ERP transformations are where language goes to languish.
You have IT talking in acronyms, Finance speaking in charts, Operations focused on safety and reliability, and frontline teams asking, “What does this mean for my day?” Somewhere between “system design” and “end-user adoption,” things get lost in translation.
That’s where real change leadership comes in. Not the kind that hides behind methodology slides or fancy frameworks. The kind that listens, connects dots, and turns complexity into meaning people can actually use.
Executive Summary
Digital transformations like ERP aren’t just technical projects. They’re translation projects. Success depends on leaders who can bridge the gap between system language, business priorities, and the day-to-day realities of employees. This article explores the underrates skill of translational intelligence, the ability to move fluently between different workstreams and departments (i.e. ET/IT, Finance, Customer Experience, Human Resources, Strategy, Operations, the field, etc.) to make complexity meaningful and human.
At any organization, that means turning “configuration requirements” into conversations about what matters to employees (e.g. at a utility, it means conversations about safety, reliability, and service). Great change leaders don’t just communicate. They interpret, connect, and clarify. They help every level of the organization understand not only what’s changing, but why it matters. When leaders master this skill, they build trust, accelerate adoption, and make transformation feel less like disruption… and more like progress.
Change Management is a Translation Job
When I first started working on large-scale technology projects, I thought my job was to manage communication and training. I quickly learned that wasn’t enough.
People weren’t resisting the change. They were resisting confusion.
They didn’t need another project update or “future state” diagram. They needed someone to translate what the change actually meant for them, in their own works, in their work, and in their world.
In a utility, that translation has to stretch across a wide spectrum. The same ERP implementation that impacts Account Payable also changes how field supervisors schedule crews, how dispatchers log work, and how analysts track performance. Each group speaks its own dialect. A great change leader becomes fluent in all of them.
The Bridge Between Technology and Humanity
When you’re leading a digital transformation in a utility, you’re not just replacing systems. You’re rewiring how an entire organization operates.
IT sees process efficiency. Finance sees better controls. Operations sees a risk to stability. The field sees another initiative that might make their job harder before it gets easier.
Every one of them is right.
A change leader’s job is to hold all those truths at once, translate them for each audience, and weave them back into a shared story. The story doesn’t start with, “SAP will streamline our work.” It starts with, “Here’s what will feel different, and here’s how it will make us stronger as a utility.”
Translation builds trust. It helps people see that this isn’t about software. It’s about enabling them to serve customers, keep crews safe, and make better decisions faster.
What Translational Intelligence Looks Like
In practical terms, translational intelligence is the ability to move between three worlds:
- The Technical: You understand enough about the system to speak the language of configuration, workflow, and data.
- The Organizational: You understand structure, politics, and process. You know who influences decisions and who actually makes them happen.
- The Human: You understand emotion, identity, and motivation, including what people fear, what they hope for, and what they need to feel safe moving forward.
Most people can live in one or two of those worlds. Great change leaders move between all three with ease. They don’t just “cascade” information. They interpret it. They turn technical jargon into human relevance and executive strategy into local meaning.
In an ERP implementation, that can mean translating a system requirement into a change story:
- IT says: “We’re standardizing asset codes.”
- You say, “This will make it easier for every crew, in every district, to find what they need without guesswork or rework.”
That’s not fluff. That’s meaning.
Why Translation Matters More Than Templates
You can have the best change plan, the prettiest PowerPoint, and the cleanest Prosci deliverables, but if you can’t translate, you can’t lead change.
Translation is what prevents a project from turning into a transaction. It’s what keeps people connected to purpose instead of compliance. And in a highly regulated, safety-driven environment like a utility, that connection isn’t optional, it’s how you keep momentum when things get hard.
During one recent project, we realized operators were ignoring a new digital workflow because the terminology didn’t match how they spoke in the control room. We didn’t push harder on compliance. We changed the language. Once it felt like their system, adoption followed.
That’s the power of translation.
Developing Translational Intelligence
If you want to strengthen this skill, start here:
- Listen for patterns, not just problems. The language people use reveals their beliefs.
- Shadow across boundaries. Spend time with Finance, IT, and the field. Notice how each define’s “success.”
- Simplify without dumbing down. Your role is to make complexity digestible, not invisible.
- Reflect back meaning. In every meeting, summarize in plain English what just happened and why it matters.
You’ll be surprised how much clarity that alone creates.
Final Thought
In every digital/transformation transformation (including ERP), there’s a moment when the room goes quiet, when people are waiting to understand what’s next, and everyone’s looking at someone to make sense of it all.
Be that person.
Not the one who knows every technical term or process flow, but the one who can say, clearly and confidently, “Here’s what this means for us.”
That’s what real change leadership sounds like.
