Custom setting values in Salesforce email templates

Yesterday, as I was playing with a simple CRM idea in Salesforce, I came across an unexpected roadblock:  There didn't seem to be a way to merge custom setting values into an email template. A search on Google seemed to confirm this suspicion, as another admin asked the same question and arrived at the conclusion, "No, it's not possible." But, trusting Salesforce's immense power and flexibility, and hoping at all costs to avoid Apex code, I pursued my gut feeling that there must be a way.

And without disappointment, I discovered through some quick experiments that Salesforce does indeed make it possible to merge custom setting values into email templates.

The idea is simple: Put the custom setting value into a formula field on the desired object, and then merge the formula field value into the email template.

Below is an example of how it could work for you. Let's say that you want there to be a default level of optimism associated with every contact in your org. Imagine that you intend to merge this optimism into your automated emails. How would you do it?

1. Create a new custom setting labeled "Optimism Setting" with Setting Type set to "Hierarchy". The object name (a.k.a. API name) should be set to Optimism_Setting.
2. Within Optimism Setting, create a new text field labeled "Default Forecast". The field name (a.k.a. API name) should default to Default_Forecast.
3. Looking at the Optimism Setting page, click Manage and then set the default organizational level value for Default Forecast to "blue skies and sunshine".
4. On the Contact object, create a new formula field labeled "Optimism Forecast". The field name should default to Optimism_Forecast.
5. Insert the custom setting value for Default Forecast into this field. Your formula should look like this: $Setup.Optimism_Setting__c.Default_Forecast__c
6. Save the field, and now you're ready for email merge!

At this point, you should be able to inject the custom setting value for Default Forecast into any email template simply by including the {!Contact.Optimism_Forecast__c} merge field.

Note:  If you do complete this exercise, I highly recommend keeping the Default Forecast at "blue skies and sunshine" in your org.

It's never too late to change or to affect change

As my first 90 days in this new leadership position draws to a close, I find myself sitting blankly in front of my luxurious company laptop, dissatisfied and disappointed with myself.  90 days or __ hours later since I started, what do I have to show for myself?  Too little, by my own judgement.

Sure, I've kicked off a few projects with high visibility: launching a new portal for students and faculty, and migrating to Salesforce from Intelliworks.  And I'm working with fortuitous support from great colleagues to roll out a transformational communication tool, Chatter.  Also, I'm setting performance goals with my direct reports that I plan to reinforce in order to focus our efforts.

But I can't shake the feeling that I'm starting to run faster and faster on a shaky foundation that I have less and less time to solidify.  With one staff member gone just before I arrived, and with another one on his way out right now, have I really established the right rapport with the right people to continue advancing the organization's mission?  Am I really running the department?  Or am I just riding my staff's previous momentum?

At this critical milestone, 90 days since day 1, I find myself in an uncomfortable position of my own creation.  Fortunately, I believe that if I have the power to dig a hole for myself, I also have the power to elevate myself to better heights.

In short, it's never too late to stop, hit the reset button, and put yourself back on the right path.

In managerial accounting, there's a concept that's supposed to help us move forward without the baggage of the past.  If you guessed "sunk costs" for the concept, then you're on the same wavelength as me.  I look at my previous work, good and bad, as sunk costs.  The experience and knowledge should be treated as objective data for consideration in future decisions.  What was good can be sustained.  What was bad can be stopped.  And what I should have done but didn't do can be started.  As long as I remember that the past does not determine the future, I wield ultimate control of my performance and contribution to the organization.

So, I am mentally hitting the reset button, picking up a copy of Michael Watkins' The First 90 Days and  taking charge of the next 90 days.  In the words of a favorite song on my playlist:  "... we'll turn it all around 'cause it's not too late.  It's never too late."

Worktime expectations: giving and receiving feedback

It's hard for me to decide which is more difficult: giving or receiving feedback.  But since there are numerous benefits to doing both in the workplace, I believe we should reasonably expect an employee to participate on both sides of this activity.  The reason is simple.  An organization needs feedback at the organizational level, just as humans need feedback on an individual level.

Just think:  How well would you function if your stomach doesn't tell you when you're full?  Or if your ears don't relay the sound of a fast-approaching vehicle?  Or if your eyes don't show you where your hands are as you're threading a needle?

An organization is much the same.  We know in our minds that it's important to stay coordinated with our colleagues, and everyone seems to lament the fact that often the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing.  So, let's do something to connect our organizational senses.

Giving feedback is pretty straightforward:  After each significant engagement with another individual within the organization, provide some feedback to explain the good, the bad and the ugly.  The other individual can be anyone: a peer in your department, your manager, your direct report, a colleague in another part of the organization.

The challenges to meeting this straightforward expectation are mostly cultural.  Do you feel that your feedback is valued?  Are you afraid of giving feedback?  Do you know how to give feedback in a professional manner that gets the point across while avoiding personal attacks?  I believe it's a leader's job to remove these barriers to facilitate the critical flow of communications up, down and across an organization.

Receiving feedback is a bit more complicated, as two steps are involved.  First, you have to create a channel through which feedback is created.  Then, once feedback is received, you need to confirm receipt of the feedback and then act on it.

The appropriate action on feedback depends on whether the comment was positive or negative.  If feedback was positive, then continue doing whatever it was that merited the support.  If the feedback was negative, then adjust your behavior, explain your behavior or ask for further discussion of the comment.

The primary challenge to meeting this expectation is also cultural.  How much feedback are you able to take?  Positive feedback is always pleasant on the senses, but it's the negative feedback to which we need to pay the most attention.

After all, it's easier to adjust the oven temperature while baking than to salvage burnt cupcakes.

Worktime expectation: self-reflection

In trying to set performance goals with my staff, based on my worktime expectations of an ideal employee and our organization's mission and objectives, I received good feedback that the broad categories of my expectations are currently unclear at best.  So, I aim to explain each of them in a series of posts, starting with what I hope is the simplest category: self-reflection.

To me, self-reflection in the workplace is the solo act of reviewing and adjusting one's own behavior to better serve the organization's needs.  The process can be outlined in three simple steps:

1. Review your recent activities, assessing how productive and well-aligned they were.  Consider your own personal goals and the organization's goals in your assessment.
2. Make a short-term action plan, noting which activities to start doing, to stop doing and to still continue to do.
3. Execute your short-term action plan.

The length of the "short term" is up to the individual to decide, based on that person's individual capabilities and the time constraint set by leadership.  For example, take an employee with a short attention span who is expected to spend 2.5% of his time on self-reflection.  This employee may decide that "short term" equates to one week, which is just enough time for him to start losing focus on the action plan.

As implied, self-reflection is not a one-time process, but rather a habit that should be developed over time.  I searched on Google for "why is it important to self-reflect" and found a few useful resources that explain how the process helps in many situations:

• Real Talk blog: "Why Self Reflection Is Important"
• College of the Canyons: "Self-Awareness"
• DJUS Online: "Cognitive Effects of Self-Awareness on Thought"

And when would be good to start this process?  Well, how about today?