Top 3 reasons for using Microsoft Teams - and top 3 challenges for adoption

Microsoft Teams is not new technology, as Slack users would be glad to explain. In a way, it is also a natural evolution of the several Microsoft products (which are supposed to work together enabling high performing teams to do more, especially when they are physically disconnected.) And there is even a free edition of it! But... what is Microsoft Teams? Well, let's first check the Microsoft definition:

When you have a place to create and make decisions as a team, there’s no limit to what you can achieve. Teams brings everything together in a shared workspace where you can chat, meet, share files, and work with business apps.

Over the last year or so, I have worked to promote and rollout the technology, as part of our Digital Workplace strategy. This experience translated into opportunities to learn from others about what Microsoft Teams really is, and what can be achieve through the usage of it. Now, I am learning as a regular user - not any longer driving the rollout, but evaluating whenever to use it or not within our team. Why should we use it then? How would it change the way we work? Why should we promote it? Here are the top 3 reasons (with a plus) why using Microsoft Teams is particularly interesting for us:

1. Using on-line editing while at the same time having a chat (or even video) conversation - the process of creating document runs smoothly, without having to keep people on the phone for very long hours, while keeping the record of why certain decisions where made.
2. Integrating with multiple other tools. There are some fancy native integrations, but what I use exhaustively is the Web connector. With that we do not need anymore to keep mapping Web Browser favorites, and it is much easier to onboard new colleagues (visually walk them through the Teams and channels with everything logically organized).
3. Having our meetings (including team video calls) all integrated in the same software. The navigation across channels while taking notes for the meeting and keeping up with the conversation flows so much better than having the individual solutions which take care only of the smaller components of the conversation. Plus the video quality is usually superior when compared to Skype, as one example.

• Here is the "plus" - Microsoft is heavily investing on this product. Some of their latest announcements (as of Jan 2019 - find details here) show how Teams will help boosting its value for several audiences, as for example field force, by mimicking some features from WhatsApp (location sharing, smart cameras, etc). Or using one of my favorites features - Live Streaming (still on preview, which relies on Stream and can be combined with Yammer).

So many goodies, is it easy to rollout then? No! Normal reactions against Microsoft Teams are very valid, and here are the top 3 I have faced (with an extra "minus"):

1. "There are too many ways to accomplish the same thing". For example, we have mapped 4-5 alternatives on how to collect minutes of meetings - so it may indeed be confusing. To avoid that, it is important to decide upfront how the team prefers to use the features, and stick to it.
2. "This is another channel - and no one has the time!" It is very true; we are all under time pressure, with no resources to waste. That is why Teams should replace existing channels, not add to them. Maybe you had an Enterprise Social group, a number of Collaboration sites or a Group Mailbox - stop using that, and use Teams instead!
3. It is not practical to have one Teams team for the entire company. This is also true; something like an Enterprise Social solution is much more suitable for such scenario. Teams is not the solution for every problem - ensure you do a proper problem assessment before pushing a technical solution. If you decide for other solutions, remember you may also integrate it with Teams - as an example, we have developed a nice End User Interface on top of Yammer and integrated that in Teams (improved readability and also helped making it look like nicer), and it improved significantly the end user experience. Maybe a topic for a future article.

• The extra "minus" point: some people may just not use it. Not complain about it, not push back, but not even starting it in the morning (or anytime during the day). How to overcome that? It is challenging. The best outcomes I have seen in such situations come from the team, not necessarily the leader, with strong usage across several members who will then influence the others positively.

Change management is never easy, and adoption MS Teams should be part of a broader ambition to change the ways we work. Is it worth it? Yes. Why?

• - We have the opportunity to get comfortable and productive with new (digital) ways of working.
• - It has the power to shorter the distances and reduce communication gaps.
• - It can also contribute to organization of information within a team with reduced bureaucracy, and reduced re-work when anything changes.
• - New technology can also be fun! Try the blurring feature on video calls, as one example. Or maybe one of the Bots, like the Assistant Bot.

To assist with the change aspect, Microsoft has put together very useful assets under the umbrella of their Fast Track program. There is also an open Productivity Library with several scenario-based examples. I highly recommend the usage since it can reduce the workload and simplify the maintenance of assets as they change the technology constantly (i.e. consider re-using their videos instead of creating new ones).

Have you tried Microsoft Teams? What are your experiences? I am very interested to learn more from you!