In my latest blog post, I talked about the rapid deployment of Teams. Many companies went through deployment within weeks—if not days—and happily reported high Teams adoption numbers. Adoption is an interesting concept. When asked how they know employees are adopting Teams, I have been told, most of the time, it is by the number of teams that were created, numbers of chats and calls.
However, that does not necessarily mean that Teams is highly adopted within your organization. Luckily, there are solutions for these issues and ways to ensure that adoption is developing and is genuine.
Let’s look at the most common issues and how to address them:
Scenario #1
The deployment of Teams was led exclusively or extensively by the IT department which needed to provide a remote collaboration/communication solution quickly.
At first, people were grateful to be able to call, have a meeting or instant chat with their colleagues in a simple manner, but what happened next? Do you know how your employees are collaborating/communicating and, more importantly, do you know how that is impacting your business?
As a first step towards more clarity around adoption, I would recommend doing a survey of up to ten questions total. Group questions around ADKAR (An Easy-To-Use Model For Individual Change) to gain understanding on where your employees stand when it comes to Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. By scoring 3 and under on any of the five-building blocks of change, you will get your first hint as to what to do next.
- A low score in the Awareness and Desire categories means you may need better communication around your “why” and answer the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) questions from your employees.
- Scoring low in the Knowledge area will speak to the training that was provided and what needs to happen to improve it.
- The Ability score is focused partially towards understanding the WIIFM statement but also the individual speed of learning and the type of training that was provided.
- To score low in the Reinforcement area is not unusual when rapid deployments happen, and if that is the only low score you are getting, you can give yourself a pat on the back for work well done.
Scoring above 3 on everything before Reinforcement doesn’t mean your job is done, but you can feel confident that, as an organization, you are almost there. The light at the end of the tunnel is not a freight train, but, indeed, sunshine. I would recommend going back to your Executive Sponsor and specifically the Sponsorship Coalition and Advocates network and reinstate their support in reinforcing the change. You can do that through updating communication toolkits you created during “Preparing for Change” phase.
Scenario #2
Training was provided either through webinars or videos that were available through Microsoft training or your organizational Knowledge Library. Training provided was concentrating on the major functionalities of Teams or, what I like to call, product training.
Remember that WIIFM statements really come from understanding use cases that are built from existing challenges, supported by value scenarios that directly impact business goals and objectives. In order to help your employees understand how to use Teams efficiently, organize focus groups per department or business lines. Understanding employee roles and grouping their desires and needs to a persona will help you draft use cases and scripts for a better type of training, productivity training. Not only you will see happier employees, but your KPIs and success measures will grow rapidly and the processes around the organization will become streamlined.
Scenario #3
Since rapid deployment didn’t allow you time for proper Governance, you have either way too tight control over Teams, or you have way too many Teams and employees are overwhelmed.
There is no shame in going back and understanding where you are today and where you would like to be. Spend some time understanding business requirements, how your content is being stored, how you work with external people and which naming conventions will be used. Although the best approach is Teams governance planning before deployment, deploying Teams with minimum governance and retroactively developing a stronger governance model is a workable option, as well.
Now that you have taken care of the more general issues, let’s look at how you can create more strategic impact by building efficiency in Teams and O365. Start by identifying repetitive actions within specific business lines or departments. Set long–term KPIs for long-term business impact. Use O365, with Teams as a centralized hub, and Power Platform to elevate the business to higher levels of engagement and in turn support the reinforcement of Teams.
About the Author
Olya Bogoyevich leads the Digital Business Solutions practice where she guides clients to get the best value for their business objectives with cloud technology. She is passionate about supporting clients through the Business Change journey and application of appropriate Change Management Programs. When not working and solving business puzzles, she helps her kids with homework, sings with her two budgies, or goes for a run with her Frenchie bulldog.
