Getting an ERP team ready before go-live
A company in the middle of a large ERP rollout brought in executive coach Kristin Darga before the pressure peaked. A six-minute Culture Baseline showed the team its strengths for the job, and the one tension most likely to slow it down.
Cultural Readiness Assessment, powered by CultureCamp
The challenge
ERP projects rarely fail because of the software. They fail on how the team behind them makes decisions, handles pressure, and trades off competing priorities.
This team had a big scope and limited time. They had to meet the business requirements, get users to adopt new ways of working, and keep daily operations running through the cutover. Before the pressure peaked, leadership wanted to know where the team's natural habits would help and where they would get in the way.
The approach
Kristin used her Cultural Readiness Assessment, which runs on CultureCamp and is built on the Schneider Culture Model. It measures how a team actually operates and compares that with what one named business goal requires.
Culture Baseline
Each team member spends about six minutes on an assessment tied to the ERP goal.
Readout
Kristin delivers a written report and runs a leadership session. Both rank the gaps between how the team works today and what go-live demands.
Pulses
Short check-ins every eight weeks show whether the team is changing how it works and whether the goal is moving.
Findings are reported as team-level patterns. Individual answers are never shared with managers, and nothing is monitored. This is not an engagement survey.
What the baseline revealed
The team leads with Collaborate, but three other styles sit close behind. It values both performance and support. That mix is a strength, and it creates friction when time runs short.
Top value strengths
For an ERP rollout, these are real assets. The team can set clear expectations, raise problems early, and stay organized through cutover, while keeping user adoption and morale in view.
- High pay for good performance
- Being supportive
- Confronting conflict directly
- High performance expectations
- Being highly organized
The key tension: being assertive vs. being kind
The team values both. The work is holding both at once, not picking one.
Keeps a time-bound project moving: clear calls, less ambiguity, steady momentum.
Too much, and people feel steamrolled. Buy-in erodes during execution.
Builds the trust that keeps people from resisting the change.
Too much, and hard conversations get put off while deadlines slip.
Watch areas before go-live
- Decisions may slow down when the team waits for consensus on blockers or resource moves.
- High expectations can turn into pressure without clear priorities. The team should agree on what "good enough" looks like in each phase.
- Under deadline pressure, the pull between being assertive and being kind is the most likely source of friction.
How Kristin used it
The data didn't replace the coaching. It focused it.
Kristin didn't spend the early sessions working out how the team operates. She started from the team's own data and went straight to the conversations that mattered for go-live.
Decisions under pressure
When time is short, how does the team balance fast calls with hearing everyone out?
Accountability and support
How does the team hold a high bar without losing psychological safety?
Flexing the plan
Being organized is a strength, but ERP projects change. How does the team adapt without losing structure?
Culture and user adoption
How will the team's values help or hinder people adopting the new system?
Between sessions, with Claire
As the deployment moved forward, questions about team dynamics started to come up. The manager used Claire, CultureCamp's AI guide, to work out how to respond, seeing each issue through the coach's lens. Kristin was kept aware of the issues raised with Claire, so she could adapt her coaching in real time.
What's next
The baseline is the starting line. Every eight weeks, a pulse will show whether the team is making decisions faster under pressure and staying aligned as go-live approaches. Each pulse is measured against the original baseline, so leadership sees what actually moved, not just how people felt that week.
Is your team heading into change?
The same approach works whenever a team has to work differently to hit a goal.
Leading the change
Talk to Kristin before the change starts. Her Cultural Readiness Assessment gives you a baseline, a ranked readout, and proof over time.
Coaching the change
If you're a coach, or your company already works with one, see how CultureCamp supports teams through change.
See CultureCamp for coaches