
We are talking about Teams adoption today! And taste a great whisky too!
Why do Teams need a different kind of adoption approach?
Is it just the complexity? Or is it the fact that Teams require a different way of working for people (aka a people change instead of just a technology change)?
People need to start to work differently if they want to really capitalize on the benefits of Teams.
Or is it because you don’t really need Teams? You need email..but do you really really need a tool like Teams if you also have email and files in SharePoint?
Why an adoption change program will never work
Change is a constant these days, and that is very true when you talk about Teams. The platform is updating at a rapid speed. Therefore change is always happening.
So having a change program, to manage change never has an end date because it is always occurring and will never stop. We did talk about this before here.
Shout out to ACM
When you are dealing with topics like adoption, it might be interesting to hear how other people are dealing with it and get some best practices and tips while you can. The user group of ACM (Adoption & Change Management Teams Europe user group) can help you with that!
Steve’s (un)official 1-2-3 change adoption strategy
To handle adoption, you need to measure where people are:
1: I can open the program, I am familiar with what it does and I am able to do the bits I need to do
2: I can see the new features and I am excited about them
3: Second nature to me
If people at a company are at level 3, you don’t need a change program.
But if people are at 1 or 2, how do you start and do such a change?
The change can be justified (ROI) when the company can do the bottom line they do in a better way. This means that the organization needs to decide where they want to go with Teams.
If we are talking about ROI, quantifying this in Productivity Score is a really good move from Microsoft. Now you measure what you are achieving and you can prove how successful your previous adoption projects have been.
Whisky: Auchentoshan Blood Oak
This triple distilled whisky (something you don’t see often, as Scottish whisky is mostly double distilled) is matured in red wine casks.
This is a famous distillery based in Glasgow that we visited in February of 2020, right before the whole covid time. They have been around since about 1823. The Blood oak gets its name from the color, and it is kept in red wine casks.

On the nose, vanilla and maraschino cherries, red wine. The taste is something else, a touch sweeter with spices and pepper. It is a mature, adult whisky with enough complexity to keep it interesting after dinner.