An ongoing journey
Our adoption journey didn’t end once Teams was out there—we continue to employ change management to progress how it is being used. To help our people get the most value from Teams, we guide them to work in a new way. For example, the concept of creating a private or public “team” and inviting individual members was new and people didn’t know why, when or how to best create one and use this feature.
With the shift to remote working, the increased strain of working during a pandemic and the loss of human interaction, we also looked to Teams to help people to be “truly human.” And as most of our employees continue to work virtually, we use Teams to improve connections and find creative ways to work together and with our clients. For example, we encourage people to use Teams for “virtual water cooler” chats, to play games, such as “Working from Home Bingo,” use the mobile app to take a walk during a meeting and update the status message when they need to step away. Teams can even be used for virtual meditation and yoga sessions. We also leverage Teams Live Events for town halls and larger group gatherings and events.
Four aspects of how we approach ongoing adoption are fundamental to our success:
We capitalize on the support of our senior leadership
Fundamental to the adoption of Teams across the business is the active use and endorsement of Teams by our senior leaders. We provide one-to-one training sessions with senior management, chiefs of staff and executive assistants and attend leadership meetings to provide individualized help and advice. We have a dedicated Digital Concierge team to provide tech support and answer any issues that arise for our senior leadership, ensuring that there is a swift resolution.
We employ change networks and gaming techniques
Creating a grass roots change network during the early phases of the program was critical. We continue to use our original “Team Stars”—early adopters of the platform—as an ongoing adoption change network. The people in this group give feedback on new features and then act as change agents on the ground. We offer the group incentives, such as access to early features.
We also rely on other natural change networks in the enterprise, such as our executive assistants and our learning organization who is responsible for skill building and professional development for our people. We get them up to speed with new features early and ask them to help champion any changes. Using techniques like social campaigns and gamification, prizes and recognition, we encourage people to continue to learn and explore the full capabilities and new enhancements in Teams.
We continue to promote the solution ongoing
We have a dedicated, centralized training group that offers virtual workshops on new Teams capabilities, 1:1 coaching, a blog and training videos. We communicate regularly, through articles on our company portal, commercials in all-company broadcasts and social media. We have a centralized Teams support site that provides in-depth guidance, new features and frequently asked questions. We also use social networking site Yammer to provide announcements, ask questions and create a Digital Worker community.
We inspire new ways of working in Teams
We focus our efforts on creating usability habits and introducing new tools in Teams. As we release new capabilities, such as Microsoft Forms and Yammer communities, we do so in the context of how to use them within Teams. The more that people are able to do when working in Teams, the more they want to use it. As our global IT team considers any new capability for our users, we always ask, how can it be used in Teams?
Key benefits include:
