ERP Blind Spots: When Every Stakeholder Plays a Different Game

1. The underlying pattern

ERP programs rarely fail because people are careless.

They underperform because:

• Each stakeholder is doing their job well
• Each is optimising for their own success
• But no one is optimising for the whole system outcome

This is a multi-player game:

Different players, different goals, different information.

The result is predictable:

Blind spots emerge—not from incompetence, but from misaligned games.

2. The Stakeholder Games and Their Blind Spots

A. Project Manager — The Delivery Game

Goal (Payoff): Deliver on time, within scope, within budget
Focus: Milestones, tasks, status reporting, risk logs

How they play:

• Track progress against plan
• Manage dependencies
• Escalate visible risks

Blind spots created:

• “On track” status despite weak business readiness
• Hidden quality issues behind milestone completion
• Over-reliance on plan vs actual usability

Outcome:

The project looks successful on paper, while real-world readiness is low.

B. Change Manager — The Adoption Game

Goal (Payoff): User adoption, training completion, engagement
Focus: Communication, training sessions, stakeholder buy-in

How they play:

• Deliver training programs
• Track attendance and feedback
• Promote change messaging

Blind spots created:

• Adoption measured as attendance, not behaviour change
• Training delivered on unstable or incomplete processes
• Misalignment between system capability and user needs

Outcome:

People are trained—but not equipped to operate effectively.

C. Project Sponsor — The Assurance Game

Goal (Payoff): Confidence that investment is delivering value
Focus: High-level status, risk summaries, executive reporting

How they play:

• Rely on reports from PM and vendor
• Intervene when escalations occur
• Maintain executive confidence

Blind spots created:

• Over-trust in summarised reporting
• Limited visibility into operational realities
• Late awareness of structural issues

Outcome:

Issues become visible only when they are expensive to fix.

D. Steering Committee (SteerCo) — The Governance Theatre Game

Goal (Payoff): Oversight, compliance, decision endorsement
Focus: Status packs, approvals, high-level decisions

How they play:

• Review progress updates
• Approve key decisions
• Monitor risks at a distance

Blind spots created:

• Decisions made on incomplete or filtered information
• Focus on reporting, not interrogation
• False sense of control through structure

Outcome:

Governance exists—but does not influence real outcomes.

E. ERP Vendor — The Delivery & Margin Game

Goal (Payoff): Deliver contracted scope profitably
Focus: Configuration, milestones, scope adherence

How they play:

• Implement based on agreed requirements
• Protect scope boundaries
• Deliver to contractual obligations

Blind spots created:

• Minimal challenge to poor business design
• “Configured correctly” but not “fit for purpose”
• Long-term usability sacrificed for short-term delivery

Outcome:

System is delivered—but does not improve the business.

F. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) — The Survival Game

Goal (Payoff): Keep operations running while contributing to project
Focus: Day-to-day work, workshops, testing inputs

How they play:

• Provide input during workshops
• Participate in testing
• Balance project and operational workload

Blind spots created:

• Limited engagement depth due to time constraints
• Acceptance of suboptimal designs to move forward
• Knowledge not fully translated into system logic

Outcome:

System reflects partial reality—not how work truly happens.

3. What this creates at a system level

Individually:

• Each stakeholder is rational
• Each is contributing
• Each is meeting their objectives

Collectively:

• No one owns end-to-end outcomes
• No one integrates all perspectives
• No one is accountable for business performance post go-live

This leads to:

System Effect	Result
Fragmented visibility	No single version of truth
Local optimisation	Global inefficiency
Delayed issue detection	Late, expensive fixes
False confidence	“Successful” project, poor outcomes

4. The real blind spot

The biggest blind spot is not within any single role.

It is this:

The assumption that if everyone does their job well, the system will work.

Game theory tells us:

That assumption is false.

Because:

• Players optimise locally
• Systems require global optimisation

And without a mechanism to align them:

The system will always underperform.

5. The shift that changes outcomes

The question should not be:

• “Is the project on track?”
• “Are users trained?”
• “Is the vendor delivering?”

The real question is:

“Who is responsible for integrating all of this into a working system?”

Until that is answered:

• Project success ≠ Business success
• Delivery ≠ Capability
• Implementation ≠ Transformation

6. To Conclude

ERP blind spots are not caused by failure of individuals.

They are created when multiple stakeholders play different games—each successfully—without a system designed to align outcomes.

The problem is not execution.

The problem is the game itself.