply, ‘When will you be done?’ She must have asked me three or four times yesterday alone when I’d be done so she could use my computer. She kind of just plays in it—she doesn't really ‘do’ PowerPoint. She'll open up a bunch of different templates, make up stories, write a few words and move on to the next one. It's kind of cute. So Paul, can you tell us what’s next for “The FP&A Guy?” PB: For 2023 (and beyond), I have a few things on the horizon. At the moment, I'm doing a little bit of consulting, launched an FP&A podcast and over the next three to nine months, you can expect to see some brand new FP&A courses on my website.

Today, Excelerate =SUM(it) was all about agility, adaptability and staying ahead of the curve. From contemporary skills for strategic finance professionals to best practices on effectively implementing change within your organization, our thought leaders provided plenty of food for thought on powering your personal and professional growth while driving optimal business outcomes—even in the face of today’s challenging market conditions. Our all-star speaker lineup included Microsoft MVP Megan Strant, “The FP&A Guy” Paul Barnhurst, Vena VP of Finance Muneerah Kanji, Vena Senior Consultant Vern Redwood and a panel discussion led by Vena VP of Sales Shaun Jansen, featuring Venanites Tom Seegmiller, Burzin Contractor and Laura Victoria. Read on for our highlights from day four of Vena's third annual virtual conference. Missed a session? Register now for Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 to watch all content live or on demand. Agile Business Forecasting Best Practices     Speakers: Laura Victoria, VP, Global Talent Acquisition, Vena; Burzin Contractor, CPA, VP, Revenue Operations and Strategy, Vena; Tom Seegmiller, CPA, CA, VP, FP&A, Vena; Shaun Jansen, VP, Sales, Vena Today, finance teams are at the forefront of change—leading their businesses as they plan for today and tomorrow. With this responsibility comes the need for a new way of working: an agile methodology for business forecasting.  Agile business forecasting is about more than just informing quick decision making. It’s about planning differently, growing smarter and harnessing change. In today’s session, led by Vena VP of Sales Shaun Jansen and featuring fellow Venanites VP of FP&A Tom Seegmiller, VP of Revenue Operations and Strategy Burzin Contractor and VP of Global Talent Acquisition Laura Victoria, the panelists shared best practices for connected planning across finance, human resources and revenue operations to drive agility and resilience in the face of ever-changing business conditions.  Throughout the lively session, the trio (or the “three legs of a stool that support the business''—we’ll get to that shortly) shared their own personal experiences of achieving cross-functional alignment at Vena and how adopting an agile approach to business forecasting helped them get to where they are today. Shaun kicked off the conversation by asking the panelists how they define agile business forecasting through the lens of their respective functions—finance, human resources and revenue operations. “To me, agile forecasting means keeping up with the times,” said Tom. “It means not tethering yourself to a plan that you perhaps set at the beginning of a fiscal year and instead adopting and adapting as a business to ongoing changes in the macro economic environment. This includes changes in competition within your industry, regularly looking for new opportunities within the business, mitigating against any potential risks that could pop up and ultimately updating your plan on a regular basis so that it reflects the realities of your business.” So does the way in which agile business forecasting is defined depend on which function you work in? Laura weighed in with her definition from a human resources perspective. “You know, it actually doesn't differ at all. I think what Tom said is entirely spot on. When I think back over the last two years from a talent perspective, I don't think we could have necessarily anticipated the labor market conditions that we find ourselves in right now—and I think this is universal across industries,” Laura explained. “I've been part of organizations that have had a single forecast or plan for talent for the year and have ultimately had to throw it by the wayside because the market conditions simply no longer allowed for it. So it has this downstream impact with regards to our ability as a talent function to support the business because there was no agility with regards to the forecast. We were entirely unprepared for the market conditions we found ourselves in.” Lastly, Burzin weighed in through the lens of revenue operations. “The way I see agile forecasting is as a ‘play’ to ultimately achieve our desired business outcomes. It allows us to make business decisions on a more timely basis, deploy resources and react accordingly to business information in real time as we receive it.” By exercising a finance muscle that many other companies simply aren’t yet using, agile forecasting gives finance teams an advantage—ensuring the best processes and practices are in place to anticipate and adapt to whatever uncertainty arises throughout the course of the fiscal year, as Tom explained. “Working within a business with all the dynamics and assumptions at play over the course of a year—and then expecting to be correct at the outset—is probably not an accurate assumption on our part,” he said. “You’re obviously going to try to achieve the best plan based on the information that you have today, but I think it’s good to acknowledge that what you have is imperfect information and the world is going to change and you're going to get better information over time—and you're going to want that opportunity to be able to course correct and tweak your plan accordingly.” When asked how businesses can get started with agile business forecasting, Tom recommended beginning by sharing your vision and getting buy-in from your cross-functional partners in crime.  “I think the starting point is to make that decision yourself to say, ‘I want to operate differently as a finance organization,’ and then start with your partners in crime. In this instance, I'm calling my partners in crime the people team and the revenue operations team. I think about us as sort of ‘three legs of a stool’ that are supporting the business,” Tom explained. “So go to your partners in crime and share your vision with them. Tell them how you see operating differently and get their buy-in. Then, if all of you approach the business with a united front and say, ‘We truly believe that this is the optimal way to operate our business,’ the likelihood of the business accepting that in light of all of the changes that will have to occur to make it happen increases in leaps and bounds.” And what about the benefits of agile business forecasting? Tom focused on two elements in particular: risk mitigation and having the ability to be opportunistic. “There are really two things that agile planning or rolling forecasts bring to the table. One, it gives you the opportunity to be opportunistic. How do you not miss out on extraordinary business opportunities through being too tied to a past plan?” Tom explained. “The second is risk mitigation. Over the past couple of years, some organizations have had to course correct just to survive. So [agile planning and rolling forecasts] are equally as valuable and equally important to an organization. I think the risk in not running an agile planning forecast is that your organization remains stagnant and you're either exposing yourself to risk or missing out on awesome opportunities because you failed to adapt.” Beyond the obvious benefits of agile planning, Burzin also discussed the more intangible benefits that improved agility can bring to an organization. “There's certainly a lot of ‘intangibles' to having a strong agile process,” Burzin explained. “For example, from the employee side, I think you see it in their overall sense of happiness. At Vena, we conduct people surveys on a regular basis. And when we've got a strong process in place, strong data for people to work with and when people know how we're doing as a company, the results speak for themselves. They’re more positive. So there's definitely that intangible element to getting this process right.” The conversation then turned to getting buy-in from key stakeholders across the organization and helping them see the advantages of adopting a more agile planning process.   “As things evolve and grow and improve, you find budget owners coming to you saying, ‘I want to talk to you about my next forecast. How do we shave this? How do I help?’ There's an element of excitement that starts to enter the mix,” Tom explained. “To me, that's the point at which you know you've achieved a strong level of business partnering within your organization. When you're no longer begging the business for their time and they’re coming to you instead and saying, ‘I really want to engage you because of the value you bring to this conversation’.” In short, by adopting agile business forecasting best practices, as Tom, Burzin and Laura have demonstrated through Vena’s own experience in achieving cross-functional alignment, you too can turn change into an opportunity to realign your business plans and chart the best course for the future—no matter what that future might look like. Contemporary Skills for Strategic Finance Professionals     Speakers: Paul Barnhurst, The FP&A Guy; Muneerah Kanji, MBA, CPA, CA, VP, Finance, Vena; Olivia MacDonald, CA, Senior Manager, Financial Systems and Operations, Vena; Truman Tang, VP, Customer Lifecycle and Community Marketing, Vena To be a strategic finance professional, which contemporary skills do you need? Vena VP, Customer Lifecycle and Community Marketing Truman Tang who moderated this panel began by asking this question before polling the panelists for what they believed is the most important skill for strategic finance professionals to have in order to thrive right now. The “FP&A Guy” Paul Barnhurst said business partnering, Muneerah Kanji picked leadership and Olivia MacDonald chose agility. Each panelist shared anecdotes about their journey to finance. Olivia discussed her path from auditor to consultant because she wanted to learn about Vena’s Excel-native automation before moving into financial systems and operations. Paul talked about starting in government procurement and Muneerah shared that she first graduated in forensic science. It was a diverse panel—while they share little academic and early career overlap, the one thing they all have in common is they’ve become strategic finance professionals. In a recent FP&A Trends report, it was described that there were five emerging FP&A roles that teams must play to be successful in planning and forecasting to fulfill the demands of the business: architect, analyst, data scientist, storyteller and influencer. Which of these five do our panelists play? For Paul, none of them. He believed that there’s a sixth—interpreter—and a seventh—connector. Paul said he’s a connector and that he’s been doing this for a long time. Olivia saw herself as a connector-architect hybrid (she said they’re in high demand lately because there’s a growth in the volume of finance data and organizations are becoming more siloed). While Muneerah never “claimed” a role, she said teams need every role fulfilled to succeed. This steered the conversation toward additional contemporary skills. The panel seemed to agree on the theme of partnerships and relationship building. They talked about overcommunicating, automation and change management, mentors and mentees, telling a story with data visualization, the many layers of asking “why”—beyond that first, surface-level “why”—and partnering with internal teams. Evolving Relationships With Change Management Methods Speaker: Megan Strant, Microsoft MVP Microsoft MVP Megan Strant led us through the relationships and the different ways in which we can create effective change. She talked about change theories and models, the “Learning Pit,” change agents and concluded by providing change management templates. She defined a change agent as “anyone in an organization who is a catalyst or advocate for change” and change management as the “structured strategic management approach aiming to implement changes effectively.” Megan said anyone can be a change agent. She explained the differences between a change theory and a change model, walking us through three theories—the Bridges Transition Theory, the Kubler-Ross Change Curve and the Nudge Theory—and three models—Lewin’s Change Model, McKinsey’s 7-S Model and ADKAR. As Megan guided us through these, she outlined situations where each would be effective. For example, Lewin’s doesn’t fit today’s world of ongoing change, but it’s effective for creating drastic change. ADKAR isn’t effective for a major transformation, but it’s great for the “people journey.” To Megan, the people journey is crucial to consider in change management. She asked, “What is your role in supporting the journey of others?” As a change agent, you need to acquire trust and to give support. “In your role, you could be explaining data, charts, forecasting or details about ledgers. You’re the expert on that detail and people need to understand and trust you. And supporting them will drive stronger change and results,” she said. “If you’re doing a change management review and an impact assessment, talk to people and support them on their journey.” These were Megan’s five qualities of a successful change agent: Demonstrate flexibility and resilience Recognize growth opportunity Stride for results Lead courageously Gain buy-in Her provided templates—which included detailed program plans, micro/macro impact assessments, the Stakeholder analysis RACI Matrix and more—followed a “plan, assess and teach” approach. Megan’s session taught us a lot about evolving relationships and change management methods, but most importantly, she taught us that anyone can be a change agent. Training: Vena’s Change Management Playbook       Speakers: Vern Redwood, CPA, Senior Consultant, Vena; Naman Gupta, Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Vena Change and adaptability are necessities in any business or industry in order to thrive. As technology disrupts and simultaneously ameliorates our workplace practices, it’s essential for businesses to be prepared to navigate change at both macro and micro levels. Today, Vena Senior Consultant Vern Redwood and Vena Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager Naman Gupta walked us through exactly how to implement change management processes to ensure that your organization's adoption of Vena is seamless and rewarding. Building upon the principles of change management to further strengthen partnerships, Vern stressed the importance of storytelling to operationalize the process of adopting Vena. The story goes like this: The Prologue: Set the stage for change, including: Define reasons and goals for change Build out clear, visible project sponsorship Introduce Vena to employees Outline how the system works, how it integrates and the key foreseen benefits Share an estimated roll out date Act 1: Generate desire for change, including: Have a call to action by main finance leader in your organization which reiterates support for change Appoint Vena Champions (employees designated to facilitate the transition) Identify who will require training Act 2: Enable and ensure everyone is involved in the change, including: Schedule training Build a knowledge base of Vena Ensure everyone is able to demonstrate a working knowledge of the software Have training follow ups Create user acceptance testing Act 3: Ensuring the change sticks, including: A clear “Go-Live” announcement Get feedback from users Take stock of what is working and what needs improvement Monitor usage over time Schedule Vena quarterly business reviews According to Vern, the implementation of well-structured storytelling surrounding the implementation and adoption of Vena at your organization ensures that the value of Vena’s functionalities is fully understood and that your team is fully prepared for the change. In doing so, you can preemptively address hesitancy and give your company a proactive stance toward preventing resistance to change.