It is no secret that key concerns for many organizations, highly regulated or not, are managing information and data risk and promoting lifecycle management in various systems.   

With the rapid technological change and exponential increase in data, identifying and managing information and data risk is a never-ending battle, but well worth the effort.

There is another perspective that deserves ongoing attention though: the end-user. 

Thanks to the evolution of technology and the growth of cloud-based platforms and eco-systems, IT departments can provide end-users with a stunning array of productivity tools and technologies. As examples, it’s not uncommon for end-users to have access to:   

• Most if not all the Microsoft 365 (M365) personal productivity tools , plus other 3rd party software services available through M365/Azure

• One or more of the Microsoft Viva components, such as Viva Insights, Viva Connections and Viva Topics 

• A learning experience platform, such as EdCast, G2, 360Learning, or Viva Learning  

• “Enterprise” platforms such as ServiceNow, SAP (including Adaptive Insights, Chrome River), Peoplesoft, and Microsoft Dynamics 

• Access to various 3rd party content and learning services such as EBSCO, LinkedIn, Coursera, Udemy 

• For specific groups such as engineers and developers, there are focused software solutions and services such as TIND, PlanView, GitHub, Elements, Confluence to name a few 

• Unique, customized or custom developed solutions for specific business areas, which could range from simple workflows or applications built with PowerApps, to completely custom applications for specific business requirements

• Most every organization has some form of intranet

• Add to those whatever external sites, blogs, communities etc. an individual is following — probably through use of browser favourites and shortcuts, email alerts etc.

• There are always users and groups who choose to use publicly available services, often called “shadow IT.” 

PHEW! Each of these have their own user-interfaces to learn and adapt to. As you can surely imagine, being productive in the types of complex and ever-changing technical environments presents a few significant challenges from a user perspective.  

Phrasing the challenges as questions can offer a way forward.  

Challenge #1 — What to use when 

Many of these tools and platforms have overlapping, often duplicate functions, or enable the same work process but differently.

For example, for task planning and management, is it better to use the Kanban function in ServiceNow, Microsoft Lists, or Planner, or even setup a Kanban in a Shared OneNote?

Should users do that in the context of a Microsoft Teams space, or should they get a SharePoint Team site setup? Should teams store content in the SharePoint space that is part of their Teams space, or their departmental SharePoint space, or Confluence?  When should people use OneDrive vs. SharePoint? Should the entry point for corporate services (like HR) and service requests be the corporate intranet, Teams, or an SAP workspace? So many questions!

Explanations and illustrations such as these can help users understand what tool is most appropriate for what situation:  

Challenge Question: How might we help people pick the right available tool for the right purpose for their work process?

Challenge #2 — Inertia 

Many people are gregarious, self-directed learners. It’s a characteristic becoming more important over time. But with so much focus devoted to “delivering,” rarely do people have time to break out of their entrenched habits to try something new and learn how to take full advantage of the new tool, even if it’s in their nature to do that. And of course, many of us have our favourite tools that we are reluctant to part with. 

Challenge Question: How might we best help and encourage people to learn about current and upcoming tools on an ongoing basis, and to be more open to change? 

Challenge #3 — Flocking 

As we’ve seen with social media, given too many options, different groups will naturally converge on different applications, then flock to others.  A large portfolio of available tools, systems, and applications may create conditions where groups looking to collaborate horizontally are using different tools and become reluctant to switch. That may also result in content fragmentation in different systems, which impacts content findability, productivity, and lifecycle management. 

Challenge Question: How might we prevent divergence, flocking and content fragmentation over time?

Challenge #4 — Bridging the gap between learning and getting work done 

Modern learners have no shortage of free or organizationally provided learning opportunities, including generic published learning content they can source themselves (e.g. YouTube, free training from Microsoft and other vendors, low-cost education from edX, Coursera, Udemy, Codecademy), conferences and included workshops, and generic courses (online, hybrid or classroom based) purchased using operational budgets.  

Though invaluable as part of a learning process, sometimes it’s difficult to connect generic concepts to the specific job or task at hand. This is particularly true when coping with ongoing changes in the work environment.  

Challenge Question: How might we help users apply their learning as quickly and effectively as possible in today’s work environment? 

Challenge #5 — Quickly converting information to knowledge to action  

Given the volume of content (personal, corporate, and external) that is stored in different systems in different ways and created using different tools, it’s increasingly difficult to find the correct content, make sense of it, learn from it and take action.  Further adding to this challenge is that people can say more than they ever capture. Important context, knowledge and learning opportunities are only available through interaction with colleagues and peers who come and go within the organization. 

Challenge Question: How might we help users manage their content and connect with people more effectively?

Tips for addressing these challenges  

These five challenges are relatively representative of what users face on a regular basis. Being empathetic to these challenges and how easily users can get overwhelmed, points to some strategies to address them. 

Applications, platforms, and tools 

Given the increasing number of choices available and the rapid pace of technical change, we recommend a few strategies to help end-users: 

1. Establish a simple, resilient governance and technology decision-making process that enables the end-user to contribute by identifying priority needs and challenges, suggest tools and technologies, and help with prioritization.

2. Pace the availability of technology in line with available attention across the organization to absorb change, and to also reduce functional overlap.

3. Provide overall guidance to end-users about what to use what system / application for what purpose, and where to store important content.

4. Create and publish a regularly updated 12-month roadmap of planned technology releases so users are informed in advance, instead of getting surprised. 

Ongoing Learning 

Learning is a unique challenge, given the rapidity of change coupled with the variability of learning needs.  Finding and focusing on the right learning content can be time-consuming for users and affects productivity. We recommend:  

1. Build a simple learning and development strategy that focuses attention on important core competencies and capabilities.

2. Create and curate easy access to the most relevant external learning content from quality content providers using Viva Topics or similar learning experience platform and library systems.

3. Build custom learning solutions only for content that is less subject to change or supports learning of essential foundational topics for the organization.

4. Continuously encourage and support everyone in sharing what they’ve learned and recognize those that do. 

5. Consider making sharing of knowledge and learning part of performance agreements.  

Content 

Though it is becoming more and more difficult to do so, try and consolidate content sources as much as possible to help with access and management. We have a few recommendations: 

1. Implement standardized metadata and controlled vocabularies across the organization for improved findability, use, and lifecycle management. 

2. Use search features like M365 Search bookmarks and Q and A’s to make important content more findable and consider extending search capabilities across key corporate repositories.

3. Be aware of and address content “graveyards” that contain redundant, obsolete, and transitory information and data.

4. Perform ongoing retention and disposition to ensure the quality and relevance of content. 

5. Configure systems for users to save their work in the right place, with the proper metadata. 

Connections 

Organizations are challenged with truly understanding the capabilities and talent in their workforce. Users are challenged finding knowledgeable people to ask for important context, background and to learn from.  To help build connections:  

1. Surface expertise by creating searchable employee profiles featuring knowledge, skills and experiences. This is going to become easier with updated Viva profiles that surface topic expertise from Viva Topics.  

2. Curate and highlight key content creators and authors in SharePoint and across the intranet. Viva Topics is great for this.

3. Take advantage of Microsoft Teams and Yammer to support communities of interest, communities of practice and other employee resource groups.  

4. And don’t forget to govern the release of Teams, groups and communities to prevent unrestricted growth, to remove inactive spaces, and to ensure users have access to current connections and information.  

In summary

Cloud-based computing and services provide unprecedented access to technology tools, storage, data, and information. With these opportunities comes significant challenges that require thoughtful, yet simple strategies so that you achieve the business and user productivity benefits.

Working with your leaders and technology teams, Gravity Union can help your organization implement tools and processes in the most effective way to meet your business goals.