By Andrew Pope
Andrew Pope at our Brooklyn 19 conference, where he led the Future Workplace track
Over the last year as a future workplace group moderator in Oslo and the Netherlands, and despite best efforts to frame conversations away from the tools, one topic has repeatedly cropped up. The starting point may be virtual working, or leadership, or diversity, but the end point always seems to be Microsoft Teams.
And here’s why - if we apply more focus on people over functionality, Teams will be front and centre of modern workplaces. Once, of course, we move on from seeing it as a Skype replacement and instead regard it as the centre of knowledge working. And with this in mind, here are some key insights to help us prepare.
IT needs to hand over the reigns
To really embrace the change in how we work that Teams offers, IT needs to hand over responsibility, or at least share ownership with the business.
The concept and function of teams (in the traditional sense) are a business thing. They are the smallest unit of work and they power all workplaces. Microsoft Teams is simply a place for teams to work.
It’s like thinking that clever office space will solve all of our problems – that by designing lots of features in our offices we will work better – we will innovate or collaborate more. Sadly, as much as we try, the buildings alone won’t do this. It’s the behaviours and actions of the people that provide novel outcomes. Likewise, Microsoft Teams will only fly once we fill it with people, all knowing why they are there. Taking ownership from IT and letting the workforce work out why they need to use Teams for their own specific needs will help.
Engage with the business – having a steering group that represents all major functions is so important. But make sure that this is dominated by the regular work – the people that work in teams, that do stuff that make the business money, or deliver on its values. The success of Teams is dependent on the people that will use it every day.
But: Teams won’t be for everyone
And again, like office buildings, Teams, will not necessarily be the place for everyone to work in. It’s easy to try and make Teams the starting point of all work, like a de-facto intranet - especially with front-line workers being able to access it through their own mobile devices. This, however, can create more tool confusion, and will make it harder to focus and organise enterprise content and conversations.
Teams is very much for closed team and project working, working best when membership is known – we know who is in the team and who is out. If this is you, whether office-based knowledge worker or front-line worker, then Teams is the place. If, however, you are only there to access corporate information and engage with the broader business – Teams is not the right place.
Digital Leadership will be key to its success
We have leaders, we have digital workplaces. But putting the two together in a team environment requires a different skillset. As we continue to evolve how we work to a more open, collaborative and creative way using tools such as Microsoft Teams, leadership is the one thing that will both hinder and enhance productivity.
Good digital leadership requires a new set of competencies that, in addition to standard leadership practice - such as setting clear goals and empowering the workforce, now also requires an understanding of how and why teams and workforces will engage with the tools. Digital leadership is also, crucially, understanding why our teams won’t engage with the tools and helping them to overcome this.
Digital leadership provides a safe and productive environment for teams to thrive. A place for collaborative working where we know why we are there and are empowered to think and act for ourselves. Whether it’s senior leaders engaging with the entire workforce on wider networking tools, team leaders facilitating self-directing teams on Microsoft Teams, or at it’s most simple, leaders simply sparking a conversation, this form of leadership promotes more productive and more creative digital workers.
And with tools such as Microsoft Teams more and more becoming the place of work, digital leadership is essential to ensure that team members become more self-directed, otherwise leaders won’t just lose the productivity gains, they may drown in unwanted notifications.
Training should be based on scenarios, not functionality
Traditionally, IT training has all been focused on the functionality of the tools. How to set-up notifications, how to make a call, how to create a group. And whilst this is all helpful, without context, this doesn’t mean much. Teams has many functions, some obvious, some not so and expecting everyone to know what they need and what they don’t is unrealistic.
Training people on using Microsoft Teams is far more valuable in the context of why we need to do certain things, where it fits in with our day-to-day work. It’s all about how Teams can transform a process, or how it can make task management more simple, or even at its most basic level, how we can come together and work in an open, visible and collaborative way. Because one plus one is way more than two.
Success should be measured on business goals, not IT metrics
Microsoft Teams adoption has already resulted in some impressive IT metrics, such as reduction in email use. And whilst this is no doubt a good thing, tool usage metrics are not what good looks like. Reduction in email use should always be seen as a sign of something else, of a more purposeful goal.
Whether it’s because we are after a more autonomous style of team working, or we want more open, visible working in support of a specific business need, Teams metrics need to represent a way of work or a key value, goal or KPI.
So what does good look like? Its people using Teams in a way that helps them do their job. It’s seeing change occur, it’s seeing conversations flow between team members rather than everything coming through their leader. And if we use email less as a result, well that’s always nice.
Embracing Microsoft Teams is not about better features or yet another tool. It’s about a way of work. The most valuable thing we can all do, whether enterprise-wide or as a team leader, is to understand what sort of change we want to see – what goals do we want to meet, how to we want to get there. Then see what role Teams can play.
And that is not a technology thing, it’s a people thing. So don’t forget them!