How Microsoft Teams Helps Companies

Executives that are not modernizing their workplace, digitally transforming their company, or improving their customer experiences will surely struggle to keep their business competitive. Solutions like Microsoft® Teams offer leaders a viable option as part of their technical evolution. Enabling enterprise-wide collaboration, dynamic communication, and mobility is a practical way to link employees to information expeditiously. Microsoft® Teams presents an entirely new way of working. To most effectively use this new technology, the underlying barrier of corporate culture must be dealt with to realize its full potential. 

The current pandemic has forced most people to work from home and usage over the last month of video conference technology from Zoom to Google Meet and Microsoft® Teams has jumped up. This will ease some of the adoption pain as employees are exposed to the basic features, but it may not translate into the full-on experience and desired impact or ROI the business seeks in the long-term.  

There are several missteps that tech advisors implementing Microsoft® Teams and other solutions like Robotic Automation, Mixed Reality, and other leading-edge offerings take, causing them to fall short of their usage goals. Management places the burden on the employee to figure it out, without realizing this is in issue. For example, with Microsoft® Teams, management mistakenly pushes the technology out to their end users as if it were a simple upgrade to their Office or O365 program. Since employees are familiar with the Microsoft brand, the supposition that the end user can figure it out is inevitably a misstep that will lead to sluggish adoption and miscalculated ROI. 

There is no doubt that end users are savvy enough to figure out new apps on their smartphones and capitalize on the latest wearables, Bluetooth devices, fitness trackers, digital assistant, or smart home systems. In these situations, the end user is a consumer, not an employee.  Consumer mindset is very different from employee mentality. The consumer will research their options, download the app, or acquire the product online and voila - it is set up before they stream their next episode from Netflix. This consumer behavior is another reason why administrators expect their employees to embrace Microsoft® Teams as soon as it is installed on the enterprise. Again, it comes back to behavior and culture. 

Consumer behavior does not equate to an employee’s way of thinking. Even if the employee has the skillset to figure out the application on their own and utilize features they have never seen before, they will not. Unlike the consumer who had a voice in the decision to acquire their new gadget, the employee was not consulted. The employee was not considered until the roll-out phase and, at that point, the road to painful adoption rates were already laid. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft® Teams is still being treated as a recognizable app instead of a formidable new resource in your workplace transformation. 

We are amid a digital era where how and where we conduct our business is changing rapidly. Look at where you are sitting today and compare that to how you worked 5 or 10 years ago. Back then you may have had a landline phone, desktop computer, printed files, and completely different applications at your disposal. If your desk still looks like this it may be time to look for a new job because your employer is not providing you with the tools to help you be more efficient. Even worse, if your company has to downsize, you will not be deemed “a desirable or knowledgeable” hire because you haven’t been exposed to the latest technological advancements that are becoming commonplace in our society and workplaces. 

Microsoft® Teams empowers the end user with a platform that is likely to become one of their most popular products to date. Meetings that were once conducted in an office conference room are now accomplished with every attendee physically sitting in another country. Sharing files and working across divisions to incorporate various perspectives is easily achieved without having to send attachments through email. These are just a couple of examples of the new ways in which people can work. When your organization is comprised of multi-generational workers with diverse skill sets and mentalities, Change Management (CM) seizes these challenges with a people-centric approach and creates opportunities.  

Executives and leaders leveraging CM methodologies and expertise to break down the cultural hurdles and nurture positive mindsets are more in tune with their employees. Senior leaders need to pivot and adapt as they manage change, become more agile, and strengthen their business. Thus, turning that Microsoft® Teams “application” into a progressive way for each employee to contribute to the success of the organization. 

Each market, industry, and business is as unique as their employees. Collectively each company is at a different place on their technological evolution. CM considers the entire organization, assesses their starting point, what needs to change, and develops a tactical roadmap to achieve the desired outcome. Achieving change at an enterprise level requires a perfect union of technology, people, process, and on-going learning and development. People’s behaviors and mindsets are the proponent to any movement in a forward direction.