Change Management, Risk Readiness, and the Power of Adaptability

If you’ve managed a Salesforce project, you know one truth: the plan you start with will not be the plan you end with. Technology shifts, priorities change, and people move on. The key to project survival lies in CAMP Rule #6: Expect Any Weather: Be Ready for Change, Don’t Panic.

This rule is your guide to building resilience into your project DNA. It ensures that when change hits, your team has a process, not a crisis.

Change Management vs. Change Readiness

Many teams confuse these two concepts:

• Change Management: The formal process for handling proposed scope changes (which we'll cover more with Rule #7).

• Change Readiness (Rule #6): The proactive steps you take to anticipate and prepare for unforeseen risks, delays, or external forces.

Building a Risk Readiness Mindset

A CAMP project team views risk not as a terrifying black swan event, but as a predictable part of the journey. This requires:

1. Proactive Risk Log: Early in the project, facilitate a session to identify all potential risks (e.g., Key SME leaves, Integration point fails, Budget cut).

2. Mitigation & Contingency Plans: For every high-impact risk, define a Mitigation Plan (how to reduce the likelihood) and a Contingency Plan (what we do if it happens).

   Example: Risk: Key Technical Architect leaves. Mitigation: Document all core design decisions clearly. Contingency: Have a pre-vetted external consultant on standby.

3. The "Pivot" Ritual: Regularly review the project plan and be willing to admit when a path is no longer viable. Don't fall victim to the sunk-cost fallacy.

Lessons from the Trail: Adaptability Saves Success

We've seen projects saved by embracing Rule #6. For instance, one client had a massive security policy change mid-implementation that required a full re-architecting of the data security model. Because the Project Charter (Rule #1) defined the core business outcomes, the team was able to:

• Pivot: Immediately halt low-priority feature development.

• Re-prioritize: Focus all efforts on the new security requirements.

• Communicate: Use the established Team Rituals (Rule #4) to clearly update the Executive Sponsor on the delay and the necessity of the change.

By having a framework for handling unexpected weather, the team avoided panic and maintained control, delivering a successful, albeit delayed, outcome.

The CAMP Course gives you a structured, proven methodology for running risk identification workshops and provides the templates for building a living, actionable Risk & Mitigation Log.

Don't just react to change, prepare for it. Master Rule #6: ➡️ Link to CAMP Course: https://www.trailguidecrm.com/camp