Cloud Careers Friday Feature: Tracy Van Der Schyff
We are excited to introduce this week’s Friday Feature - @Deleted! Tracy is a SharePoint Coach, manages the Academy at GTconsult and is the founder of The Guid Stuff. She received her first MVP Award in 2016, in the Office Servers and Services Category.
TRACY VAN DER SCHYFF
SharePoint Coach and Catalyst at Exponant, Academy Manager at GTconsult, & Founder of The Guid Stuff
MVP: https://www.mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5002097?fullName=Tracy%20%20Van%20der%20Schyff
Blog: https://tracyvanderschyff.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracyvds
Tell us a little bit about who you work for and your role in the organization.
The last 4 years I’ve been very fortunate to work with Exponant and GTconsult who have both embraced the latest technology which in turn helped us deliver the best solutions / advice to our clients. My focus has always been on the Change Management / User Adoption side of these transitions and now more than ever this has become an integral part of the projects. In my own company, The Guid Stuff, I adopted Office 365, 4 years ago and have not looked back since.
You recently took on a personal challenge to blog about Office 365 for 365 days. Can you talk a little bit more about what drove you to be so passionate about Office 365? What was your favorite blog post of the entire year?
My Mission is to positively impact WHAT and HOW people create, as I believe that what we design / create, designs / creates us back (Ontological Design). “It is about enabling others to serve themselves better, expand their possibilities, increase their capacity to learn, act more effectively and better design their future.” How can I NOT love Office 365 as it delivers on all of these AND more?
My favorite blog is a bit tricky as I have so many to choose from. Interestingly enough the one I most enjoyed writing also has the highest stats (topic related). Day 288 – 15 Crazy GREAT ideas with Promoted Links in SharePoint. I love using PowerPoint and this was just one of those blogs that REALLY put the power back in users’ hands to do crazy, amazing things. Now if Microsoft could make Promoted Links responsive -I’d be a very happy girl. <wink wink nudge nudge>
Getting a little more specific, when were you first introduced to SharePoint? When did you realize just how powerful the tool could be?
Back in 2007 I was “promoted” into the Intranet Manager role at AFGRI. Not because I had any experience in this area, but because my boss and mentor Steve Steenkamp knew how stubborn I was, how much I loved challenges and most of all how important empowering people was to me. As we used SharePoint for our compliance systems as well (ISO compliance), I realized immediately the impact using SharePoint “right” would have on our company and employees. After all, it gives us the ability to ‘transition ordinary people into EXTRAordinary employees’.
Your blog’s tagline, “Empowering users with Office 365” highlights one of the main issues with cloud deployment which is not actually deploying the technology but convincing and training end-users to use it. Can you share any best practices or tips for managing change within an organization? How do you convince end-users to adopt SharePoint or other cloud products?
I do believe that the lack of adoption we’re experiencing actually has nothing to do with moving to the cloud or the product itself. It’s about the People. A very good friend of mine, Kate Elphick sums it up perfectly. “People will adopt systems when they a) see the point, b) it’s easy to use and c) it makes them look & feel good.”
For me, the basics around user adoption and change management are as follows:
- Communication & support
- Timeous and relevant communication
- Keep the employees in the loop
- Share your success and failures – we’re all human after all
- Get feedback, make them feel part of the solution
- A support & mentoring system that actually works
- Training
- I cannot stress this enough – never forget that most people still have to learn what most of us “IT Folks” have already forgotten.
- Intuitive design alone is not enough – users build ‘muscle memory’ with previous systems, this is especially relevant when addressing age demographics, i.e. Baby Boomers, Generation X & Millennials.
- Training material needs to be embedded in your solutions, users need to find relevant help, while they are in the applicable areas.
- Training specific technology only doesn’t help, we have to take a step back to Digital Literacy. When users are comfortable on their own pc’s they will adopt systems faster
- Search, search, search. A lot of frustration for users comes from not being able to find what they’re looking for. We spend 20% of our day looking information, of which half of that is probably wasted by not finding it. Teaching users search skills changes their lives in all aspects.
- Governance
- This is a sensitive subject as most companies uses this as a negative tool to govern their users.
- The Governance framework should supply an environment where both the company and users are protected. Mutualistic Symbiosis if you must.
- Supply your users with the guidelines & tools necessary for them to flourish in a governed environment.
- ROI, Measurements, Adjustments and Corrective Actions
- We tend to only think ROI for big projects. Teach your users from day 1 to determine ROI on the smallest level and they will understand the value they add to the overall system.
- Document your solutions and ROI
- Monitor your progress at various levels and based on the results, make adjustments and reapply
Have a question for @Deleted? Ask her by @mentioning her in the replies.
