Thanks to all the viewers who joined us on August 26th featuring Brian Hash, Senior Organizational Development Consultant, Cargill Inc! If you missed the episode, you can catch it, and previous episodes, here: aka.ms/InsideMSTeams.
During the webcast, Brian and I had a great conversation about change management as we both get a lot of questions on how to get team members in an organization to really adopt and use any deployment. We discussed what exactly is change management, how do you convince leaders, how to understand users, and why users may be resistant to change, as well as the steps to manage fear and distrust. We also shared some best practices and resources that we thought would be most beneficial for all of you.
Some key takeaways from our conversation:
- It is difficult to get end user buy-in without an executive sponsor and usage. If the managers and leadership aren’t using it, it’s nearly impossible to get end users too.
- Software deployments tend to fail if IT doesn’t fully understand the end users’ current pain points and walk them through why this solution will help that issue.
- Understand that 15% of your users are early adopters and that 15% are change resistant. Instead of focusing on the 15% of change resistant users, focus on the 70% in the middle. The rest will follow in time.
- Projects have a start date or an end date. Not both. You either pick a deployment date and work back or a start date and plan forward.
- Don’t overfocus on the technology. When email first emerged, many people thought it was a waste of time and effort. “Why can’t I just call someone on the telephone?” It sounds silly today but in the early 2000s, that was the thought.
One of the key things Brian shared was an example of a readiness assessment template to help determine how ready your team is for Microsoft Teams. For all those who asked for the link, here you go: readiness assessment template here.
Finally, I want to make sure you get Brian’s recommended readings on change management:
- “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek
- “Switch” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
- “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
- “Reinventing Organizations” by Frederic Laloux
- “Traction” by Gino Wickman
- “On Change Management” from Harvard Business Review
Make sure to join us for Episode 403 as I welcome Laurie Pottmeyer, Microsoft Teams Senior PM, as co-host on September 29th on National Coffee Day, starting at 10am PST. We’ll be introducing five of our outstanding global Microsoft Teams’ MVPs, who will be sharing their favorite tips & tricks, for an episode called, “Microsoft Teams' Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) – Learn from the experts.”
As always, we would love your comments, questions, and suggestions for the show.
Until next time,
Stephen Rose
Host of Inside Microsoft Teams
aka.ms/InsideMSTeams
