I would like to start by saying, this post will include the word teams multiple times, with varying contexts. If this is confusing to you – you are not alone!
I have trained an abundance of users in Microsoft Teams over the past year, within large national corporations and small businesses. The biggest hurdle for end-users, is understanding the differences between their team, their hundreds of SharePoint teamsites, and now the new Teams workspace.
I generally spend the first 8 minutes of my Intro to Teams training session, relating their new teams workspace to something familiar to the audience. WhatsApp!
Comparing Microsoft Teams to employees personal WhatsApp helps set the stage, and seems to grab the audience’s attention – even after I feed them A&W Mama Burgers, and major food coma settling in, and eye balls are starting to roll behind the whites of their eyes. I am not endorsing Whatsapp as a competitor to Teams – it’s just a trick.
The ability for the audience to connect with a familiar piece of technology, immediately removes the barrier of resisting change. Arms start to unfold, questions start to roll in. According to ADKAR, the emotion of fear is the first category of resistance.
My second homerun trick, in my Intro to Teams session, is to paint real-life scenarios about how Teams can actually alleviate a pain-point we have all experienced! The dreaded unread mail in your inbox, after stepping away from your desk for a peaceful moment in the restroom. The hundreds of “Reply All” messages pouring into your mailbox, and Outlook “Not Responding” – your stress levels are through the roof and all you want to do is grab a Tranquility Tea from your local Starbucks.
And so training begins…the audience has now been captured by building an empathetic connection with an experience they have all shared.
The USE CASE: I trained a group of employees who are working on a project with external consultants, and employees located across the globe. The purpose of this project is to update Procedural Documentation, with input from 20 global team members.
Here are a couple of basic reasons why Teams works for them.
Conversations amongst team members, comments to document changes, and replying to chats are grouped together.
OH YAH and search works!
Now you don’t have to delete the 100s of reply all emails in your Outlook – follow the thread of replys, open the documents, provide your feedback.
Start a Meeting on the fly – and Record it.
Not only can you start a Video/Voice Call in one click – you can share your desktop, continue having a chat on the side of the screen for everyone to participate, and record the call for those team members who are unable to attend. Once the call is complete, the recording is automatically uploaded to Stream!
Photo by kyle smith on Unsplash
Looking for more ideas on how to excite your users on Teams? Follow Me or DM me. I am always willing to chat about your adoption thoughts and struggles. My company Creopark offers a variety of training options in all things Office365!
@Shafina.com 