5 things to avoid when using Microsoft Teams – tips from the experts
Don’t work in Chat
Chat is for personal messages.
“Hey, how was your weekend?” belongs in chat. Any discussion about work should be done in a Teams channels so everyone in the team can access the information. Follow the rule of working out loud in Teams channels, not in closed conversations in chat.
Some experts recommend messages like; “I’m heading out for an hour to grab some lunch and go for walk” should even be in the channel, rather than chat, so everyone knows their teammates’ availability if they’re after something urgently.
The over-use, and incorrect use, of chat was identified as a problem by all our experts in using Microsoft Teams.
“Chat is for logistics or really simple questions but chat evaporates, you don’t go to chat to search for things,” said Jaap Linssen, founding partner at OrangeTrail.
“If it’s real work, do it in a threaded conversation, in a structured way. Chat is for personal.”
What you should do: Work out loud in Teams channels. Chat is for personal messages only.
2. Cut back on meetings, say goodbye to recurring meetings
If you’re working out loud in Teams, you can almost certainly cut back on your team meetings. Work can instead be done in channels. Most questions can be addressed asynchronously in channels and documents can be shared and worked on. When you do meet, have an agenda to follow, or use it as a time to brainstorm so there are some measurable gains from the meeting, rather than a talkfest.
More expert advice can be found in SWOOP Analytics’ 2021 Microsoft Teams Benchmarking Report.
Carpool founder and CEO Jarom Reid’s pet peeve is recurring meetings because it’s time consuming, ruins his work flow and meetings are often unnecessary given most work can be done asynchronously in a channel. He acknowledges there are times meetings are essential, so how do you make them better?
“You have conversations (in channels) first so you can filter out the stuff that doesn’t need to be discussed in the meeting, you can make sure everyone is on the same page so those meetings can be shorter, or not even happen,” Jarom said.
Large meetings can be turned into Community conversations on Yammer. If meetings are required, the experts say team meetings should be scheduled inside the channel, along with meeting notes, to sustain the flow of work.
Jaap from OrangeTrail believes large organisations can reduce their meeting load by 40-80% by putting agenda items in channels and working on them asynchronously versus synchronously.
“Working in threads makes you a lot more productive because you can focus on things and cutting back on meetings means you avoid making a mess of your activity stream,” he said.
What you should do: Put meeting agenda items in Teams channels and work on them asynchronously in Teams channels. Doing so can cut back meetings by 40-80%, according to OrangeTrail.
3. Don’t replicate your bad work habits on your Microsoft Teams digital platform
With the rush to move work onto a digital platforms forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, many bad work habits have carried over too. The move to work on Microsoft Teams is part of a digital transformation and is an opportunity to throw away poor practices.
Andrew Pope, Digital Skills and Collaboration Consultant at Designing Collaboration, recommends teams spend time working out how they’re going to use Teams and how they’re going to make it work for their team.
Decide who “owns” the team, what will it look like, how will channels be used, what are the team’s deliverables and how can they be achieved in Teams?
“Take a step back and think; ‘What do we do?’ and then; ‘How can we map this into Teams and create something that does reflect us as a team, as a group of people’, rather than; ‘It’s just a tool and we’re going to carry on and use it’,” Andrew said.
Mark Woodrow, Microsoft 365 Evangelist at Engage Squared, said the benefit of Teams is the opportunity to work out loud. Don’t leave information in private channels or emails, put it out there for others to read and benefit from.
“Digital is a different style of workplace,” Mark said.
“It’s important not to transfer behaviours from the real world to the digital environment, especially bad habits such as spending too long in unproductive meetings. The environment has changed, and we should design our work accordingly. The benefit of digital work is the openness.”
What you should do: Take some time to decide as a team how your Team will operate, what it will look like and what you want to achieve. Don’t bring your bad office habits into this digital workplace. Instead, work out loud in Teams.
4. Don’t use Teams just for video calls, don’t disable Microsoft Teams’ functionalities
Don’t disable tools within Teams. It’s a powerful (and, at times, complicated) collaboration platform. If apps, integrations and functionality are turned off, people will just look elsewhere to find a solution to their needs. Then confusion reigns.
WM Reply Partner Richard Acreman recommends other legacy tools in the business be switched off when Teams is adopted, forcing everyone to work in Teams, which ultimately will avoid confusion. Don’t have some people holding meetings in Teams and others, for example, still using Skype for Business.
“Change takes time but if you’re going to run other tools alongside Teams for more than a few months, it just causes confusion,” Richard said.
“The faster you can move, the easier that transition is going to be.”
By disabling functionality, like allowing external guests into Teams, Richard says people will find a different solution rather than using Teams.
Not overcrowding the work ecosphere was Director of Technology Services at ROI Communication, Byron Whitt’s, No.1 tip when adopting Teams. By introducing Teams, but still keeping tools like Zoom or Slack, it creates confusion.
Richard recommends making a hard decision about what tools you’re using, and at the very least, make Teams the primary place to work and bring other tools into Teams as integrations.
“Just don’t stick Teams out there as another thing to use,” he said.
“Think about your ecosphere. Saturating your ecosphere with too many collaboration opportunities means no one know which one to use.”
What you should do: Don’t switch off Teams functionality. Doing so creates confusion as to what Microsoft Teams actually does and employees will look to other tools to meet their needs, creating confusion.
5. Don’t get bogged down in technical training for Teams
Just start using Teams. Most of the experts were adamant that too much technical training is one of the biggest impediments to using Teams. Instead, give employees access to Teams and work it out as you go. The focus should be on digital team skills, not learning the technicalities of the platform.
“If training is based on the functions and features of Teams, it doesn’t help people move past the basics of chat and video calls,” said Andrew Pope.
A better way to train staff is to share real-life scenarios of how problems were fixed and how Teams has been used successfully rather than weighing people down with the technicalities of the functions.
Talk Social To Me CEO Carrie Basham Marshall says given Teams is a feature-rich, but also complicated, platform the focus should be on change management and bespoke training.
“Otherwise, people revert to chat instead of a team and that’s the biggest issue, all of your knowledge now goes to chat to die,” she said.
“Support people by crafting thoughtful guidance that's custom to their job role in order to help them navigate this new way of working.”
Richard Ackerman says this is where Teams champions come into play. Coaching on using Teams can come from colleagues.
“Project managers are fantastic champions because they know how to set things up,” he said.
What you should be doing: Focus on learning digital team skills rather than technical training on how to use Teams.
Thank you to SWOOP’s partners for sharing their expert advice on Teams usage. For this research, SWOOP Analytics interviewed:
Jaap Linssen, Founding Partner, OrangeTrail.
Jarom Reid, Founder and CEO, Carpool.
Andrew Pope, Founder & Digital Skills and Collaboration Consultant, Designing Collaboration.
Richard Acreman, Partner, WM Reply.
Mark Woodrow, Microsoft 365 Evangelist, Engage Squared.
Byron Whitt, Director of Technology Services, ROI Communication.
Matt Dodd, Digital Workplace Consultant, Engage Squared.
Claudia Piscitelli, Head of Change & Adoption, Engage Squared.
Learn how to get the most from Teams by downloading SWOOP Analytics’ 2021 Microsoft Teams Benchmarking Report.
