Among other things. They can also see through you when you’re launching a campaign to move to the cloud, for the ‘wrong reasons’. Let’s take a look at reasons for moving to #Office365 and how I reckon you should approach it.

Let’s first create some awareness. I have way to many awesome men in my life that I want to be around when I grow old.

More about Movember:

STOP MEN DYING TOO YOUNG

Sign up to raise funds and awareness for all the dads, brothers, sons and friends in your life. Together we can make a difference for men’s health – in prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. Click here to learn more or register (ZA link, should reroute to your region).

User Adoption

Scenario 1:

Company X has decided to move to the Cloud and of course decided on #Office365. When asked why the company is moving to #Office365, the answer is “To save money”.

This is what typically happens:

  1. No upfront communication with users (or not anything that matters)
  2. On day of “launch”:
    1. User gets email with URL to Office.com & URL to Office 365 Training Center.
    2. Mail has URL to Microsoft video clip showing what Office 365 is (in a nutshell 2 minute video clip)
    3. Inform user they are now on Office 365
  3. IT sits back, thinking their job is done, waiting for the masses to adopt Office 365 and sing their praises for making such a clever decision.
  4. IT waits…
  5. and waits…
  6. No user adoption
  7. Management wants to know why the consumption is so low.

Sound familiar?

Scenario 2:

Company X has decided to move to the Cloud and of course decided on #Office365. When asked why the company is moving to #Office365, the answer is “To empower users”.

This is what should happen:

  1. Approximately 8 weeks before switch, start with a digital literacy campaign.
    1. Communicate to users that the company has embarked on a journey to invest back in their most valuable assets, their users.
    2. Explain that in this new digital world, we need to be equipped to not only be efficient, but also be digitally safe.
    3. It’s important that each user becomes a digital citizen. The only way to achieve that is through training and awareness campaigns.
    4. Over an 8 week period, communicate the 8 pillars of digital literacy (1 each week), what they are and why they are important (posters, flyers, emails, newsletters from Intranet).
  2. During the first couple of weeks after switch, start running product specific training (linked to the literacy pillar). For example:
    1. Collaboration:  How to use Teams / OneDrive / SharePoint to collaborate & communicate better, as well as contribute on a cultural an social understanding level.
    2. Creativity & Curation of Content:  How to use Stream, Sway, Forms, PowerPoint, SharePoint News to be more creative.
    3. Critical Thinking and Evaluation:  Using Excel, Flow, PowerApps, Power BI, Planner and column formatting in SharePoint to evaluate data and make better decisions.
    4. Etc. You should get the idea now.
    5. Give them a “Digital Passport” notebook that gets stamped every time they attend a session / training that addresses one of the skills and gamify this.

Adoption is successful when you first create the need (awareness). This helps users understand what is lacking and why it’s important to have those skills / tools. Then add the solution (product / app / service).

ADKAR

You’ll see that this approach is fully supported by the PROSCI ADKAR model, and is the easiest Change Management Methodology to follow.

“Years ago I decided NOT to “do what I do” to save money or make money. I do it to help and empower people, make processes easier, help companies LOVE IT (information technology department) again. The fact that I do make money and save companies money while doing it is an added benefit. The cherry on the cake so to speak, NOT THE CAKE.”

Change what you’re saying

Watch what you say, stop saying you’re doing this to save money. And if you truly believe that’s the only reason, then get someone else to do the talking, you shouldn’t be allowed to speak to users. The only reason we’re put on this earth is to help people, getting rich from it or saving money is a bonus, pun intended.

Make it clear that we’re doing this to help people and be sure that your team of people are fully trained to understand and support the product well. Because believe me, users smell fear (inadequacy) and they know when you’re trying to sell them something, that’s not really for them (they’re not the real priority).

Image credits:  I found this banner image on Gratisography: Moustache & Eyebrows Free Photo —By Ryan McGuire

I’ll be speaking at The European SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure Conference in Copenhagen, 26 – 29th of November. #ESPC18 @EuropeanSP Also honored to be a community reporter at the event. Hoping to see you there!

“You can also find me contributing to REgarding 365. I’m a member of a group of enthusiasts, sharing their stories, thoughts and opinions about Microsoft 365. Catch us at https://regarding365.com | @regarding365 on Twitter and regarding365 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/regarding365 ”

Disclaimer:  I create content about Office / Microsoft 365. Content is accurate at time of publication, however updates and new additions happen daily which could change the accuracy or relevance. Please keep this in mind when using my blogs as guidelines.

New Initiative:

Every couple of months I’m going to travel to a new country, rent a motorcycle, and travel to as many communities as possible, for 15.2 days. Purpose would be to create awareness around Digital Literacy and give users an overview of Office 365 Apps and Services and how it can transform their lives. I’ll do video and written blogs to capture and share my journey and experiences.

Feedback would be crucial, and I’ll be using Microsoft Forms & Flow to gather valuable feedback for myself and Microsoft. I will be inviting other community members to join me on my journey when I’m in their respective areas.

Of course it wouldn’t be possible without sponsorship to help support this cause. Reach out if you’re interested on getting involved in any way, here’s a link to a Microsoft Form that can be completed:  https://bit.ly/2LaQBRQ