The Irony of Change
While technology has evolved dramatically overtime, the approach to change management around implementing new technology, ironically, seems to have stayed relatively constant. In 1985, the Harvard Business Review published an article titled “Implementing New Technology.” Although the technology referenced in the article is outdated; the concepts surrounding the challenges of rolling out and driving adoption, as well as the strategies used to address these challenges strike a very similar chord as strategies used today—including taking on a marketing approach, like we discussed in a post last week. Here are some of the quotes that resonated with us the most from the article: “New technologies, no matter what their origin, confront managers with a distinct set of challenges” “Generally, when technology is rolled out, it is handed off between organizations, but the runners should have been running in parallel for a long time” “Think of implementation as an internal marketing, not selling, job…selling starts with a finished product; marketing, with research on user needs and preferences” “The organizational hills are full of managers who believe that an innovation’s technical superiority and strategic importance will guarantee acceptance” “An innovation needs a champion to nurture it, and any new technology capable of inspiring strong advocacy will also provoke opposition.” Implementation Paradox: “The higher the organizational level at which managers define a problem, the greater the probability of successful implementation. However, the closer the definition and solution of problems or needs are to end-users, the greater the probability of success” Sound familiar? Do you agree that the principles of change are relatively constant? Do the change management principles shared in the article still apply today?Help your users be successful with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 with training & tips in their inbox
As a steward for your business, you’re always looking for ways to help your users get more from the technology you provide to them. We’ve heard from admins that one way to achieve this is with product tips and training content that their users can quickly use. This content often is available at the https://support.office.com/office-training-center , but users must currently seek it out themselves—and too often, they don’t. Email for product tips and training is coming The new email content from Microsoft will include only tips and training relevant to products and services you have enabled for your users. Be assured that we will not send your users sales, marketing, or advertising messages. Here is an example of a training email. Phased rollout We recognize that smaller organizations are juggling different priorities and often their IT admins wear multiple hats. That’s why we’ll start by sending the email communications to subset of customers that have Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, and subscriptions in the US and Australia. If you are an administrator for an organization that is part of this rollout, you’ll receive a notification in the Message Center, as well as an email reminder seven days before the first training tips email is sent to your users. Please note that you will be notified by the message center before the first training email is sent to your users. All training emails will only be sent from MicrosoftOffice365@email2.office.com email address. Admin is in control As the administrator for your organization, you’re in control. You have the flexibility to unsubscribe from these emails at any time on behalf of your organization by switching the ‘End User Communications’ setting to Off in the admin center. You can always subscribe later by changing the setting to On. Follow these steps to unsubscribe your organization from the training emails: 1. Sign In to the admin center 2. Click on Show all from the left navigation bar 3. Click on Settings 4. Click on Services & add-ins 5. Click on End User Communications 6. Change the setting and click on Save If you leave the email messages enabled for your organization, individual users can still unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the Unsubscribe link in the email footer. Users can also visit the Security & privacy page of their https://portal.office.com/landing to unsubscribe. Preview the first training email and send it yourself Seven days before the first message is sent to users, global admins will be sent an email reminder with the opportunity to preview the content. This preview email will be sent only for the initial training content. If you prefer to send the training email yourself, just unsubscribe at the tenant level, then download a ready-to-send template from the preview email and send the first training email at your convenience. Give us feedback We’re always listening and learning from you. Please continue to provide feedback using the feedback button within the admin center.Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Groups, SharePoint, Yammer… What Should I Use, and When?
Dux Raymond Sy and Blair Hainsworth presented this session at Ignite Austraila 2017. For today's fast-paced, mobile-driven, and globally dispersed workplace, Microsoft offers tons of great ways to effectively communicate and collaborate. But which tools are right for your organisation? Solutions like Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Groups, Yammer, Skype for Business, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow all offer something unique to your business. In this interactive session, you will gain practical guidance on finding the right tools to facilitate efficient communications and collaboration both inside and outside the walls of your organisation. We’ll also explain how to drive adoption and keep your chosen solution under control. Get ready to walk away with the ability to chart a productive and pragmatic collaboration approach that delivers immediate and lasting value to your modern workplace.Driving adoption just got easier with the launch of Microsoft Training Services
Today we announced the next steps in simplifying Office 365 training and adoption from the main stage of SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas. Microsoft Training Services will simplify training scenarios for our customers with out of the box solutions that can be implemented in SharePoint Online. Customers will have a choice of a streamlined webpart which delivers training content in a playlist format right to their own SharePoint Online site or the ability to deploy the full Toolkit for Teamwork experience which includes both training content, adoption guidance and Champion community best practices. Content will support a large set of the Office 365 workloads including SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Office applications and more. This set of capabilities will be in our next pilot phase in July, 2018. Learn more from the announcement post at https://aka.ms/SPC18-MTS To be added to the pilot waitlist or to learn more register at https://aka.ms/mtspilot.Tool for training needs analysis
I'm not sure if I'm in the right place to ask this... Part of my role is to drive adoption of O365 in our customer's organisations. I'm looking for a cloud-based tool to assess who needs training, which aspects of the suite they need training in and possibly even how best they like to learn (instructor-led, video, self-paced etc). Ideally the tool would give me a good idea of the digital literacy of each employee and where their strengths and weaknesses lie with each app (e.g Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint etc). Any help with this from the community would be greatly appreciated!7 simple calendar tricks that will level-up your team’s productivity
What’s the secret to maximizing productivity and efficiency? There’s no single silver bullet, but one sure-fire way to make gains is with calendar tricks that will keep you organized and focused. From scheduling “no meeting” time blocks to integrating mobile so you never miss a meeting—the art of calendar optimization is crucial. Read more on Office Blogs.Be part of the virtual 'Office 365 User Adoption User Group'
Working on Office 365 user adoption ? Join the User Adoption user group on Teams! What are we going to do: Create and share content (documents, templates, graphics) Discuss on Office 365 user adoption Share practical guidance Monthly online meetings Meet-ups at major events (like Ignite) The main goal is to create relevant content for the community what can be shared on the socials and the Microsoft Tech Community. For this User Group I’m looking for: User Adoption experts :) Willing to collaborate on content Willing to share expertise It will be a virtual user group powered by Microsoft Teams ;) Interested ? Sent me an email on marcel@365forall.com and tell my why you should be a member of this Office 365 User Adoption User Group.
New infographic: document circle of life
"Where should I store my files?" and "What's the difference between SharePoint and OneDrive?" If you get these questions a lot, this infographic could seriously help build a standard lifecycle for files and documents. Also applicable to Teams, Outlook Groups, and Yammer, since they use SharePoint in the background. Link below for full-size version. http://icsh.pt/DocCircleOfLife http://icsh.pt/DocCircleOfLife
