Don’t Assume 

Diversity has become a trending topic in the IT industry and not just for the obvious reasons, but also because when your team is made up of people from different backgrounds (departments/skill levels) with different experiences, it gives you different perspectives.  

Too many times I’ve engaged with companies where decision makers assumed users would know what something is, or that they didn’t need training. Please don’t make decisions based on your own knowledge and experience, especially not if you’re in IT. Your skill level is in the top 5 % of the company, most of your users are not even what is considered digitally literate. And yes, that was caused by years and years of “assuming”. 

Don’t Stop Learning 

Microsoft | Office 365 projects are completely different to projects you’ve possibly participated in before. By the time you’ve had workshops and documented requirements, the features might have changed.  

I thrive in chaos, so these ever-changing agile projects suits me well, but we cannot say that for all personality types. It’s important to stay up to date and keep on learning, every single day.  

Don’t be Afraid 

I sometimes engage with clients who have not released the latest feature updates in Office ProPlus for more than a year. We can no longer fully control our own environments, that’s what we’re trusting Microsoft to help with. If we communicate to users what it means when features get released regularly, and what they should do if something goes wrong, it helps to manage the expectations. 

Microsoft 365 consists of a vast toolbox of amazing apps and services. If you switch everything off except Exchange until you’ve figured it out, the chances are it will stay that way. The same goes for your Governance. You cannot wait until you have everything in place, you never will. Start with the 60% and keep on working at it. Learning & growth starts outside of your comfort zone. 

About Tracy

Facilitating the evolution of human capabilities: Tracy’s passion is to empower and enable people with #Microsoft #Office365. Her Mission is to positively impact WHAT and HOW people create, as she believes that what we design / create, designs / creates us back (Ontological Design). It is about enabling others to serve themselves better, expand their possibilities, increase their capacity to learn, act more effectively and better design their future.