Microsoft 365 Community Maturity Model for Microsoft 365, 20 Sep 2022

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From YouTube: Maturity Model for Microsoft 365 - September 2022

Description

Recorded:
• September 20, 2022

Topic:
Staff & Training Competency

Agenda:
• Practitioner & Maturity Model Overview
• Artifacts and Updates
• Purpose
• How to get more involved
• Shout-out & Picture Time (Together Mode!)

Hosts:
• ⭐ Guest star ⭐ Heather Severino| @HeatherSeverino
• Marc Anderson, Sympraxis Consulting | @sympmarc
• Emily Mancini, Sympraxis Consulting | @eemancini
• Simon Doy, iThink 365 | @simondoy
• Simon Hudson, Novia Consulting | @simonjhudson
• Sharon Weaver, Smarter Consulting | @sharoneweaver

Resources:
• Maturity Model for Microsoft 365 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/community/microsoft365-maturity-model--intro
• Interested on joining these calls - Download the invite at https://aka.ms/mm4m365/invite

A

So why don't we get started? It's 10 o'clock top of the hour, so today um we're back from our summer Hiatus for the maturity model for Microsoft 365 practitioners calls. We appreciate you joining us.

A

Today's guest star is Heather Severino she's, going to be helping us talk through the staff and training competency, which is one that's been in place for quite some time, but we haven't really dwelled on on a call yet so we're looking forward to getting some of Heather's thoughts and talking through um what we have in place for our staff and training competency documentation.

A

So our our agenda for today and did that switch slides for everybody.

B

A

Never like to assume, because you know what that does for me, um so our agenda for today is that we'll we'll talk through a little bit and try and go relatively quickly.

A

You know what what is the maturity model all about, as with most of these PNP initiated calls we like to try to give some context for people who haven't joined us before we'll talk through, what's what's uh there for the maturity model in general and then we'll dive into the uh sort of main event and talk about what's uh what's in place, for our uh training, sapping and training competency.

A

One thing that's important to note is we've changed our invitation for these calls, which may be why we have people trickling in a little bit late. That link will take you to a new calendar event that you can download and it will add to your calendar for the next uh uh I think season, let's say, and if we have a new link we'll we'll. Certainly let you know, but that's that that invitation is a new way to join.

A

So please feel free to share that with your friends and family Simon. You want to talk a little bit about the.

C

Model and what's there.

A

C

A

Sort of fun, stuff, yeah.

C

So uh yeah to to sort of for those who've not been on before and to remind us what this is all about. um So the purpose of the maturity model is is to help organizations uh understand what is possible with the Microsoft 365 I understand how they can uh get uh the most from from Microsoft 365 by honing in their resources.

C

You know, we've all got a finite amount of resources, whether it be time money or all of the above, um so helping you kind of select the right approach based on what the benefits and impacts you're. Looking for in your business, it's aimed at uh uh you know: users who are not just technology technologists. You know, they're business focused as well, so helping support that discussion with Senior Management as to say you know. Why would we want to improve our collaboration? Why would we want to improve our community?

C

So what we've done to enable that is is create a set of competencies which you can see on the right hand side. So you know, as I mentioned, collaboration communication management of content and what we're talking about today, staff and training. You know creating those competencies and helping Define the levels of maturity.

C

So you know what does the level 100 where we're sort of very base level through to level 500 where you know for this sort of Panacea um at the moment you know I'd like to sort of pull out a couple of things that you're working on the team working on so in in progress. We've got competency around modern infrastructure, which I know uh um Simon, Hudson and Sharon are really busy working on and then we've also got employee experience, as well with all the great stuff which is going on around with Viva.

C

um We have articles uh which support those competencies around. uh You know the principles of a topic and kind of a how-to so how to elevate from one level to the next and we've got some supporting content on that as well.

C

I get the next slide. Please mark sure.

A

C

Thank you. um So um you know this. This session is all about sharing. uh uh You know all of our experiences with you know the maturity model for Microsoft 365 and we love people to get involved. uh There's a link there. Aka.Ms sharing, is caring, which allows you to kind of understand how, because this this practitioners for maturity, model initiative is part of the patterns and practices initiative.

C

um Then you know, how can you contribute? How can you get involved? uh Socialize our content present a case study it'd be great to have uh someone uh talking about how they've used the maturity model within their business or with one of their customers. So there are the links um to that and the purpose of this maturity model is is a safe space, so you know we want people to be able to to. You know. Ask those questions which you know we all.

C

We all asks questions if you might think of Siri, but they they're, probably not City to to others as well. You know it's good to share that, so it's a safe space for us to to discuss um how we use the maturity model and what works and what doesn't work um right at the bottom. There, the slides there is a couple of links there on how to run a workshop.

C

To start to, you know, get you to get started in your organization with the maturity model and also the all the prior recordings as well, which all published on YouTube.

A

um I think it's I think it's worth mentioning Simon. If we have anybody who hasn't joined us before you know, sometimes we'll have people say well. This would be great if you only had and I think it's worth pointing out. This is open source. This is all part of uh it was doc.microsoft.com, but it's actually over the weekends which to learn.microsoft.com. So we've got a platform upon which we can. We can publish this stuff, but it's really a joint effort.

A

We have a core team, that's working on it, but if you have thoughts, if you disagree with something, if you want to augment uh something that you see in an article, we would love that um yeah. This is this is something that we're all doing in our sort of spare time, because we believe in it and love it, but uh we're looking for input from the community on any level that is useful.

C

Yeah, that's great, thank you.

C

So how is you know? How is it the maturity model sort of uh organized? um So we have, uh you know, a maturity model which starts at level 100 which starts to that default. You know, generally, it's chaotic, um it's not controlled. It's unstable! There's, no design really going into it. So that'd be our default State and then we work through uh the various levels. I want to go into great detail, but uh level 200. You know we're starting to to look at. um You know the competency and go. What can we do?

C

You know to get better? How do we uh uh start to manage this competency? So um again you know taking that intent, we're going from a chaotic side, we're starting to kind of fight the fires starting to put into some routine processes.

C

um And then, as we get to level 300, where we've got those processes and they're defined and we're using them throughout the organization, we're we're having a much more designed um a capability around that competency and from that level. 300, which you kind of see, is the you know: I, don't the you know the standard where we like? You know, we think a competency should be.

C

uh We can then start taking advantage um putting in measurements around the processes or the the things which are going on around the competency in level 400 and you know, measuring things so that we can then make tweaks and changes to improve that Competency Based on you know real real information, real data, so they're, more quantitative and then level 500 is then, when we're using that that information you and and starting to optimize those competencies uh going in feedback and making changes again, sort of you know trying A to B testing, maybe on what what is and what's not working uh within that competency, so that level 500 is the yes, the Panacea, it's the Nirvana so and very few people.

A

Get to level 500 you know in nor, nor should they try to unless that is a strategic Advantage. Really, if you think about it,.

C

Exactly yeah yeah, that's right! um So you know this is uh taking um you know the previous slide and putting some recent statements around it. So you know what what's level 100 is. Just you know just trying to keep the thing going: keep the lights on level 200. You know, you know we need to now educate. We need to ensure people, you know know what they're doing uh and then level 300 yeah. We people do now know what they're doing and we're defining a consistent way uh across the business level. 400 writing.

C

As I said, before measurement and analyzing, and taking actions to improve on that and level 500. You know we want to ensure that you know we're always being effective, always doing the right thing. um You know that that Nirvana, that that top of the top of the game, you know best of breed uh organization and as Mark says you know, depending on what your business is doing, then you will be. You know wanting to have different levels uh depending on what you need to do.

C

So, if you're, a regulated industry, you know you'll you'll want to be improved. You know what you want. Your governance and risk and and compliance up at that higher level than maybe a a one-man band or a small organization which isn't regulated, doesn't have those those compliance needs. So it is a depends um and yeah, and this is another view on the models. So you can see here, you know we've sort of applied it to uh I, guess the age of an organization um so or or team as well.

C

So we've got level 100, you know startups and new teams uh things there's a you know. Things are chaotic within the for that business or in that team and then moving up to being more mature, which I like to think our organization is, is getting that way and then 300 being established having those um those those you know, those uh rules of the game uh in place, those policies and procedures and then taking that on to you know what what is it to be successful? You know, what can we do?

C

How can we innovate in the organization uh and then 500 being that best of breed, as I mentioned previously so um Mark I'll hand back to you.

A

Okay sure So today we're we're talking about staff and training, and uh you know we have a list of future topics that we're hoping to get to um maturity in an ever-changing world seems like uh uh something that we might like to tackle for the next uh uh uh practitioner session. If you have any ideas of something that you'd like us to go into more depth in we'd love to hear that so feel free to add that into the chat um or raise your hand and we'd be happy to hear your thoughts.

A

So again, if you, if you want to contribute there, are a couple of uh great sharing is carrying sessions. That would help you, um you know, be able to contribute to the to the Articles and and make uh what are called poll requests on GitHub. That can be a little bit intimidating, but there are some uh sharing is carrying sessions that can help you uh get good at that. um One is just for a first time contributor.

A

Another focuses on the community docs, which is where uh this this set of uh content lives, there's another one for how do you write for the web, which is useful for any context? You know anyone who's working on an internet or using web pages to try to communicate and then next year or next year next month we will talk about maturity in an ever-changing world, as I mentioned. So please look forward, hopefully that you can join us for that.

A

um I'm gonna skip the picture time because I don't have the equipment set up. uh This is this was from our May uh call and I. Think Simon and I have talked enough. So we want to give Heather enough room to to give her take on this staff and training model, so Heather I'm going to pitch it over to you. Let us know who you are and thanks for being here.

B

Thank you, Mark hi everybody, I'm Heather Severino. If I've not met you before I'm a Microsoft certified trainer I'm, also an MVP for the Microsoft 365 apps and services and I'm a LinkedIn learning instructor. So you're welcome to kind of check out all the courses I've got out there. My latest one is um managing approvals in Microsoft teams, which could be very appropriate for some of the things we're going to talk about today. So let me go ahead and switch over to my slides here. Real quick and we'll get started.

A

Maybe I need to stop sharing there. We go thank.

D

A

Sorry about that, no.

B

Problem all right, so you should be able to see my slide. Okay, it should be on the same slide, So, based on what Simon and um Mark, which is talking about with the levels that we have I'm, going to kind of. Take you through those levels and talk about some of the things that I have been seeing or things that we should look out for, but I'd really like this to be a discussion, so you're welcome to kind of join in the chat or raise your hand if you want to add something to it.

B

Everyone's thoughts on this are welcome because I know we're coming to this with many different experiences and maybe different levels that we're working at and what works best for everyone. So, starting here with this level 100, which is that initial level there's a lot that's happening here and as it was mentioned, it can be really chaotic, and this is a time when there's going to be self-discovery going on. If we think about it from an end user's perspective, we've all probably been there, let's put ourselves in their shoes. What are they experiencing?

B

What's changed, I often find things like I'll hear things such as well, they've been working with office for so many years. They know how to use Outlook. They know how to work in word. They know how to to do this, but it could be something that's new and different to them like cloud documents right. So if we just throw something at them and we're saying okay, you know it go use it. We don't really have the training to support it right now. Our help desk is more that break fix, putting out the fires.

B

What's going to happen, you know one of the things that comes to mind for me is if they're not familiar with working in cloud documents. How do they know what should go in OneDrive? What should go in SharePoint? What should we be accessing from teams, or what's the difference between those documents that we have in SharePoint and teams? Is there a difference right?

B

These are the kinds of things that our end users are experiencing and then they're left to kind of fend for themselves, which is not necessarily a bad thing right, they're having that self-discovery, but it doesn't mean that you're getting the most efficient or productive ways to be able to work with that you're, not getting. Maybe the collaboration at a level that you want to have within that business unit or a cross. Those cross-functional business units are all up as an organization. So this level there's a lot of self-discovery happening.

B

There's a lot of peer-to-peer learning happening because, as maybe an employee learns something they're going to share it with their colleague or if their colleague has a question about it. Oh yeah I just figured that out yesterday. Here's how I do it, but it may not necessarily also be the best way, the quickest way or the way that we want them to do things based on. Maybe the processes that we're setting up that may not be documented quite yet right.

B

So those are the kinds of things that are happening and, as I mentioned here, I like to call it the scenic route versus the Express versus the expressway, there's still stuff I'm learning today, especially in Excel, and maybe even in PowerPoint, that I've been doing it this way, all these years, because I didn't know any better, I learned it myself and now that I've figured out. Oh, this is a much quicker way to do it, or this is a better practice to follow for getting that done.

B

So those are the kinds of things that we have happening at this level. Anybody else want to share their thoughts on what you've experienced at a level 100.

A

I mean this, this is sort of where everyone starts right. It's like.

B

A

A new tool yeah thanks.

B

A

It's so that's sort of you know. Some organizations think that if you throw the tack at somebody, then all of a sudden Miracles will occur and.

B

A

It's not a good place to stay right, no.

B

No, it's also, where I find that if they are allowing for training, it's usually they're, sending you to training it's that they don't necessarily have. Maybe somebody on staff to provide the training and I commonly hear things like I'm here, because my boss told me to be here: I've been volunteled to to kind of be at this, so there's not really that engagement or excitement about. What's what do I need to know?

B

Why is this important to me or I'm here at this training, because my boss said that I've been working with Excel for three years and I need to go into this intermediate level or this advanced level when they don't have?

B

Maybe the foundational stuff they've been doing data entry, but they don't have that foundational knowledge, so we also want to make sure we're not kind of skipping or making assumptions on I think they already know this, because they've been working with it for years or they should be at this level, because they've been doing this for so many years when they might not be, we've got to kind of figure out where they're at with that.

C

So you're saying it's about giving them the why? Why is it that they're that they're doing it yeah, okay,.

B

Yeah I think Y is really important occasions. You know you may not have necessarily the budget to have that subject matter export or that team of subject matter, experts to provide that support and training, but at least some Communications that kind of get their interest in knowing like here's.

B

What's changing, you know when it's changing uh what it means to you so at least there's, maybe some more curiosity and excitement around it and and then, when you get to that point where you you are offering the training in the office hours or whatever else, you might be doing, there's more interest right, there's, there's more interest in signing up instead of it's mandatory type of training, or we want you to go to this, but they don't really know what the value is in it and they're not really excited about necessarily trying it out. Yeah.

C

A

Accessible training, I love that phrase, accidental training, I love.

B

That, yes, yeah accidental trainers, like myself, like I kind of learned, a lot of this on my own at first and I, feel like that makes. A lot of trainers are like that too, and I think it makes us better trainers because we're coming at it from the approach of the end user of how did I figure it out. What worked for me, instead of maybe the formal learning.

D

One thing that I think it's we see is people. Someone will be curious and then find something and then start showing it like. Their presentation will have this new element or their Spreadsheet will do something and then the rest of us are like and I realize it depends on culture too. If you've got to like learn it all culture. That we'll ask we'll say: oh that's cool, how did you do that? But if I don't want to show up like oh I, didn't know that I don't want to.

D

Let them know, then you kind of inhibits the spread. You know. So it's interesting that way.

B

Yeah and um if you're familiar with the customer immersion experiences, Cloud immersion experiences that Microsoft has been having those cies. That's a lot of what happens in those and I love that approach, because it's almost what they consider guided learning where, instead of you like telling them to go, try this out or telling them the steps to follow you're kind of guiding them to get them there and try it out and then have that peer-to-peer or that team learning happening and you're right.

B

There's so much more excitement that can come from that when there's a discovery and then they they want to share it with the world because they realize how much of an impact that has on their job and those things that maybe everyone around them is also doing and how that can be. Such a game. Changer for them totally agree.

B

So that leads us to level 200 and here in level 200. There is some support. It's limited.

B

um The help desk is doing that break fix, as I mentioned before they're putting out those fires, there could be long wait times to get support and if that's the case, if that's what's happening and you're at level 200, what tends to happen is then you have your end, users that are kind of going out there and trying to figure it out on their own, and what do we usually find? Is that they're on the internet doing web searches to to find the information that they need?

B

They're on video platforms, you know doing searches to try and find the information that they need, and while they may find a way to do it, it may not be the method or the process that you want them to be following, and it also could introduce competing products, and this is when I tend to think of things like planner versus Asana versus you know those other types of planning tools like Trello and those things that are out there, where we may already have planner as part of Microsoft 365..

B

So why do we want those different business units going out there and purchasing subscriptions to other tools that have maybe similar, or you know same capabilities when we already have something? That's part of our subscription?

B

So if you're at this level, the things to consider is you know making sure that you have those Communications that let them know maybe about all these tools if the training is not available yet at least there's some awareness have this, you know have Ace me or a small group of sneeze that they can come to for more of that, I need to do this.

B

What is available to me, or here's, what I'm trying to do strategically over the next five years or whatever it is, and they can kind of try and help guide them as to what tool is going to work best for that or what is available to kind of give them that Insight with that? This is also a great time for you to start thinking about who are your early adopters like who are you finding from that level?

B

100 that are the ones that are excited that are the ones that are doing that self-discovery and really wanting to kind of share it with the world. Shouting it out to everybody um who wants to kind of know about that stuff. Those are the ones that are your early adopters that become great Champions.

B

So if you have an early adopters program, if you have a Champions program, those are the ones you want to invite to that, and this is a good time for you to start forming that and kind of managing those programs and getting those things set up to help them with that.

B

Any real world stories that you'd like to share from from your experiences when you're working in this managed level, 200 or real world stories, of where there's those competing tools out there that maybe other people have discovered and brought into the organization, not knowing what they already had available.

E

C

Heather, we find a lot with with cloud storage that you know. People are using Dropbox or you know as well, and they don't realize they've got one Drive, that's that's a sort of a common one and they've got their own login, uh but yeah. Let's come on Mike sorry I talked to you Heather.

E

Is there a uh is a Champions or early adopters program, a Hallmark of level 200 or is it? Are they kind of orthogonal They Don't Really relate like? Would you expect.

B

E

200 to have one.

B

Sorry, you could restart that at any point.

B

uh I just feel like when you're starting to get to this, where you have a support person- and there is some guidance- then it kind of makes more sense that maybe that person would be the person that is the owner, if so to say that may or maybe the program manager for your Champions group I mean it's something that could start organically at a level 100 um this this or a higher level is where I would find that you're more likely going to start forming that and and managing that, your thoughts on it.

B

Do you have a uh anything else or different thoughts on it.

E

It feels to me like it's: it's a signifier of a higher level of maturity, especially if it's organized, and it's funded, um that to me feels like a more mature organization. But I was just curious. If this maybe 200 is the inflection point right where it starts to show up kind.

B

Of thing, yeah, okay, I kind of agree with you, it's like we might have some inklings there. It may not necessarily be formal or called out as something that's named or something that meets on a regular basis, but we're starting to see something shaping there or who has an interest in that.

A

Sam I think you bring up an interesting point. You know you're furiously trying to shrink your software stack lots of do duplicative tools. That's that's something! You know from a training perspective. You know the training sort of spreads it oozes.

C

A

All over the place right we're using 12 tools for task management and and I think level, 200 or 300 from this perspective is where you're starting to rationalize that from an from An, Education and Training perspective right. Well, if we, if we narrow the number of tools, we can actually get people better at using them and then they can support each other, and that could be the germ for the for the Champions or early adopters program right. There.

B

C

You know think about you know you end up having duplicate, you know: lots of user accounts and security implications as well. Aren't there so as well as you know, money saving, uh there's also you know, that's security, I suppose as well and ease of use too so yeah.

B

Yeah and so um as we move into level 300, this is where we really start to Define everything so kind of back to the question of when do we kind of see that Champions program shaping well, this is really where we would start to Define that if that is something that the organization is mature enough to to stand that up. This is also a great opportunity for you to kind of Define those roles and responsibilities. So you know who is the person that is managing an early adopters programmer?

B

Who is the person that is managing your Champions who's? The this me the subject matter expert that we go to when there's a questioner on this technology. Do we have a trainer on staff that we can go to for questions or that we can get some training scheduled with um it's? Also, when we start to see that we have that ongoing support So, once we have those roles and responsibilities defined, then we can kind of have that support set up as far as how quickly are we supporting this? Who do they reach out to?

B

When can they reach out? What what are the expectations or options that are available available for the resources that we have for that I think this is also a good opportunity to to think through that just in time training. So you know when we first launched something if we don't provide any training or if there's a delay in that training, you're losing a lot of productivity, you're losing a lot of efficiencies.

B

Security, as it was just mentioned, there's a lot that can go into that if they don't have the proper knowledge that they need for that so really kind of defining. What are we offering from a training perspective? Are we offering just in time as we're rolling that technology out, so that they have the knowledge just prior to you or right at the start of getting that technology?

B

Are we going to continue to grow that knowledge and that's when we get into the higher levels that we'll kind of see how we are continuing this um more as a program than a project and we'll see that in the next level that we have? But this is, you know: we've got a training plan and a program we've got funding for it.

B

We've got funding for the smes, we've got funding for you know whatever it is that we need to kind of really Define this and make this more of a formal process in a formal program. We want to start thinking about this as more of a program than just a start to finish project and we're done as we might when we're in that level. 100 we've installed the software we rolled it up, you're on your own right, like we're done with the project. We want to start thinking through of this isn't on living ongoing program.

B

That has a lot of things that we need to to consider to make sure that that happens. The training that's happening at this level or when we start to get to this level is specific for those Technologies. So it's also good to think about what does that person need training on what do they work within that job role? What does that business unit use? How does that business unit communicate collaborate with this other business unit?

B

Maybe it's legal and HR: maybe it's finance and I T I know what things make sense for us to include in that training so that we're getting the most out of it and then, of course, all up as an organization. How can we make sure that we're secure more effective, we're productive across the organization.

A

um So you had accidental training at level. 100 you've got just in time, training at level, 300. I'd be interested in your perspective on um you know, historically, in the old days gray hair, you know, courses were all offered in person. You had to be in the room you had to you had to uh you know it it's happening now, so you got to go now and we would put people through training whether or not it made sense, because we had to fill those chairs up because it was expensive to run the training.

B

A

Do you feel, like that's evolved, I mean we've got different delivery mechanisms, obviously, but as you're as you're going up the maturity level? How? How does the the thinking about how to deliver training like what what frequency and to whom? How does that change.

B

Yeah, it's a great question and I think in events too, you 've also had some change and thoughts on that as well.

B

More virtual, it seems like we are, of course, switching more virtual, especially since we've had the pandemic. Everything has switched more to Virtual. I haven't had any in-person training since the pandemic other than what I do at my college once that became live again, so that's been a big switch in that I think it also depends on the the Learners and the culture of the organization as to what's going to work best for everyone and the topics that they're learning right.

B

So if you can um bring in a cross-section of those business units, if you're wanting to kind of Drive collaboration and kind of show them how teams in SharePoint might be able to help you quite a bit right, then that that would be a great opportunity to focus on that with the people from those different business units together. So it's it's a combination of the people and the the product, the technology that you have as to what's going to work best think length is also an important one.

B

Right, we used to always have like a full day of training, and now it might be something where it's a one hour: training just to get the found fundamentals or the things that are essential for their job or for their work, so that they feel confident in what they're doing it might just be a one-hour session that we have on teams and maybe a one-hour session that we have on our cloud documents whatever makes sense for that, um instead of the longer so shorter is what I'm finding is.

B

Is me being more common and virtual or the option for maybe a hybrid, whether they want to be virtual or they want to be in person. If that's something that the organization wants to support for the initial I I really still think that that um live training within an organization when you're rolling, something like this out can definitely give them an opportunity to ask questions to know that that they are amongst their peers, where they they may get more out of it.

B

That way, um and then, of course, if it's recorded, they can go back or if they missed it. It's available to them. Beyond demand, though, is great for that continual or for the person that maybe works completely remote and doesn't really have a team that they're working with, and they just need to kind of get that one specific thing answered that they've been trying to figure out then recorded on demand. Type learning might be the way to go as well.

B

I do think from a long-term keeping that knowledge growing as it needs to having things like um on-demand learning, libraries and kind of incorporating that into Viva. Those types of things can can be really essential as well hope that answered your question. Mark.

A

It did thank you, yeah.

B

C

I think it's an important point. It's an important point now you know about having. If you do have those those sessions scheduled, at least it gives people permission to actually they've got time dedicated to go and and do the training. Sometimes you all get busy and we don't find the time to do as much training as we would like so yeah getting permission to do this you've been given permission to do. That is, is important.

B

Yeah and I always like to look at it, as you know, as the trainer I shouldn't be the only person, that's bringing knowledge to the training, there's so much knowledge within that organization. That I may not know if I don't work for that organization, right that everybody. That's there that peer-to-peer, sharing and learning that can happen. I like to Foster that you know I like to kind of think of myself as that guide on the side, where I'm going in and I'm not going to be that percept Professor. That's doing that!

B

You know the stage on the stage where I'm just going to tell it to you. I want you to have those Discovery moments. I want you to have those Discovery moments with your peer and get that excitement I! Think that there's a lot to that that you're going to get so much more out of it, and there might be things that you didn't know that your peers know like oh yeah. We use this for this, or this is how we do this and yeah there's so much that can come out of that.

B

Then, when you're just heads down working at your desk every day and maybe not talking to your peers about that, yeah definitely.

C

Ob1, the ob1, the.

B

Guy yeah yeah I like that yeah awesome. So when we move on to um well, I have a question here, for everybody is we're moving from 300 to 400, so I always wonder like how do you know when it's time to move from this level? 300 where you have a Smee, that's providing that strategic guidance, um and then you get to more of that level 400 which we're going to next, which is where you have more than once me offering guidance.

B

You have a larger group right, there's there's more happening here, and so, when we get to this one, you know this is where I was mentioning earlier. We should be thinking about this more as a program than a project. We don't have we're done we're at the dead end of this we're done with this project. Okay, now we're going to start working on the next project right and I. Think traditionally for many years in it. You know that may be how we looked at things like okay, we're done rolling out that technology. Okay.

B

So, let's start testing and planning for this next thing and is as much as everything is changing, especially with us now having all of our software in the cloud. We have to even look at it more like this of there's always going to be new features. There's always going to be things changing, there's always going to be new applications and tools being introduced right. So it's not just a one-off training and for the overall knowledge and the growth of the organization. We need to be looking at it.

B

That way, we need to be looking at training as something continual and we're Foster, fostering that that knowledge sharing and building and self-discovery, so that we can get to this level 400- and this is where we're saying like Okay- we want them to be. We want to have things that are predictable. We want to know kind of what's Happening.

B

We want them to know what we're measuring, what our goals are: we're hitting those goals and being able to share those with metrics that we have for that um and making sure that you know we have things formally in place for when those changes are happening. So a change Advisory Board, maybe an emergency change, Advisory board, if one's not already in place to kind of manage and track all of those things. So it should not be one-off training.

B

We should be continually training the staff to make sure that the knowledge sharing is happening there, and this is a great opportunity, this level more so maybe even the next level. I know we we talk about level 500. We may not get there to that optimizing, so it could be in here.

B

It could even be earlier, if you're ready to introduce it office hours I'm, a big supporter of having some kind of a I want to just check in I, want to share the latest stuff or my team wants to share the latest stuff with all of our end. Users on these new features that are coming out and I also want to give them an opportunity to come with the questions that they have about it right.

B

So when you start rolling something out, that's when you tend to have like these office hours happening, because you've got people that have questions. They go to a little training session a week or two. They might have questions. So why not offer something where you can say: hey I'm, going to show you these two or three features you may not have known about. But this is also a great time that if you have questions and you're stumped on using App mentions and teams, or something like that, you can come.

B

Ask your question and we'll provide an answer and show you how to do that. But those office hours sometimes fall off. They only start happening at the beginning, but this is a great opportunity, whether it's once a month every two weeks, whatever Cadence, makes sense within your organization to host just maybe 30 minutes or 15 minutes. Whatever makes sense with you come on in these are off. This is my office hour. Come on in ask your question: learn a few new things.

B

You might even learn some things from your peers as they're sharing what they've discovered and what they're excited about. And then you go back off to your work and do your thing and know that you have that other opportunity to come back for office hours and same thing for training.

B

You know, maybe you offer a live session once a month on a very specific topic, or you offer a wave for all of your staff to be able to vote on those topics so that they have an opportunity to to kind of choose what they want to learn about next. So those are the kinds of things that you should have in your competency to set this level 400, but making sure that it's also predictable. We've got some ways to kind of measure.

B

What's going on what the impact is within the organization, you know we're Meeting those goals or exceeding those goals and that'll help you kind of determine how you want to handle the next iteration of whatever technology you're introducing.

B

So what are your thoughts? Do any of you have office hours? Do you offer continual learning in a way like this? Do you are you tracking the changes you're making and tracking the metrics to see if you're, hitting those goals.

A

The the organizations that I've seen be the most successful are the ones that offer I. Think of it as a consultative service. You know it's office hours, it's walk up to the desk hours depending on. You know how your company is structured but being able to go and discuss something with someone else who knows a bit more than you do is and and having that person not say, what's your budget code or yeah.

B

A

We'll have to plan for that next year. You know that doesn't help it's it's having some people dedicated to to offer that kind of support. It's not help desk because it's more discussion, it's not problem resolution. It's it's it's! uh You know I'm thinking about doing this. How might I go about this, um and so so to me that that is something I encourage every client we ever work with, and some of them get further along on that and some uh you know get less along about that depends on the structure.

A

I did have one question for you that maybe you said it, but why do we need a taxi? What's a cab.

B

A change Advisory Board there.

A

You go all right.

B

Yeah, you might.

A

Have said that I didn't if I.

B

Did yeah change, Advisory, Board and then ecab, which would be like your emergency change, Advisory Board um and this can, you know, be as formal or informal as you want it to be. If you have a process for submitting a change and getting it approved um a discussion amongst that board for any of the changes that are coming up or you know how they went and what would you do differently with that.

C

So I, you know it's interesting again in this competency we've seen in quite a few, the others where the sort of level 100 to 300 it's more about process and then, when you get to 400 it's right. How do I embed this into the culture of the business? And that's what you're saying there isn't it? You know it's much. The one-off thing: it's how we continually Do It, um so yeah I mean we we've been doing something.

C

Our organization where Friday afternoon, for you know, is, is like learn time so and yeah we're working on ways of measuring that we're using like Microsoft, learn XP as a way- and you know as this one, but also getting people to create blog contents and push stuff out on the internet and that's another way of measuring as well. um So that's how we're doing it! You know giving people permission. You know we want you to learn interested in that learning in an organization yeah how you do that yeah and.

B

I think another interesting concept too, is you know if there's different business units have their own teams set up? You know, what's to say, there's not even just a little channel in there for for their training or for whatever it is that they can ask each other that peer-to-peer learning you know have a little space that can be informal just for the the group that needs to to have that chat back and forth. um It doesn't necessarily have to be something formal, that's being offered by a separate business unit.

B

You know what I mean like it can be as informal or formal as you want it to be.

C

I think Mike was just first I think and then Pam afterwards, but you got a question there.

E

Were there were two things that um that we did with office hours, so I was the product owner for the internet for a large global company, and you wanted. We wanted to have consistency, so the people knew that I could always count. On the hour of you know: 9 A.M Eastern Time on Fridays Etc, which, which is great, but then the other factor is our audience in Japan. That was seven o'clock Friday night for them so like having enough variety that you capture, people in Central, European, Time, Zone, U.S, east Coast, Time, Zone, West.

E

Whatever your time zones are that you're covering, but also within those constraints being as consistent as you can so that people know it's always there.

B

E

Totally agree and record them and post them, because I think um the ace the asynchronous consumption is really important. If I, if we do it every Friday at 10, if somebody has a standing meeting every Friday at 10, they can't ever get to it unless they can get to it. Asynchronously.

A

Yeah I think I think uh thinking about how do you scale anything in in in all of this? As you know, often not at level 100 or 200 people don't think that through well we're going to have a stand-up class every every Monday. Well that doesn't scale if you've got offices around the world or you've got.

A

um You know lots of people, starting so at this level. You're thinking about that portfolio of ways that people can learn as opposed to just a single way, so you're hitting different learning. Styles you're scaling you're, giving people just in time, learning Etc.

B

Yeah and I think to your point too Mark in his earlier stages. You probably don't have the funding for it too right. So when you get more to this level, you have leadership backing you so you've got. You know some stakeholders in it and you've got uh hopefully a nice budget to be able to help you with whatever you need for that as well.

C

I'll hand up.

D

Yeah thanks I was trying not to be anti-social and go off camera, but I can't do that. Just a little side. Note it's not what I mean um but I um I. What um Mike was saying about the the different time zones is holds true um at my organization, too I'm at Microsoft actually and there's a a monthly.

D

um The name has changed over the years from you know, Champions to user group, but just within our own organization, right um of people who are running the different divisional portals or their initiative, um areas on the internet and the and internally, and they meet and at the opportunity for our the service team in it to show what's coming and just because we happen to be at Microsoft also a great place for the product group to get a little feedback.

D

But um it also, then, is delivered twice for time zones and there's a team Channel associated with it. It's not a team channel, so you can have this asynchronous conversation happening in between as well. um I. Think actually another question for you: Heather.

D

If you don't mind okay, I'm interested in when you see um the idea of using the adoption score in the admin Center and watching that, and knowing like how you know thinking about that as something as a part of this program when you kind of see that coming in and where there's a sense of maturity, wise there's, a particular group or organization that's best suited for that or if it just probably varies depending on the company. But I'm interested in your thoughts on that.

B

I wish I had some thoughts on that I haven't done much with that score, so I think I'll open that up to Mark Simon and the rest of the group to see if they have had any um interaction with that and what their thoughts are.

C

E

Interesting point: isn't.

C

It yeah I mean I, guess you know from sort of the guidelines of how we think that some sort of a measurement so I think it would be. You know, sort of 400, but I could definitely certainly see an argument about being introduced to 300, because you know it's, uh it's really going to see. Give you a lot of insight of what's going on, but yeah I have not done too much with it either. um There's a productivity score before. Wasn't it so yeah yeah.

B

I would almost think that maybe that would be more. Maybe at this point you might start looking at that at level 400 of everybody's been using this, depending on how long they've been working in Microsoft 365 right to be able to look at that score or looking at it over time and saying okay. What were we doing at these points and are these Milestones that can help us determine how that score has gone up and then based on that?

B

What we might want to plan for for the future, that that's a potential thought but again I'm just making some assumptions, because I haven't really worked with it. Yeah.

D

Yeah, it's interesting because it's there, it's not something that you've got to like put in place or it's there as part of the product, and so it's enter. Of course you know being at you know at Microsoft wanting to make sure people are leveraging that at the right time is something that's on. You know my mind, wins the right way to to help people fit to on-ramp to it. Basically right.

C

A

Is definitely something we can add into the resources for for this competency, though, um if it's not there already and I, don't think it is.

B

Sounds like it could be a potential future topic: teamwork, yeah.

C

Also as well, you know bringing this into the how to elevate. You know uh content as well, because we've got one hand me for start from training. You know there's a number of things which you've a number of tips there. You know the one about. You know level, 100 200, you know the people who are involved in level 100, you know introducing them into a you know, an early adoption scheme making them the Champions and it's a great great tip, so yeah.

D

A

I think I think your Point's a good one Mike. You know even knowing that you want to measure things and what you want to measure is an indicator of of more maturity. Right I mean at level 100 you're, not measuring anything you're, just trying to stomp out the fires um and it and it gets. You know, that's why at level 400, when we start to talk about predictability, we're it's predictable because you're measuring things- and you know what's happening and you're you're, making decisions based on the the changes in those metrics.

A

That's exactly level 100 yeah.

A

It's uh 10 47 Heather, just just for this time, check sure.

B

Yeah I'll just take us to level 500 I know we mentioned at the beginning of this session that some organizations don't get here and that's okay. You know it all depends on on your organization and what works best for for what you're working on and how you're working together.

B

um This level is where we start to create those best practices. So you know through discovering what works for everybody, what processes work well for each person or business unit, we can create some best practices, and this is the level that you would be at it's also, where you're fostering that creativity with your Workforce so you're, giving them the freedom to kind of think outside the box right to kind of ideate together to get creative and start thinking about. How can we maybe innovate better?

B

How might we do something different than what we were doing before, because now we've got these tools here that we can do that or how can I leverage this to to be more productive with my team or to make a space that gives us them a better place for us to to whiteboard together and come up with a solution for something. So this is the point where things become autonomous. You know: we've we've got that really well-oiled machine, we've kind of gotten it. To this point, we've got all of our reporting in place.

B

We've got all of our training in place. We've got a support system in place. You know where they they know where they can go and ask those questions and get the help that they need that it starts to just kind of run on its own. As far as when we're saying autonomous- and we have that continual Improvement- that's happening too, you know based on the metrics that we have and the goals that we're continually setting and and maybe changing to go forward. So I'd love to know.

B

If any of you have gotten here and then, if you have, you know, how does this level affect when you're ready to introduce that next technology? uh Do you start at 100 or does that affect? Maybe you not starting at 100 that you're able to go to 200 or do things a little differently than than we've kind of scoped them out here? So what are your thoughts on on level 500 or any of you? There are you right now achieving to get there? Have you worked with an organization that is there like? What's worked well.

A

This is I mean at this level you're the ultimate learning organization. Right, it's it's organic, it's encouraged! It's cultural, it's uh budgeted! It's all! The goodness and I would say that it's probably a pretty unusual organization. Right I mean we, we always sort of say. Well, you know if you're NASA, you have to make sure that you're you're doing everything exactly right, because lives are in the balance.

D

A

To level 500 is, you know, not lives in the balance on staff and training, but you know it's it's core to who you are and and I think you know, if you think about the distribution curve of people of organizations at different levels, it's always going to be a pretty low number that get to this level and that's okay.

A

Right again, each organization should decide how important is staff and training to their Strategic Mission, and you know how how what what uh resources and and dedication should they give it I mean everybody wants people to be competent, but it's it's very different running, for instance, and so thinking of some of my experience you know a call center versus a group of scientists. It's just a different. You know you. The complexion of the organization makes a big difference here.

B

There's not a one-size-fits. All is what it sounds like to me right, yeah, when you're saying working with data scientists, that's a different culture. That's a different way that they're working than a call center would be.

A

Not that there's anything better or worse, for either of those examples. It's just that you have to. You have to mold your your goals for the uh the populations you're working for.

B

C

Yeah I guess sometimes you know, maybe some of those you know those high-end scientists who are you know pushing on the boundaries of you know of of what we know they. You know there isn't that course on out there as well, but it's having that time for them to to to do that. Learning, I, guess and that.

E

C

I I think uh you know, I think you know Microsoft partners and you know some of the technology companies they're, probably ones where this would make most sense. You know because you know having that that those start, the staff and team is core to their business and being able to push. You know, push forward, that's going to help the business, um you know and more money. You know and and come up with new innovative ways and products. So yeah I think uh you know some. You know we're doing a little bit of this.

C

I would never say we're level 500 we're not because we haven't got things around the level 300 which you talk about, but uh we definitely want the learning process to be more autonomous and we want people to have the freedom to be able to go and and learn so something which you know aspects of this we're we're trying to do.

B

Yeah, and with with you know the current situation in Gleason here in the United States with having you know, maybe staff shortages- we don't have as much staff. If we're able to get to this higher competency, we might be able to do that with less staff. You know we of course, still need support, but if there are any you know, budget restraints or things like that, um we were able to still have that Improvement and maybe continue on, because we have this more formal training program in place.

C

Yeah and also attracting talent and being able to retain Talent as well, is you know, depending on your you know, your sort of your your pro your profile, but you know uh a lot a lot of people. We, you know we work with that's what they really they love learning stuff I mean I, know that I love learning stuff. So having that as a primary factor is great, you know yeah yeah,.

B

Well, I think uh that's the end of what I have Mark I know. We had that question I, don't know if we want to cover the question that was in the next slide, but.

A

Let me get uh back into presenting mode here, see if I can take over.

A

Technology: ain't, a grand.

A

I did click the button and it did say it was gonna. Do it try it again.

A

Okay, so I'm going to hop back to where Heather was, and obviously all of these slides will be available to you and there's a link in the last slide so ham. This was a question you had asked me when we were talking last week and I wanted to I wanted to make sure we we addressed it right. So um Microsoft learn is a tremendous resource for a lot of information about the whole platform.

A

So it ought very well to be a part of the sort of the complexion of of training that you or training materials that you use um any any additional thoughts. You wanted to add to that Pam I'm, putting you on the spot.

D

That's okay, my name's on the slide and everything exactly yeah with I mean with Ms, learn and I mean that's especially the you know: Tech more higher Tech configuration approach and then the other more day-to-day end user training. That's now coming through. You know, Viva learning both of them come through Viva learning um like just.

D

How does that fit in you know to this, and because again, the idea of um and of course, I have a huge bias here right, because I want to get the stuff out there, so people can start using it right away like right. You know when you're stomping out fires that you can like be looking at Viva learning. There's no reason to me to wait until, like oh I, can't look at this until I'm at level 300. It may not be, as you know, thoughtful or Plan full, which is.

B

Fine Mark, if I, can um I agree Pam with what you're saying like for the end user. They can go in and based on the role that they have like. Let's say that they are a um a functional consultant or a data scientist or developer or whatever it might be, that they can go in there and set that role and then set the technology that they need help with, like maybe it's Azure, maybe it's Dynamics and and then they can say what level they're at are they beginner? Are they intermediate?

B

Are they Advanced and it will suggest a learning path and a journey for them to take them through some learning that they may not have known about otherwise right if they're, just searching by topic or something else, so I love, learn for that reason and Viva with it being built in right to my maybe where they're working within teams um so I think there's great opportunities there for Hands-On training um for documentation for certain prepping for certifications.

B

If you're going to get certified and then when you need to renew that certification, you do it right through learn as well. You don't have to sit and go into an exam Center or do that exam from home. You get to renew it once a year right from there. So an all-in-one great resource.

D

Yeah I wonder if the maturity aspect is whether it's kind of people discovering it on their own stumbling across it or sharing it organically, like we talked about versus it becoming kind of baked into the competition. The competencies like you're, talking about, like oh, hey, sales, enablement, here's, the Dynamics learning path to go down or something like that. Absolutely.

A

I mean yeah I can't tell you how many organizations I work with who don't even realize that there's help on a page. You know when, when you're in Microsoft 365, so that's you know level 100 is we haven't told you about anything and there's you know, there's in product help, there's there's Microsoft learn. There's there are all these resources out there and lots of times that even the people who are rolling out the software don't know that that exists, no yeah.

B

A

So I do think it's a maturity level thing right, making sure that you know about the resources that are available and it's not just Google I'm, sorry Bing, so we're almost out of time I would did want to point out. We have these uh five slides in here, which I am not going to go through, but they they take. What's in the Articles, um for this particular competency and turn them into slideware, so that, if you needed to just have have a discussion within your organization, these slides could be handy.

A

um So they capture the current state of of the the competency article for this particular competency. If you have any questions or comments on those, of course, we'd love to hear them. This is a set of resources that um I think I, think Heather. You may have added at least one or two of these um and and a couple point to the um the competency article in the in the in the where it says: Microsoft docs. It's now Microsoft learn.

A

uh We copied the link last week, um so I just want to make sure you knew those were in the slide. Deck we've had a pretty decent q, a as we've been going along and we're almost out of time, so I'm going to skip that slide for right. This second, and just want to say thank you if uh for for attending, thank you heather for giving us your thoughts. This has been a great discussion, even though the audience was not huge. It doesn't always matter. Thank.

B

You thanks for having me it's been a great time for everyone and Pam I. Had some Microsoft learn swag for you, I know you work for Microsoft, but I'm still happy to send it. If you want it for asking that question I.

D

Would share it with share it within the next person who asked the question or to maybe someone who.

A

Is in the chat, I.

D

Appreciate it, but, and someone else have it.

B

A

So um you know these links, Are all uh how you can get to content from, for example, your uh earlier meetings or additional slide decks, and things like that again join us on October 18th, where we're going to be talking about maturity in an ever-changing World thanks again Heather and thanks.

D

A

For attending thanks, oh.

B

Hi everybody. Thank you.

E