How We Run - SAP Operating Behaviors

[music]. Hi, i'm jennifer coleman. I consider myself to be a curator of aha moments and i'm passionate about engaging employees as humans first, and i'm a champion for finding our strengths to engage in a flow state of mind. My formal role at sap is as a leadership development facilitator, which basically means i support our leaders to be the best versions of themselves. I'm also a mindfulness facilitator, delivering our internal search inside yourself program. I'm a trained design thinking facilitator and a personal development coach, all within our sap learning organization. I like to think that i create opportunities for people to grow, be engaged in their work and connected to sap's purpose and strategy. I pride myself on being a connector, energizer, yoga instructor, a little bit on the side meditator and believer that anything is possible with the right mindset. I'm here to talk to you today about how you run. I'm not talking about a marathon or track and field or cross-country running. I'm talking about the values that are important to you and the behaviors that you exhibit, which are your values in action at sap. We know that our culture is a place where different perspectives can thrive. So how do we differentiate ourselves to really include this diversity of talent and thought? It is through how we run. So how we run is a set of values and behaviors that our employees defined back in 2015. Show more

That still rings true today. We asked our employees back then: what does sap look like on its best day? We listened to their voices, we listened to their thoughts and we listened to their input and came up with five statements. That truly captures the spirit of sap. We keep the promise, we tell it like it is, we stay curious, we embrace differences and we build bridges, not silos, and this is how we run. These behaviors allow us to have a really common expectation as to how our colleagues, teammates and leaders operate and show up on a daily basis. And while it is a common language that we use, we also understand that each one of us has a slightly different way that we view them, kind of like how many people speak the english language, yet we have very different interpretation of the same words. So let me give you an example. Keeping the promise for our database infrastructure, for our cloud products, might mean 99.9 uptime. Failing. There is not an option for our customers. This is keeping the promise. However, on the innovation side of our development, we encourage failure as a way of keeping the promise to our customers. If we don't try new things and fail and learn, then we will never develop innovative solutions for our customers. So depends upon the view of this behavior. At its core, though, it's still keeping the promise at sap. We encourage everyone to explore these behaviors to know what they look like and feel like for themselves, and i'd like to give you a little bit of a taste of that today. So let's start with: keep the promise at sap. We have a long history of solving really complex, complex business challenges, and that's why our customers trust us. We work as one team to constantly earn this trust, delivering the best outcomes in the simplest ways possible. The behaviors we associate with this is to to keep the promise, to be reliable- say what you do and do what you'll say, listen with empathy to our customers, challenges and goals. And to take accountability for delivering the results our customers need. Show more

Keeping the promise to me is setting my boundaries and working within them to support my customers. This allows me to keep the promise to my customers while also keeping the promise to myself. Sometimes this means saying no so that i can say yes to the right things. So how do you keep the promise? What does keep the promise look like for you and what actions might undermine it. So let's explore to it like. It is a very personal favorite of mine and for many of us at sap, as it helps us to express our thoughts clearly and with ownership. We build trust by being honest and authentic. We are professional and constructive and create platforms for people to openly exchange ideas, and the behaviors we see with this are to listen, like really listen. We like to put the facts front and center and bring suggestions to the table, along with opinions. It's also about sharing your point of view, discussing openly and supporting the outcome, no matter what. When i tell it like it is, i actually state it outright. I need to tell it like it is. I have concerns about this idea. Can we explore it more so i can better understand it? I call this labeling my behavior. I tell someone i need to tell like it is so they can respect the transparency of my message. So how do you tell it like it is? What does it look like for you and what behaviors might undermine it? The next behavior i'd like to explore with you is staying curious. What does it mean to stay curious? So at sap, we say we never stop pushing the boundaries of what our solutions can do for our people and for the world. We are always improving and adapting to stay ahead, and to do this we need to be willing to see change as a chance to innovate without fear of fear of failure, and to be humble and to never stop learning, because ideas come from everywhere. I know you're not supposed to have a favorite kid, but i do, and stay curious is my favorite. I find i use this mindset and attitude to open up conversations, to really uncover thinking and to even tap into emotions in a conversation like tell like it is. Show more

I use this to label my action. I want to stay curious. Can we discuss this? Coming from a place of curiosity is such a powerful way to connect and explore. So how do you stay curious? What does it look like for you? What actions might undermine staying curious? And now let's explore how we at sap embrace differences. We are a diverse and global team. All of us have unique skills and experience that create value for our customers. To truly embrace our differences, we create a supportive environment where everyone can be themselves. We look for a point of view that we haven't heard yet and we listen to understand where others are coming from and trust that their intentions are positive. My experience with embracing differences comes from the many different cultures that i have a chance to interact with on a daily basis. If i might get an email that comes across as hard or a negative tone to me, i assume the best intention and look to clarify the message. I also look for all voices to be heard in the workshops and sessions that i facilitate, and that's really important for me: to embrace differences. So how do you embrace differences? What does it look like for you? What actions undermine it and, finally, what does it mean to build bridges, not silos? We put egos aside at sap and work as a team with a common vision. The competition is on the outside, not on the inside. We respect expertise and execution, not just titles. We believe that we succeed together and we fail together, no matter what. We stick up for each other. We are willing to help and be generous with our knowledge and connections. For me, this means treating everyone in sap like family. If you have an sap email address, i will always make time to support you and connect you with the knowledge or people that might help you. Being generous with my knowledge, connections and resources is my way of building bridges. How do you build bridgessilos, what does that look like for you and what actions might undermine it? So, while these five behaviors are really defined and shared separately, in reality they are layer on top of each other and play off one another. Show more

One moment we can be telling like it isn't staying curious, and this can lead to embracing differences. To keep their promise, let's say i've said yes to a project that i'm struggling to deliver on. I would have to tell, have a. Tell it like it is conversation with the team to let them know my challenges. In doing this, my intention is to stay curious as to how we can work together as a team to still keep the promise to our customer. They don't act in isolation. They actually support each other. We also have a program at sap that rewards and recognizes people based on these behaviors. We have an internal peer-to-peer recognition program called appreciate, which encourages employees to send messages, some of which are tied to monetary rewards and some are simply a thank you, and they are based on these behaviors, which encourages more of them in our environment. Our organization has a strong foundation that comes from the people that work here. How we run every day determines how we can build the best products to help our customers run even better and, in turn, to help the world run better and improve people's lives. It all starts with our individual actions, our words and our behaviors. That's why how we run is core to the fabric of sap. How do you run? Thanks so much. Have a great day you. Show more