Change Management – Ep. 272

Ep. 272 is for anyone who’s ever shipped a “perfect” data platform improvement… and then watched adoption stall.

The crew digs into change management in the (updated) Microsoft Fabric Adoption Roadmap—how to treat the people/process side of analytics as a first-class workstream: communication, training, champions, and reinforcement.

They also kick things off with a Fabric modeling PSA: with Direct Lake and web-based modeling workflows, data type mismatches can turn into surprisingly disruptive fixes, so upstream standardization matters.

News & Announcements

• Semantic Link overview — Quick orientation to Semantic Link and how Python can interact with Fabric semantic models.
• Submit a topic idea (Explicit Measures Podcast) — Send a question or scenario for a future episode.
• PowerBI.tips Podcast — Subscribe and browse the full back catalog.
• Power BI Theme Generator (Tips+) — Generate consistent report themes without spending your day tuning hex codes.
• Mike Carlo (LinkedIn) — Fabric / Power BI notes and consulting learnings.
• Seth Bauer (LinkedIn) — Engineering, governance, and platform perspective.
• Tommy Puglia (LinkedIn) — Analytics and Power BI content.

Main Discussion

The point of change management isn’t “making people happy”—it’s making adoption repeatable.

When the platform shifts (Fabric capabilities, new admin controls, new modeling patterns) you’re also changing:

• how teams request work,
• where assets live,
• how people share and certify content,
• and what “done” means.

This episode frames change management as an execution layer: turning strategy into the small, consistent behaviors that compound.

Key takeaways:

• Make adoption a parallel workstream: communications, training, and reinforcement have deliverables just like pipelines and models.
• Define the “new normal” explicitly: naming conventions, workspace strategy, dataset ownership, certified/promoted rules, deployment paths.
• Reduce friction with templates and defaults: if the right path is harder than the old path, you’ll get workarounds.
• Create safe feedback channels: champions, office hours, and “where do I ask?” reduces resistance and prevents siloed fixes.
• Expect iterative rollout: adoption is rarely one big launch; it’s a series of releases with measurement and adjustment.
• Guardrail your semantic models: especially with Direct Lake, mismatched types can break downstream work in ways that aren’t obvious upfront.
• Standardize upstream (bronze/silver/gold mindset): clean and normalize types earlier so modeling stays stable.
• Measure the right signals: usage, support volume, rework, and time-to-first-report are often more honest than “we trained 200 people.”

Looking Forward

Fabric is moving fast; teams that build a lightweight, repeatable adoption playbook will keep up without burning out their report authors.

Episode Transcript

0:29 good morning everyone and welcome back to the exposive M podcast with Tommy Seth and Mike hello everyone good morning today’s topic is going to be around our change management this is an article that was released by Microsoft right after it’s actually in the fabric adoption road map some things have been updated right it used to be the powerbi adoption road map now it has changed to fabric so now going through the fabric experience there is some new articles that have been coming out and we’re going to talk today around the change management piece of this it’s towards the end of the article

1:00 towards the end of the article the adoption road map is amazing there’s a ton of content in there and I highly recommend if you are a leader or running your powerb appartment go read this from Microsoft this is just one of the of the portions of Articles around the before we do that let’s just do some news Tommy you have any news or anything that came out recently on the blogs yeah I’ve been seeing Tabler editors actually been doing some two really great blogs around the ability to build a semantic model right off of everything in fabric I think actually

1:32 everything in fabric I think actually our a good friend Johnny Winter r one I know that Kurt’s been working on them too I don’t know if I would have the same positive attitude so I messaged you guys this week and I just want to put a friendly PSA out there compared to how we’ve always dealt with data types and all of our models that we’ve really built to date basically I’ll give the workflow pushing things in from data flows gen two two and actually that’s going and then

2:02 and actually that’s going and then that’s going to the lak house and then I’m building not the default data set but a separate one and I’m I wanted to build it all in Tableau editor 3 because I had a I was really actually copying one that I was doing I’m like I’m going to migrate it over lot of measures didn’t want to spend all my time in a browser when F5 used to be applying and now also refreshes your browser so those little things so built it in tableted

2:32 and it’s been working fine and then all of a sudden I noticed that I started getting all these error messages for any of those data like that data s like what what happened did something Happ to the table well it’s very cryptic message with the link so went to check it out and it just said can’t do a data type conversion I’m like since we’re not doing any power query anymore like what are we talking about so it turns out and I’ll put the link in here here as well

3:02 here here as well that even though we’ve always dealt with the n a data types in SQL databases there’s a lot more and in our world but Microsoft has some trouble right now if the original Source getting pushed is one of the data types and I’m not saying we’re moving from a number to text it’s simply the options in Tableau editor are the ones that would be in powerbi those aren’t the same exact light types in I think what’s in

3:34 light types in I think what’s in fabric even though they look the same from the outside this is the same with Dax too it’s not the same exact type but now since it’s direct Lake it just can’t read it back so it’s one of those like really hidden features you want you one never know actually about Dax and power query but with this this will cause an error because even if I’m saying what I’m actually gonna change it here why does it say General I want this to be a a currency value this makes sense

4:05 currency value this makes sense because yeah Power query has been the great protector of data type previously right so every time you bring things into powerbi youd use power query and then it would only let you pick the acceptable data types you would need to make your model on top of but you’re right there is a lot of other data sources out there SQL Server there’s other definitions of data types and I believe the one leg is only storing the data types that it SE from The Source system sometimes so there just could be some clean up there around some issues around that to make to fix

4:36 some issues around that to make to fix that for you as as you bring it in one more reason why it makes more sense to have a bronze silver gold layer inside your Lake because bringing your data indirectly into an earlier layer allows you to change data types to the next layer cleaning up make sure it’s right and and ready to go for Downstream things how do even give you guys the kicker yet so but this is just one of those things that you always get aware of it’s like okay Quick Fix right well

5:07 of it’s like okay Quick Fix right well if that ever does occur in a fabric the only way to remedy it is to remove the table from the model and then bring it back in again so if you had relationships and everything built off also you can only do that on the web and then just to mix it all up if you edit a a semantic model and a third party tool you can’t edit on the web anymore that would make sense because you’re going to be able you’re going be able to do everything in a third party

5:37 able to do everything in a third party tool and they’re going to try and protect you against things you can’t modify in the web it’ll I don’t that’s a gap I think they just need to close is this is this all connected like one L like you’re directly connected well yeah it I’m I built a new model so it’s not the default data set so in my head I thought there’s a bit of a separation there but because again how one lake or direct Lake works it it probably it’s not it’s not in a sense like it’s not a copy so it

6:08 in a sense like it’s not a copy so it has everything has to be Apples to Apples yeah it just means you have to set it up correctly I don’t see any this makes total sense to me so no but here’s the problem though in P in Taver editor 3 it doesn’t do the conversion type because it just means it means the other tools haven’t caught up to what’s going yeah fine okay okay there’s I see this as an issue I see as an issue is it’ll break your stuff and it won’t work that’s a problem but like

6:39 won’t work that’s a problem but like right now it’s it’s hot off the press I don’t think a lot of people are like Wow Let’s Go build a whole bunch of things in direct Lake but I would say you’re mean every time mean I would say you’re mean every time you use power Cory online the last two things you should do is rename your columns if they’re correct yeah and make sure your data types are correct so if you don’t do that then it’s going to break stuff I I guess what’s confusing to me Tommy is is how like the the direct leg mode just just supported RLS like where’s the lofty expectation

7:10 RLS like where’s the lofty expectation that it’s going to work exactly like an imported model right I you you you’re I understand like there’s some frustration but it like it the fact that it’s not working seamlessly with tabular editor or that there are some things to iron out I guess I’m I’m a little less angry about if if we’re actually G to start fine one this is I feel like this is one of the basics ones and the other part two is if we’re goingon to even start rolling out initially these

7:40 even start rolling out initially these are to me these are like the things happen get fixed right away if I have a data type they need to be the same in both tools well the most important question I have Tommy is have you support have you created a support ticket for Microsoft raised it up so that they can yeah they don’t know they don’t know right yeah yes no oh okay well Tommy has had it already he’s left thecast he’s walking to the Microsoft to go tell them what’s going on so in in other news then so let’s go one of

8:11 other news then so let’s go one of the other articles that came out here also recently let’s switch gears just here slightly let’s move over to the semantic link an article called one Lake integrated semantic models and so this is an article that’s talking about the semantic model and then the notebook experience where a notebook can directly read what’s inside one lake so you can import data using powerbi or using power query or whatever the pipelines thing is load it to Lake now when you use the

8:41 load it to Lake now when you use the integrated semantic model you can read the one Lake experience without actually having to go through the compute of the model very interesting so it’s like the it’s like the notebook is able to understand the semantic model understand the relationships and go read directly information right from like reading the table directly from the lake which makes sense I don’t need to go through powerbi or the or the cach direct Lake query I could I should be able to go to the same

9:11 I should be able to go to the same source of information which is the same table just inside one Lake which I think is is a neat feature H honestly to me this is everywhere where I’ve been wanting like I have this conversation about where does one leg stand where is it kind does one leg stand where is it in the in the platform or in the of in the in the platform or in the journey well again the best part about what they’ve just integrated here is I can now in a sense build my lak houses without having just to build them also for the sake of building an

9:41 for the sake of building an analytical solution or building the reports and measures and relationships I can just have the tables that a team can connect to and then they can execute all and it’s there’s another command in here that’s also interesting it’s called fabric. execute tsml so you can actually execute tsml directly against the lake house tables and the examp example they

9:59 house tables and the examp example they give here is if you want some export code to export a table or export a full object from the The Lakehouse using the definition of the smic model you can go in and Export a full Delta table from The Lakehouse which is cool so this will I’m not sure if I see all the use cases yet maybe there’s going to be some use cases here for data science or other individuals accessing those tables but it really does feel like whether I’m going through notebooks doing experiments data science stuff or other data cleaning exercises or directly into

10:29 data cleaning exercises or directly into the semantic model I like this flexibility again I’m just going to keep leaning on I think you need to have plans on how this is going to work because this means you can this is one more thing you connect to anything else and we don’t want to have one data set take down all these different processes your you’re building so you need to plan this out a little bit cool I’m a little bit confused on this one though like is it everything in the semantic model like meaning I can I can

11:01 semantic model like meaning I can I can access measures or is it just the relationships in the tables that’s a good question they didn’t go that far in the in the article Tommy did you see that in the article there this is not really the santic model though this is the this is the leg the one leg Yeah but Seth asking is like if there’s a measure on top of the semantic model and you’re asking for information out of the table with part of the semantic model in there or the measure basically right are you getting that information it it sounds the way I read this article it sounds like you’re just accessing the

11:31 it sounds like you’re just accessing the raw data that’s in the tables you’re not combining a measure or two into the information there as well I think you can even get shortcuts there’s a documentation link and once you sh have that ability to connect to it you can export the one the lake house you can look at the shortcuts so I imagine those would be available so isn’t this very Sim like is this a business side way of like I’m

12:02 this a business side way of like I’m going to connect to multiple data source do ATL in powerbi create a model and then that’s what’s going to be exported to one L and then I access it because that’s why I read it but that like I wouldn’t want to use this model for my Enterprise stuff because to your point earlier like Mike I have bronze silver gold or I have some process for correct taking multiple data sources curating data creating facts and dimensions and then plugging into that with my model

12:34 then plugging into that with my model correct like the only difference between that and this is the relationships between the model tables I guess I had to play with it a bit more yeah I have this Grand Vision in my head where we know Grand Vision I know yes yeah like again not data types but honestly though this makes more sense than doing the semantic link with a powerbi data set right because you’re

13:04 powerbi data set right because you’re adding this layer now where the business is controlling that called the gold extra where it’s already the clean to refine tables and not not that I don’t think it’s I don’t think I don’t think it’s even that level though like I think you’re actually to me this feels like a feature that is more of a we’re still trying to figure out what the data is doing like this may be a business unit where you give them access or they’re doing their own thing right to me this feels very much prior to a central bi Central bi team taking over the data set things this is the step

13:34 the data set things this is the step before that or you’re exploring or experimenting with things this is where this is occurring so I don’t think this is coming from a central team yeah once we get farther not reading that like that at all I’m reading a completely different way yeah I people rolling out honestly I I wasn’t even thinking that I’m like oh great they’ll have a clean data set for data scientist

14:04 scientist perfect but well maybe there’s a lot of use cases Mike so all right let’s move on to some of our main topic for today so let’s transition on over to our main topic which is really around Microsoft fabric adoption road map so let’s jump into the article here initial reads on this one change management let’s let’s maybe Define change man a bit here at the beginning Seth maybe give me a quick you Seth maybe give me a quick what’s what’s the lens of Seth look know what’s what’s the lens of Seth look like when you say when I hear the word

14:35 like when you say when I hear the word change management what does what is the definition of Seth can I give me gu an intro around what change man looks like oh I think you’re muted I am muted because I’m got the head cold coughing sneezing all that trying to trying to hold it back thank you thank you Mike there go I think we’ve we’ve we’ve talked about change management I think on the like the dev level right like as we’re creating

15:06 level right like as we’re creating reports and the business is going to come with new things to to request and enhance and instantly come up with while we’re developing and and the need for it there but I think where’re this article obviously coming from the adoption road map and on the higher Enterprise level dives into change management across the organization and that’s where I think there there are multiple different points where a lot of it is people Centric right we’re going

15:37 it is people Centric right we’re going to be talking about process changes and and the article alludes to giving some insights or some asking some questions and driving towards helping helping people Implement these new Adoption strategies potentially in in areas where people are already doing maybe their the wild west of RBI or already have a very solid way in which they consume

16:07 very solid way in which they consume data right like I have my Exile exports and that’s what I use or we SSRS and I don’t want your fancy stuff so I I think it walks through those different areas and and we can talk through each one of them related to what change management looks like and what are the pieces you need to kind and what are the pieces you need to toggle at as you’re trying to of toggle at as you’re trying to change the behaviors of an organization to be more effective related to data culture and utilizing

16:37 related to data culture and utilizing the business intelligence tools obviously Allah powerbi in the beginning part of the article talks a little bit around there are types of change to manage and I think this is resonates very true with organizations that I’ve been helping them walk through powerbi changes as well one of those types of changes is a process level change the second is a solution level change and I think these are I think it’s a very good distinction to break apart process and solutions so

17:07 to break apart process and solutions so maybe we should talk about these things have have you guys observed process level changes that are required in organizations and you have any any examples of those process changes that you have seen or needed to be implemented Tommy you want the biggest ones were always for me on the easiest ones are migrations right where we’re we’re moving everyone from this tool to another tool like it was all around a technology that’s a

17:39 all around a technology that’s a solution change yeah I’m I’m asking about process changes so a process change is we go to our business object universe and we let people just dump Excel sheets just whatever that is or we a process level change might be something around workspace management right you’ve opened up powerbi it’s loaded up in in multiple people’s environments and there is 10 admins on every workspace you’re like well I’m not

18:11 every workspace you’re like well I’m not sure if that is really what we should be doing and when you lead when you read guidance around like how do you administer the workspace management of things right that might cause some well we probably shouldn’t do that we should probably have one admin one member and then a whole bunch of contrib to a workspace actually trying to use the workspace as a control mechanism for for security another one that I’m thinking of here is content ownership I think we’ve talked about this on the

18:41 I think we’ve talked about this on the podcast a podcast a lot someone makes a data set and someone wants to build a report on top of that data set who owns the data set who owns the report and I think a lot of times I hear in hear in organizations especially from those Central teams that have been tradition Al doing things centrally they’re like well we make the data set we don’t want anyone building reports well then you don’t want self-service so to me there’s there’s a lot of elements here of like we there needs to be direct communication that is

19:14 needs to be direct communication that is if some team builds the central data set and you’re going to allow people to build reports on them the people building those reports they could do things that the numbers are not reported correctly that’s up to them it’s their responsibility that business unit is going to be owning the responsibility of those numbers someone’s going to own there’s a there’s a Handover or exchange of responsibility during that that interchange and I think that’s important here to be able to to Define when you’re exchanging responsibility in this data process that’s hard yeah I think the two

19:45 process that’s hard yeah I think the two that stand out to me are like I I kind that stand out to me are like I I look at the first four bullets as of look at the first four bullets as enhancements to Solutions right like we’re going to go from more of a central team to sharing the responsibility of

19:58 team to sharing the responsibility of people within the organization and you needing to find departmental experts that are going to start generating your own reports right and we’ll help guide them and and teach them how to use the tools etc etc yeah but where do you go for XYZ who’s going to you do you go for XYZ who’s going to how do you submit a request like know how do you submit a request like what people in an organization need to know where to go otherwise they’re they’re going to have questions and they’re going to solve it on their own the the the largest process level one that I’ve directly encountered multiple

20:30 that I’ve directly encountered multiple times and I think why it gets its own five extra sub bullet points are the ones around changing from one reporting tool to another like powerbi right and especially when it’s in the form of we always get our our reports emailed to us right in some file we always export to reporting Services pageat reports we oh like in the form that people have always been

21:01 the form that people have always been consuming which is just static I I’ve seen the most push most push back around like don’t mess with my you back around like don’t mess with my standard stock way of getting know standard stock way of getting things and I think that’s why they have like multiple different bullets underneath the migration from other analytics products to they say fabric but powerbi right as a reporting tool yes and that’s where I think it’s really important to Define what that

21:31 really important to Define what that process is and what are the artifacts that can come out of that in in the change that’s and why you’re going to progress from just a static way of doing things or consuming information to an on demand one and and one right off the bat is listen like yes we can have a system that generates 5, 000 reports and emails it to everybody in the organization we also know we also know that only 2% of the organization actually looks at the report so we’re

22:01 actually looks at the report so we’re our efficiency is 2% right like that that’s a waste of resources and time if you are interested in this report you can access it right here by this link and creating a centralized location which the powerbi service does even better in apps right like that’s a compelling change from yes it’s not going to show up in your email there is nothing different than you looking in your email or opening up teams or opening up powerbi right where your

22:31 opening up powerbi right where your reports live your whole world doesn’t need to revolve around email so like it’s those types of conversations that are Point by Point by point where there’s a reason why you want to make this change right the benefit is we don’t we’re we’re going to save a lot of money in in cost of generating things and we’re still going to provide you a central portal where you can go access this even in a better way if you still want pag need we can provide that right but it’s an on demand model as opposed to this older model of like well

23:04 opposed to this older model of like well we can’t service you and give you these reports unless we start at midnight because our our systems won’t allow us to generate all these reports at the same time yeah right and capabilities exact and I think you make a really good point there one I think you’re making the illusion to it it’s the idea that alluding to it alluding to it not the illusion alluding to it sorry wrong word but you’re alluding to the idea of we were very used a lot of organizations are used to emailed static generated

23:38 are used to emailed static generated lists of data just pushing data out to people and saying here you go have at it I think in the new world here we’re talking about more of a responsive on demand need where this Cube or this report or this model will always be up to date and when you need it you go visit it as opposed to a push method you’re doing more of a pull method go get what you want as opposed to here I’m just going to keep pushing junk to you in your emails CU it it it it just seems very inefficient right to your point

24:08 very inefficient right to your point yeah and that’s a really big one I’m really glad you made that dis with the solution versus the process because this yeah the solution is always easy to sell I think part of those migrations are there there is a need maybe it’s just to get everyone all going the same direction across the teams but it’s but it’s so difficult to Comm or it’s it’s much harder for anyone to see the same value of well we’re going to switch tools or we’re we’re all migrating to

24:38 we’re we’re all migrating to this great new feature so I’ll invest the time and my team to do so but if it’s those small minor changes that we all know or what are more in the background for one of the biggest ones I I could think of was just moving people off of work spes and go to teams apps and just how one of the organizations did it they’re like well we’ve been fine like no one’s complained about viewing reports in the workspace

25:10 about viewing reports in the workspace correct like k and that’s the other part two is they’re only they’re happy as where where they where they are so it’s like there’s something called Power ba apps and then you’re trying to sell them but at the same time it’s a longer process especially when they’re like I’m already happy or there people are content so part of what the article says but what I’ve always seen is it is the communication the communication the communication any change management initiative that’s

25:42 change management initiative that’s going out to me always has a communication plan 30 or I don’t want to say everything’s different but there is a much longer time of planning it out I’ve rolled out some of these like they were we were releasing a product like the next next Apple iPhone like hey in two months we’re doing this this change we’re going to apps okay we’re going to keep speaking about this y just to let everybody know that it was coming down so for me it’s about that communication with people and it’s about

26:13 communication with people and it’s about then trying to sell the value so we’ve talked about I think I agree with that one Tommy I think your comment leads us into like the next section in the article which starts talking about addressing the changes that you’re talking about incremental and I think I have observed this if you change too much all at once everyone freaks out and like who this is so different there’s no way I could learn all this I’m too busy to learn all the new things and I think this is this works in businesses this works in all

26:45 works in businesses this works in all kinds of other areas outside of just doing powerbi adoption but I really do think it’s important to use this next section really go through these steps right Define what is changing describe the impact of the change because I think that really helps people identify like Hey we’re doing like this is going to save us money it’s going to save us time like to your point earlier Seth right there’s there’s some communication points that go along with why we’re doing this change management then identify our priorities because that’s another alignment piece hey the

27:16 another alignment piece hey the organization has decided to go this direction this is why we’re going this direction plan on implementing the change as pieces and may be multiple steps and then an action plan for each phase so it’s really to your point Tommy being methodical communicating often here’s what we’re going to do here’s why we’re doing it here’s the action plan here’s the different Milestones we’re going to hit to get there it’s it’s very important and without this I think it a lot of these initiatives

27:46 these initiatives flop I I do like the distinction between the two because on some on some levels I don’t think you may even have to deal with process level change right like if you’re already yeah you you already have your Central or decentralized team or a mix of both and people are working within powerbi right like you could have the wild west going and really solution level changes are are really where change management needs to be applied because there there’s a lot of confusion that can that can happen in solution

28:17 that can that can happen in solution level changes as well and I I’m sorry I apologize because I I was thinking through the Section on addressing change incrementally and of the pull-up points I actually made were in the next section which called communicating effectiveness of the change or the communication of those changes what’s changing why it’s changing when it’s changing any other further context as well there as I’m read to this oh go good sorry no I was just going to outline some of the solution level changes that they that they because we’re looking at

28:49 they because we’re looking at it but the audience probably isn’t at the same time but like some some examples of solution level change are like calculation logic right underneath k AP and measures th those are going to change right like if people rely on them or have understood all of the Nuance underneath a calculation and then you’re like no actually we’re going to make it like this that that can be very disruptive how Master data is working business attributes are mapped grouped data freshness right like how often a report gets updated Advanced

29:22 report gets updated Advanced analytics Concepts and this is where I think we’re going to talk a lot about communication but like we’ve we’ve talked at nauseum about just simple report representation of a visual right like this is a challenging visual now you throw in advanced analytics and some of the things that now there’s this model and what this does is trying to explain that to a business totally in in a simplified manner takes a lot more communication so and then it goes on like changes in the presentation

29:53 on like changes in the presentation right styling colors formatting type of

29:55 right styling colors formatting type of visualization this is where we’re were huge proponents of themes right creating a standard way in which people look at and consume data because that it that can be very disruptive right like all of a sudden like hey we hired a new guy and his name is Tommy pulia and Tommy just built a brand new report and then people look at they like oh my gosh like this looks nothing like anything there’s no visual language yeah where do I go and especially if you’re coming out of a central team I think this is even more important when that Central team is

30:26 important when that Central team is producing these things right everything that comes out of that Central team should look and feel the same and you should be able to write documentation about one report that kind documentation about one report that illuminates the patterns across all of illuminates the patterns across all reports the buttons should look the same the visual style should look I think it really helps from a consistency standpoint to have that where where have you in in any of these bullet points have you guys gotten bit bitten or seen in organizations that are like the biggest ones that got changed without proper change management that caused the

30:56 proper change management that caused the biggest strike cuz this the the outcome of not having and it’s really like communication and having Paths of communicating I think these changes is the change man of solution but like man you want to see a nuke go off or like massive disruption of a whole bunch of questions getting flooded into your team like they’re in here oh totally I think Master data is one that I found that has been particularly struggling just in general with organizations who owns what

31:26 general with organizations who owns what data or that Master information some companies buy tools that help manage that information other companies try and just collect it across the organization and put it some place I think Master data management is a very difficult process because if you think of and where I got burned or where I’ve seen people getting burned is you have one row of data in that but every column in that row of data may be owned by a different team you you sell you by a different team you you sell a product a widget whatever that know a product a widget whatever that thing is there’s lots of teams

31:57 thing is there’s lots of teams potentially in charge of various aspects of that product and so you need multiple teams to work together to Define what is it that you’re selling and that’s hard to do to coordinate across multiple teams and keep it up to date it always gets out it always seems to get stale for some reason what about you tell dude I I this is maybe one of the easiest answers I’ve had and but it’s definitely off of me the measure changes or business logic changes to calculations yeah what

32:29 logic changes to calculations yeah what is a customer how do we how do we actually calculate this this me like Define the metric right and then it changes and I right like so it’s taking us just enough time to come to an agreement right and especially too like with Legacy to like well we’re able to do this in Excel no problem why is it so slow here what’s causing the issue of it not being correct here I thought powerbi was this I I heard that before like like this was supposed to be better and but

33:01 this was supposed to be better and but any but honestly just those little those slow changes like oh well Fred’s now on the Northwest sales team now and that’s going to be effective next week so make sure all quot you’re like cool so and those things are constantly happening hopefully hopefully you already have other things in place where you like more Upstream of how the data is getting ingested but there there’s still the you ingested but there there’s still the the revisions to oh well don’t know the revisions to oh well don’t include these people and we want to you

33:32 include these people and we want to you include these people and we want to the companies not looking at this know the companies not looking at this way so it’s not so much about getting it done in time it’s it is being skilled in the workflow or the ability to allow that change to go through the right people yeah right because it has to get to you and it has to get to you effectively one of the the one which is probably one of the simplest but I’m glad it’s on here I would put probably under changes in data freshness as causing some of the consternation

34:02 as causing some of the consternation because like if and the way I look at it is this I not just the freshness of the report which I think a lot of people now have like putting a freshness date like last refreshed as of right is conveying complex pipelines that cycle in very short periods of time that all have to execute appropriately before the powerbi refresh right so some of the challenges in there related to asynchronous refresh of

34:33 related to asynchronous refresh of powerbi versus production pipeline where you have multiple different copy transformation modification modeling of steps that have to be done prior to a certain time and if you miss that time window an asynchronous process won’t pick up the changes so even if you do have a fresh estate like they’re the trying to explain that to people in the business is very difficult and I

35:05 business is very difficult and I think leads to better Solutions where if you can at wherever possible have that a seamless pipeline where all of those ETL orchestration activities are happening and then they kick off a refresh when they’re done right but then you have this ambiguity where if somebody’s looking for something at a certain time every day well that’s going to depend on the load right like sometimes there are mitigating factors behind the scenes so like we know lots of things happen before just the the

35:36 of things happen before just the the visual layer and I think communicating that or not being able to simplify that to a level for the business to understand is one of the the hardest things I’ve encountered I like that one that’s a good one too synchronization of data data loading well with with direct leg it’ll be much easier because you just there’s no imp there there is no heard right right it just works but it’s not it it yeah how would you you’d still need you still need to hydrate the tables underneath the yeah the data

36:08 tables underneath the yeah the data model don’t have to refresh the you don’t have to refresh so it potentially can cut out sometime so we have some processes and some customers did this very similar thing right there’s there was this lead time to be able to get things into a model the model was created in in in Azure and all of a sudden now we have to go refresh data sets well there was a lot of data sets the data sets were using a lot of information so we had to like stage them and so everyone’s like well we went all our data by 8: a. m. well to load we have to load things earlier because it needed time to get through all that stuff back things up you’re backing you’re backing

36:38 things up you’re backing you’re backing things up so to get rid of one portion of that step would be very very helpful in that way as well want to move on further in the article article yeah yeah so let’s I I think the the section here effectively communicating change and or planning training and support I think would be a good to move on to next I think these are other areas that I think are lacking as I’ve seen in many organizations the the planning or the communication of the plan and then how

37:09 communication of the plan and then how do they actually conduct the training I actually want to back up one second oh okay sorry there’s one there’s one section in there that I think is also fantastic and it’s addressing change incrementally because in there are the bullet points of defining the change and the second point in there is describing the impact of the change yes identifying priorities what is the plan on how to incrementally implement the change and then create an action plan like that section is gold to me because

37:40 like that section is gold to me because it’s like hey before you start going take a moment Define define the need Describe the impact that it’s having and like what is the solution what is the New Direction and why is that a good one that we’re going to head down and here’s how we get there in a step-by-step p passion I like those as well I think this is a great section as well I think a lot of this stuff doesn’t get skipped or we don’t think about these if when you step back and and take a look at the process of what’s going on I think you can easily say yeah this makes sense but when you’re in the

38:10 this makes sense but when you’re in the thick of building a solution changing something you’re the one running powerbi these don’t come to top of mind you’re just focusing on getting this thing out the door and I feel like a lot of these steps to have some guidance to step back and say this is how we should plan out the work is incredibly helpful here yeah there and I wonder this is this is going to be a segue and somewhat parking lot recently in our organization we went through personality profiling right and one

38:41 personality profiling right and one of those things that is is striking is I think that M mentality Mike of just actions doers yep we get things done right like B sure is is is a type of Personality where more like what are things that you’re you’re prone to skipping right like communicating the change communicating things to other parts of the organization well like we’re just going to do it we’re going to like here I’m going to provide the solution bam like but it’s really

39:12 solution bam like but it’s really important to say hey guys here’s here’s the layout here’s what we need to do here’s why we’re going to do it and then here’s your expected timeline and then I get to go do my thing and then I’ll tell you when it’s done right like yeah I think it leans into parts of this are like Hey we’re stronger Pro have stronger proclivities to like skip Parts whereas I love the adoption road map and to your point it’s really cool to go through these parts and be like oh well you may not think it’s important but it is so force yourself to go through these

39:43 is so force yourself to go through these steps because there are parts of all of this that you may or may not gravitate towards but are important across the board this I think becomes

39:54 across the board this I think becomes extremely true when you’re trying to migrate to teams off of other tools into powerbi because a lot of times to your point companies get acquired you you buy if those companies come with a different tool right you at some point you wind up with your organization having Tableau and click and powerbi and maybe different departments or whatever the the the versions of teams have different tooling if you’re trying to then make the entire company move to the same tool now you

40:24 company move to the same tool now you have that effort of okay we got to communicate the impact of why this is changing and what we’re do why this is requiring new workloads here and then it some people will love it and like okay this is great I get what I need and we can move on but other people will just not be happy with those changes and you not be happy with those changes and they make a choice to stay with the know they make a choice to stay with the company or move on to someplace else where they can use their skills they’ve already learned in these other tools yeah I that’s certainly a point in here and and I think way at the bottom way at the bottom for some reason is executive

40:55 the bottom for some reason is executive in like make sure you’re not doing this in The Silo right like you need Executive support yeah but it that’s not to say that organizations can’t use multiple tools to to solve business problems right if if the value is an is enough of value is there to say yeah no this this department can still use this tool and we want it that way because you tool and we want it that way because we are servicing a particular know we are servicing a particular product for a customer and this is this is what we’re going to like keep doing as opposed to do a migration inart RBI

41:26 as opposed to do a migration inart RBI or whatever the case may be so it’s worth it for us to have a aspect of our organization where we have resources that understand and know how to use that tool right because the other part of this is if you if you can get alignment on tool sets and Technologies and everybody starts to learn them then then you have a lot more bandwidth across the board right like you’re not Silo you’re not putting yourself at risk

41:57 Silo you’re not putting yourself at risk for an area that just held on to their tool and now two people left and nobody knows how to support it that’s the worst thing that can happen to a business yeah right totally and one of the reasons why you get these Crossroad things that say all right like we’re we’re taking a concerted effort we’re looking at like which tools and Technologies we want to use and we’ve we’ve chosen these for these reasons and and now we’re going to move on to them yeah so that that re interesting point though because it’s probably like the

42:28 though because it’s probably like the origin of when those changes are actually going to play because there are some changes that you may want done you’re like this is just be a better process process that you’re EI it’s either not going to be a winning B value or it’s not worth it it’s like oh really wish if everyone labeled things a certain way obviously we get too granular and I think especially those who are kneee in the best practices we also know that’s not really the

42:58 also know that’s not really the case the point being when these changes are going to get rolled out both the ones that are going to be all fancy and everyone’s going to notice and the ones that are just seem to be more work there needs to be not just communication with Downstream on those who are affected but with your COA on with your Coe but also with your boss too on what are those initiatives that you’re going to make people do so at least you have that buy in two I have

43:28 least you have that buy in two I have had a lot of hard conversations with my bosses where there are some things that I I just thought would be a better way but she knew that all the other battles trying to be fought at that time too which is there always are sometimes not everything is completely practical well I think I think if I look through these like next two sections around effectively communicate change and planning training and support both of those areas as I’m thinking

43:58 both of those areas as I’m thinking through this by going through and communicating what’s changing why it’s changing when it’s changing this gives time for people to react and push back a little bit and I think there is this normal feedback loop of here’s what we’re changing here’s why we’re doing things new people need to ask questions to get alignment to get on board with the direction so you need like this is the same way I build reports I don’t it doesn’t make sense for you just to go out and build a report all by yourself and come back to a business unit and say Here’s your report this is what you ask

44:28 Here’s your report this is what you ask for because if you don’t ask for their engagement along the process you’re going to build what you heard them say is a different interpretation of what they need and I’ve also had a lot of times when building reports and again taking the report experience and translating this over to RBI migrations the report experience you have to lead people along a journey here’s what we’re going to do these are the insights here’s why we’re going to put these visuals on the page as you walk people through that journey I think you can get closer to a report that people are happy with in the same

44:59 that people are happy with in the same way I see this is a very similar solution the more you communicate with people the more you can get alignment all throughout the process and that way at the end of the solution they’re like oh I get it now I understand why we’re doing workspace deployments this way I understand why we’re using apps now because I understand the nuances of security and how we’re going to try to use that so I think a lot of this is when you’re communicating change it really helps because many organizations I walk into

45:31 because many organizations I walk into they say yeah we’re good at we’re already doing parbi we’re good at it but when I ask basic skill sets around things there there’s not skills there with there’s not the general knowledge we would need to say these are the thresholds by which your company needs to have in order to be effective in powerbi we ask people about filter contacts they don’t know what that means why are you using all these implicit measures there’s a whole bunch of implicit measures on reports well we just just it just works understood but that’s a very fundamental layer of

46:01 that’s a very fundamental layer of understanding up in the levels to to get to a level where you understand why and what you’re doing so the training support is also very important here because you’re going to find there’s going to be gaps in your team’s knowledge around where you are to where you want to be yeah I think the the the Nugget you were that struck me is like when we’re talking about communicating these changes I think there’s a significant difference between everyone already agrees change needs to happen and this is this

46:32 change needs to happen and this is this is a good article and a good litmus for like you to go down to figure out like how do you strategically go about that change versus you poking on like the other part where someone’s pushing for change to happen yes because you’ve learned these things and nobody else yet is on that bandw like yeah we need to make these changes because I think those are two different things when we talk about looking at this article because you need that buy in first before you’re going to be able to go like down the vast majority of

47:03 to go like down the vast majority of these routes now like can you can you modify your own solution can you apply change management to some of the solution yeah absolutely but on a higher level it’s GNA it’s going to be a rough road but I and I think by rough road what though Tommy is like to your point you brought up like you bringing these changes to someone above you and and them saying it’s not the right time time I I take that in two ways right

47:34 I I take that in two ways right one is that person saying great idea and in the back of their head they’re like nope right or it’s great idea it’s it isn’t the right time from a like e all this stuff happening within the organization that you’re not aware of blah blah blah blah blah but then the followup that to that should be let’s plan for this because if it’s not the right time and I agree with you then we have to prep for when it is the right

48:05 have to prep for when it is the right time right and that’s why you would start to go down like investing a little bit of time to start planning out okay yeah these these changes absolutely need to to happen put start putting together you happen put start putting together the the plan a little bit know the the plan a little bit that’s that area of like I think it’s under address incrementally right it’s just going to be a longer incremental change it’s not going to be like we’re going to condense it and gang busters we got to go do it because the organization

48:35 got to go do it because the organization can’t handle that so maybe it’s like okay Tommy it’s great Define what’s changing right Describe the impact of the organization we’ll identify what the priorities are and then we plan how to incrementally add it right yeah and the in the added part could be one that has to be phased in because maybe your organiz oration is rolling out three apps right that they expect the organization to like everybody needs to start using this stuff and it’s like oh my gosh like now we’re going to try to

49:05 my gosh like now we’re going to try to throw in a fourth change management of like this other application this other tool like probably not a good time because you’re going to get lost in the mix right so those sorts of things I understand but I wouldn’t accept like oh that’s a great idea now’s not the right time and then just like that’s the end of the conversation because that probably leads to the fact that they don’t agree with you and there’s you you have to understand there will be disagreement and I think the idea here is it will happen you need to make sure you have

49:36 happen you need to make sure you have business alignment and this is what the note here the caution note here inside involve executive leadership does it says caution resistance to change from executive lead leadership is often a warning sign because there needs to be stronger business alignment it the

49:51 stronger business alignment it the business alignment is needed between the business and the bi strategies in this scenario consider specific alignment sessions that are only talking about change management actions with only executive leadership that is that is a very well-crafted statement and I would agree when executive sponsors and this is where I think Matthew roach talks about this at length about if you want a SE successful bi deployment it starts with executive management someone at the

50:21 with executive management someone at the top has to under identify this is the direction we’re going to go and to your point Seth there is a road map it may not be as fast as you want but there is a road map there are certain Milestones that we will work on learn teach people and we will get forward towards as we go through this process that’s really good yeah I think ultimately like and we’re running out of time so like skipping through like involving stakeholders involving people in this process too right important it’s not like you can just be like hey

50:51 not like you can just be like hey Tommy me and you we’re going to go D we’re going to change everything and here’s the plan and then like bam like hey rest of the organization here’s what we’re doing it’s like whoa whoa what yeah so involving people early and often is important to get alignment but I think the the the important parts about handling handling resistance is in involving your executive sponsor right like and having that person is absolutely Paramount in these larger organizational efforts and

51:22 these larger organizational efforts and it’s not because you’re going to butt heads there are going to be people that don’t agree with you and that’s fine but if if everything in what you’re doing is laid out to solve the business problems and you have agreement and Alignment that this is the strategy that’s going to solve those business problems then it’s just a matter of like working through those issues that people that are resistant to this change have so that you’re bringing them along for the ride you don’t want to create enemies in of this because like the reason you’re

51:52 of this because like the reason you’re going through change management developing or readjusting processes is is because in the long term you and the organization believe that this is better or going to be more efficient for the organization and like to to this other point of having having a community and everybody working and around the same tool that can work with the business but still work in Enterprise is one of powerbi biggest strengths is there some technical learning that has

52:22 there some technical learning that has to happen on the business front end yeah but when you unify that conversation across an across an organization it’s so much more effective because everybody starts speaking the same language right everybody starts to work around the like here’s how data Works in our ecosystem here’s how you Works in our ecosystem here’s how we’re going to implement a new know we’re going to implement a new process oh that’s not really a big deal because we’re all familiar so like raising the data culture and the data understanding in literacy is part and parcel like do the

52:52 parcel like do the business do does everybody in the business understand understand how to use the tool sets that are provided to them and then they learn more about the backend parts of it to some degree and I think that’s one of the most valuable things about being able to like Leverage these new technologies and new reporting tools across the whole spoth of the organization I agree with that as well as we wrap here I know we’re at time here we do last thoughts here just a moment there’s a lot more other we didn’t cover the

53:22 lot more other we didn’t cover the entire article there’s a couple other really good points here to talk about identifying and engage your promoters of what you’re doing I think that’s important and then identifying and engaging those detractors probably even more so important find out who’s going to resist you and engage them have those conversations understand their concerns let their concerns be heard so you can bring them in and and address those concerns that way they can also adopt and drive with this one the last two pieces in the article are talking about questions to ask highly recommend

53:52 questions to ask highly recommend reading through that they’re talking through areas of are there teams and responsibilities for data management if so where is that in the organization right do people create Excel reports and feel threatened or frustrated by doing using new bi tools right these are good questions to get a a head read around as you’re adopting as you’re transitioning these are the these are the questions that are going to cause friction identify are are there problems here you need to identify and then

54:22 here you need to identify and then lastly I’ll point out one thing that’s been very well done in a lot of the adoption road map is there’s always this a method of going through different how do you respond to these different in the in change management how does your company respond to change management and there’s a leveling assessment 100 level all the way up to 500 level and I really think these are really good for organizations to go through and and actually go through each of these sections and say where do we feel like we fit do we fit at a 200 or 300 level

54:53 we fit do we fit at a 200 or 300 level and because when you identify those things these are short bullet points and you can see where you are maturity wise you’re not going to go from a 100 to a 400 in one day it just won’t happen but you need to identify where you’re at and then start implementing some change management around it to get yourself to the next level up so I think those are also really good as well in this conversation let’s just transition into final thoughts Tommy give us some of your final thoughts around this article what what stood out to you or what would you say

55:23 stood out to you or what would you say would be your nugget that you came away from this one I I’ve felt this way for a while but the ironic thing is this skill set and this is the skill set be able to do this has nothing to do with powerbi at the end of the day of course it’s around powerbi but it’s just our ability dealing with the technology and being able to effectively communicate no one knew that they were signing up for that too when they went business business intelligence that because I know that was the last thing that I thought like

55:53 was the last thing that I thought like oh I what to tools do I have like you oh I what to tools do I have like like am I going to use troller for know like am I going to use troller for communication how do we roll that out that becomes a that becomes a a skill that you need to get because that’s such a big part of what we do good point so any final final thoughts for yourself yeah I I would scroll to the bottom of the article and and hit the maturity levels right because one of the one of the great things about those and and there’s many different flavors of this for for different conversations but

56:25 this for for different conversations but it it allows you to identify and and get agreement on where where you are right with other people in your organization and if where you are then it also alludes to like where you could go if you invest in time in in these types of activities so these are Big efforts create a plan doesn’t need to be exhaustive just start have an idea what what are the biggest movers and prioritize like what are the biggest things within your organization that

56:55 things within your organization that could use some change management and start somewhere it’s an incremental thing but but I it it’s important to start somewhere that’s a great point I think my final thoughts on this one are really around getting the buyin of executive leadership I think that really becomes very important to organizations plus a lot of times I see the person in the middle the bi management team the the leader of powerbi isn’t necessarily always the executive sponsor

57:25 necessarily always the executive sponsor so sometimes you’re managing up a little bit and by if you’re going to move this direction if you’re going to put provide good practices around moving to powerbi it makes you look really good to come into your boss or your executive sponsor and say Here’s a plan here’s what I’d like to do here’s what I’m going to communicate here’s my what we’re doing why it’s efficient like that looks really good to them because they like look Tommy Seth you’ve got you’ve got these things under wraps what you’re doing you have a plan in

57:55 what you’re doing you have a plan in place on how you’re communicating and what you’re going to do to address people that are proponents and detractors from your new world that you’re going to produce that’s very important to acknowledge that that happens and that way you can use that to your advantage and say look I’ve already try to think about these things I may not have everything but you can use a lot of this article to give you an outline of here’s what we should be thinking about as we move more towards powerbi yeah great article super good learning there really appreciate this one that’s the link is in the

58:25 one that’s the link is in the description as well as it’s also in the chat here a couple times so everyone thank you very much for listening and joining us today for this conversation around change management I hope you are going to change what you’re doing today or this week and if you wouldn’t mind please change someone else’s mind and have them come listen to the podcast so we’d really recommend really would love a recommendation from you if you found value from this conversation today Tommy where else can you find the podcast you can find us on Apple Spotify wherever get your podcast make sure to subscribe

58:56 get your podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a rating it helps us out a ton do you have a question an idea or a topic that you want us to talk about in a future episode we’ll just head over to powerbi tips podcast and finally join us live every Tuesday and Thursday a. Central and join the conversation all powerbi tips social media channels excellent with that thank you all very much we appreciate your time today and have a great weekend and we’ll see you next

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