Yoga and the Art of Salesforce Maintenance
Salesforce and yoga seemingly live in two totally separate worlds that don’t often intersect. I mean yes, Admins everywhere get that moment of zen after a successful data migration or deployment, but I’d say yoga is probably the farthest thing from my mind while I’m configuring a flow or writing a validation rule. Yet, the two practices are more closely aligned than first meets the eye and I’d like to share the things you can do to bring the principles of yoga to the art of maintaining your Salesforce org.
A Little Background
There are eight limbs of yoga that work together to guide the spiritual and physical aspects of the practice. Think of them as a pie chart — eight pieces of pie that when added together complete the whole.
The first two limbs of yoga are the yamas and the niyamas. The yamas are moral discipline or regulations, and the niyamas are observances to follow. Together they guide how we treat ourselves, others, and the world around us including our Salesforce org.
I’ll drop the Sanskrit terminology, but continue on with several key individual disciplines and observances that yogis follow that I believe every Admin should know and follow too. Let’s dive in.
Non-Harming
As a Trailblazer Mentor, I work with a lot of aspiring Salesforce Admins looking to land their dream job in the Salesforce ecosystem. The number one question I get during these mentorship sessions is,
How can I volunteer my services as an Admin to gain experience?
Acting as a voluntary Salesforce Admin for a nonprofit is one of the best ways to gain experience, build your resume, and help out your local community BUT there is one golden rule you must follow as a Volunteer Admin. Do no harm. You should aspire to leave every single Salesforce org you touch better than it was when you started.
There are many ways to follow this rule including creating more efficient workflows and business processes, cleaning up data, and creating accurate documentation so the next Admin knows exactly what you did, and most importantly, why you made that decision. This isn’t just for volunteers. Every Awesome Admin aspires to this principle.
Use of Energy
This concept is all about balance. As Salesforce Admins we want to deliver the best and coolest features — there is so much Salesforce can do and we want to take advantage of it all! But are your users ready for it all?
There is nothing more frustrating than putting a ton of energy into a really cool process that never gets used. Imagine a scenario where you have created the perfect solution: it solves a business problem, it saves time, it delivers never before seen analytics, BUT it doesn’t get traction from stakeholders, the users don’t care, and consequently they don’t touch it.
Maybe it is a situation where there has already been too much change in a short period of time, and this process is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It is all about finding the balance of what we create and how it is used.
Patience, young grasshopper.
Non-Greed
Our use of energy ties right into the next discipline of Non-Greed. Have you been on the AppExchange lately? There are over 3,400 apps to choose from. We are constantly being bombarded with amazing new features and products that as Admins we want to use in our orgs but it is up to us as the gatekeepers to hone in on what is BEST for our org, not what is the most exciting.
Cleanliness
I’ll bet you already see where I’m going with this… Clean Data. In yoga, this observance has to do with keeping a pure mind and removing any thoughts or behaviors that aren’t productive. We can apply the same concept to our Salesforce orgs by removing any bad data, merging duplicate records, and doing regular reviews of our metadata.
Not only will this make your users happy when they don’t have to search through several duplicates to find the record they need, it will keep your leadership team happy when your regular audits and cleanups keep you underneath your storage capacity and don’t add extra dollars onto your annual Salesforce bill.
One of my favorite AppExchange products to jumpstart a data review is Field Trip. Field Trip is the first step to identifying which fields are going unused and can be reviewed to be cut from your org. I also recommend Field Trip as a means to start creating your own Data Dictionary to leave for future Admins — remember you are aspiring to leave your org better than you found it.
Self-Discipline
Characterized by burning desire, this observance is something I see every day in the Trailblazer Community. Trailblazers are excited and passionate about learning and sharing. They attend community meetings, certification days, Dreamin’ events and stay active both virtually and in person.
A great Salesforce Admin is regularly on Trailhead learning about new features. They are certified, and they stay on top of their maintenance exams. There are three Salesforce releases a year and it takes discipline to go through the Release Notes, test out the new release in your sandbox, and adapt your org to the changes.
To learn more about the Summer 21 Release Highlights, check out this Arkus blog post.
That’s it. I’ll bet you are already feeling more zen. In my next post we’ll dive into the other limbs of yoga.
What do you think of adding these yogic principles to your maintenance philosophy? Tell me about your experience in the comments below, in the Salesforce Trailblazer Community, or tweet directly at me @SalesforceK8. Subscribe to the Arkus newsletter to get the top posts of the Arkus blog directly to your inbox.
