EP137: M365 distilled washback awards 2023

In this episode, the boys start with cars and Marijn still learning about his new motor car and how long it takes to learn all about the different controls.  They remind everyone that their new Whisky@Ease YouTube channel has launched https://youtu.be/8m8clnpRtsk?sub_confirmation=1  They report back on the speaking session that has not happened at the point of recording but went well at the time of the mix down!!!The subject is Viva which of course is built on the release notes of cortex and its been really cool watching this initial release and launch turn into a set of great products.Steve points out that historic applications like Delve and Graph have driven the capabilities that today has been refined into Viva Topics and Connections.So they look at the extra features and the four products…    Topics, Connections, Learning and Insights.Marijn looks at Topics and how it could retain the corporate knowledge.  Steve suggests that adoption is all about teaching people to share and collaboration and disagrees with Marijn who suggests that people keep it in their head.The knowledge is less tacit and more hidden on OneDrive etc.Viva will not necessarily fix problems, but it will provide the evidence to move towards a solution. Security is important but it might need to go a step earlier and start to show content that you are not allowed to see.  Of course, with permission.Connections and topics will need managed metadata and transparency in place and across the organization.One great working example might be Viva ensuring everyone is reminded about the Agile Epics, Features User stories that are relevant to a specific topic.  Maybe it can start to enhance communicate strategic items if seeding is correctly enabled across the organization.

14 Mars 20211h 12min

The Guys throw in the first advert for the Whiskay@ease channel, which is on YouTube. Just search Whisky@ease to see Steve and MarijnShout out for the March teams Summit and the Omaha365 User Group lunchtime sessions where Steve and Marijn have slots to speak.Steve realizes that he should not trust everything he hears because he believed that you could only have 30 channels, but the reality is 200+. Always confirm your information.UPDATE:  If you want to see all the MS Teams previews as they release then  Admin Teams > Teams > Update Policies  and decide who should get the new updated featuresMarijn explains how to use MS teams and how you can manage your time spend using MS teams through a little personal management of your channels and Teams.   This includes showing how to use MS Teams showing how to Tag people.Steve talks about including content in the adoption communications, and Marijn tells you how you can re-apply the un-read items.  They also cover the fact that notifications are essential to ensure that you are notified about the crucial channels and teamsMarijn tells his latest User story about asking Microsoft to show in the OneDrive Synchronized files to show which ones are shared as an iconSteve suggests that before you create a new Team or new Channel that you think about how the user will feel about another entity or if a new document library will suffice Remember you can @ someone In the chancel if the subject is right but use the personal channels to speak to someone directly.Steve points out that the convenience of ‘Just creating a new Team’ has some dependency on the global retention policy, which might, of course, mean a team/SPO site cannot be deleted.Emojis can same lots of time and responses, use the LIKE to make a powerful statement of supportSteve suggests a new App called the @ed me App that sends over all the Likes from your outlook and MS Teams chat.Control of Notification is possible; check the settingsSteve talks about the ‘MS teams search’ bar and how cool it is. Discovering the strength of the / comments and the @ and # the search of great contentThe boys discuss that the search bar must be a hot item for MS to be strongly considering.We look at the channels and how you can now add the Praise images for things like AwardsChecking out connectors and add-ins for the channels for integration with external appsBots are discussed, and whilst it is a great idea, but then we wonder how many people stick with a bot long termSo the real question is eventually asked why you would create a private channel?  Marijn quotes one great example of keeping content away from external people who are in the same team.Marijn Quotes Disney, specifically a Princess, on the Office365Distilled podcast. As an end-user, who would they create a private channel when they could make the team.  Other than Private channels, ONLY in the coming months, will have retention applied.Two words  ‘ It Depends’  which whilst we laugh about is a perfect description for considering when and if to create a Private channel Be aware that you can only be a member of a private Channel if you are a team member.  When you add people to a private channel, the user list is driven by the Team membershipMarijn suggests that the objective is to collaboration, so ignore the no folder rule, and Steve indicates that this is a compromise too far.Add channels and build things that only add value as a golden ruled

28 Feb 20211h 4min

In this edition, the boys talk about the relationship they have both had with SharePoint and its 20-year journey.The day they both met for the first time and the spark that said this would be cool.The first date when they started to understand the complexities and depth of our new partner.That extraordinary moment of the first Kiss and you realised that this was a commitment for life.Of course, they discussed getting to second base, but we edited that bit out after all who wants to hear about anyone getting intimate with a software piece. But don’t underestimate the need to get-on-down with SharePoint to make it shine with happiness!The many arguments that took place because SharePoint would not do the things you wanted to doThat moment in any relationship when you realised it was getting seriousThe sad time of the affair when SharePoint ran away with Exchange and created the illegitimate child calls Groups.Briefly, the breakup of the family is discussed as Lists leave home and set up on their ownAnd we touch on the adopted family where the Hub site can connect with lost children.

14 Feb 20211h 2min

Steve and Marijn start with Formula 1 and the changes this season, which are about restricting resources so that to win you must make everything count.  ‘making everything counts’ makes Steve think about what specific functionality in the core apps, Outlook, SPO and MS teams deliver the most significant value.Marijn explains that he has moved to the dark side on the side of the user. All because they have cookies.  Marijn shouts out that he will be on Blame the end-user video and the boys call out about the people they are collaborating with.Steve eventually starts with Parallelism, not a cult but looking at how the F1 teams manage with reductions in all areas for 2021 and looking to make every bit of resources count.  So how can we parallel that to the adoption of Office365?Steve suggests we look at the Big sell for the big 3 apps in M365.Outlook always goes first, so what adds the most significant value, steve suggests it connects to all the other content in the Cloud ecosystem.  The value of such things like adding an attachment in a literal few seconds.Marijn talks about the Email being a notification tool, but the components are active to respond without leaving the outlook message.Email keeps you in touch with lots more great notifications like an update by others in co-authored documents.  And Dear jeff messages gets the idea of groups notifications and Cortana groups all the updated together.Lists become a valuable item for SharePoint as well as a massive shout out for Metadata from Marijn.  Steve reminds us that now on Lists, you get comments by default.It all just happens, fantastic!Steve learns something new following on from checking in with Marijn about auto-tagging in folders. With MS teams, this makes your folder view from your channels become dynamic metadata driven libraries.Marijns value for MS teams is about everything in one place… much of it as an extension of collaboration.

31 Jan 20211h 1min

They talk about virtual events and how repetitive they have become because they are all the same.  Then they remind us that Ignite the Spring event has been scheduled for March.The boys lower the tone a little by suggesting that we only attend meetings Partly dressed and take the session with a twinkle in the eyeThen there is a hint of the new WhiskyAtEase YouTube channel to be launched soon as Steve and Marijn got together over the holidays to record the first Whisky Journey across Scotland. Watch this space.Finally finishing off with a conversation about eating in the lockdown the boys eventually start to get to the subject of this podcast   MOCA, the Modern Collaboration Architecture…Successful collaboration means getting the community time, individual time, and team time in the right proportionThe Microsoft adoption web site S&M check out the MOCA one page PDF and the supporting slide show.There is a lot of conversation around the value of community in the business supporting the development of innovation at the coffee machine that is not available in lockdown.  Steve suggests that community-time is management driven community time within an ever-filled calendar.How do you encourage Lockdown community?  People need time to interact as a community for personal development and to discuss ideas when there is pressure to meet goals and focus on deliveryThe MOCA document shows SWAY which Marijn says must be SharePoint… is he saying Sway is not a collaboration tool 😊 Performing in a team means getting support for community time and individual timeThere is a discussion about the Team's applications to use. Steve suggestions that published content does not belong in OneNote. It is a NOTE book, not a sway PAGE.Teams are discussed, and the suggested number of 5-12 is explained as a scientific fact around quantity v Qualitative and how decisions can be agreed quickly with the right number.Steve talks about a solution for ensuring sites are correctly aligned with the governance so Site Owners can adjust their settings if needed.The boys have a long chat about the ratio of time between Community, Individual and Team time that ensures a team member has time to be creative and support the team goalThis is an unusual finish for an O365Distilled podcast because neither of the boys gets on with the Whisky they have chosen to taste; it leaves an oily finish that they find unpleasant. But they still finish the glass.

17 Jan 20211h 7min

The Guys continue their conversation when the Microphones turn on about their failed Wish.com purchases…  leads nicely into a talk about Quality and level of value…So there are definitions of maturity for M365 which starts at 100 and moves through 5 levels 100 to 500.  Steve works through the Differences and Definitions and the boys look to understand the people who will drive maturity…The 25-year-old millennial who drives change because they need new tools and don’t want to work with old tools that have been around for 20 years.Steve gets a little hissy about the value of the individual when it comes to measuring the organisation maturity…  and Marijn drops his ‘It Depends’ when considering how to drive the change forward.The conclusion is that Chaotic theory will kick in and groups of people will drive forward their areas because of individual motivation.Steve makes Marijn look at the maturity level and decide if he is for them or against them…  he sees that they are a great baseline.  They try to work out how to create the baseline…Marijn makes a list of the things that you are looking to achieve with the business and Steve keeps trying to get Marijn to see that some measurement is required…  so that continual improvement can continue you need to understand the start.Level 100 is often defined by the lack of consistency in how Microsoft 365 is used across the organisation leading to confused and frustrated users.  Islands of Expertise be a positive but as people move from island to island the experience is differentThe conversation turns to looking at how this might be affected by the size of the organisation… will 5 people move to higher levels quicker than say 5000…At Level 200 where a common understanding exists then new changes and updates can be fitted in… Level 200 means that an organisation has a set of common policies that the whole company can work towards.Marijn points out that this enables the standards to be based on the business needs and values are…Level 300 is the minimum target where Collaboration becomes a standard process, and the role of the consultant is to ensure that the company gest to Level 300.Real value is obtained when you measure the maturity of the company and productivity score considering them together.  Together they provide the reference points that can drive change and Continual improvement  At level 300 the organization will start to see real improvement in the way the organization communicates and changes.Reaching 400 means that the Business trust the technology and the service providers.  However too much formality can reduce agility…Maybe the move to level 400 does not work for your organization so care is needed to ensure that a formal approach with automation does not reduce the ability to develop further.At level 500 the company is better managed with automation as standard replacing many regular functions previously manage manually or driven by manual processesThe optimization at Level 500 use as it is appropriate.In conclusion defining the development and levels of maturity it provides a basis for management to define the level of change needed and to justify the costs that it will take and enables a value to be definedThen it is time to go to the Ilse of Aaron on the west coast of Scotland for our whisky tasting for a whisky named after a famous stone that gets the name… ‘elegance in a bottle’ Marijn askes a great question of the listeners… How did we change your mind about something over the last 50 episodes?

20 Dec 20201h 12min

Start with a technical discussion on recording the podcast before Marijn gets into some strange and good news.Jon, Shaun, and Matt get a mention for their Microsoft Refresh YouTube show about new productsSteve shouts out that he focuses on the latest news from Microsoft and how companies forget that technology depreciatesMarijn spills the beans and…  Confesses he might be wrong about Sway…  he received a Sway and he admits his adoration for a well crafted communication…  Marijn admits he is in denialInevitably the technical conversation turns to Whisky early on in this podcast… and Steve amazes Marijn with a whisky that 49 podcasts in we have never tasted this…14 weeks and counting before the O365Distilled Japanese Whisky tour and Steve preparation through the various TV shows on JapanSetting targets are important.  what is the KPI for the number of Japanese tastings will take place?The role of Microsoft 365 admins, service owners and consultants in Enterprise Digital Transformation is discussed.First… do organisations really want to do Digital Transformation or is reality the minimum path to the solution with least transformationIs Digital Transformation a yellow Camero transforming into the alien defending robot?Is Digital transformation possible without the SharePoint collaboration team… especially with the constant change in the digital landscapeMarijn like the word better… better refinement, better compliance, after inventing Easify as a new word for the worldClick Boom Wow… a SPO library showing on your native laptop with one clickMy Transformation verse My teams transformation is analysedBribery is discussed as a change and adoption tool for the ‘team Digital Transformation’ individual enthusiasm for the change is a key steppingstone to successSteve gets is user story points and stories and measurements all mixed up…Identifying the ‘Enterprise tools’ that drive digital transformation across the teams and their processes, a role for Service owners, administrators and consultants.  Where can Power Platform drive efficiency and process change.Curious users with a Desire to change will drive team Digital transformationPeoples Ability to change is a must… that’s why A is the fourth later in the change acronym ADKARAlways changing, the platform is never stable to reinforce the change… but maybe of As in previous Lockdown episodes you get 2 whisky tastings simply due to not being in the same room.  Steve surprises Marijn with the Caol Ila Whisky and the boys cannot believe that we have not tasted it before…. And then Marijn introduces a change in his taste starting to love a drink that previously he has not really appreciated…  Sway and Whisky Transformation for Marijn…

6 Dec 20201h 8min

First subject is about ‘The Week that was’ and Steve talks about an approach to migrating intranet content and at a high-level what approach to take.Cortex released the first iteration SharePoint Syntex and Marijn makes a commitment to collaborate with himself to get a great understanding of the new products and direction that Cortex is taking.Then Steve and Marijn look at the upcoming releases and taking a few each explain why it has value to the work we are doing now or just because it’s coolMarijn predictably starts with the Obvious teams one… Breakout rooms and Steve thinks about what breakout rooms we might have at the Christmas party… and beyond!! And how most of the time will be spent naming the rooms and how Forms will help with the efficiency of deciding the room names…Its pretty cool how the organizer can set up the rooms and send people to their room.  When everyone is brought back together all their collaboration content which is shared back with everyone when the breakout rooms are dissolvedhttps://youtu.be/cKp0QRORQfQ has great overview of the new Breakout Room featuresThe next item selected is around SharePoint and enabling modern experience on Classic sites.  Able to migrate a classic site and then implement the modern experience.Marijn then hits us with his number 2 which is all about the external collaboration with folks outside the organization.Project Moka gets a mention and Marijn’s frustration with no external sharing.  Finally, Steve shocks Marijn with the news that Whiteboards will be stored in SPO libraries later in 2021 and get retention and label capabilitiesSharePoint Spaces (Project Moka) is still being worked on as a new release is discussed and Marijn considers how spaces should be more like a Virtual headset game and approving a document can be accomplished by slashing it with a light sabre…Steve talked about tags and metadata for containers which is imminent and so required to do site lifecycleThe boys then find that the next item for discussion is the same…  both think that calendar lists will be cool so that any list with a data can be shown in a calendar view…  and suggests to any partners listening that being able to take that item as a ICS exported file would have value.Steve pops the cork on a whisky bottle to remind Marijn that the podcast is moving on and then some frustration is shown about the baby Power Platform for MS teams that is due on a MS team somewhere near you.The improved reporting on SharePoint sites hits the stage to give some feedback on site usage so that proper decisions can be made on site lifecycle.Then the boys start to play with the sounds that a Whisky bottle makes when the cork is removed and it is poured into a glass… Due to the lockdown 2 whisky’s are discussed and how far apart they are…Marijn drinks from Scotland Jura Superstition and Steve takes a dram from Belgium Wild Weasel… Steve wins the decision on best name…

22 Nov 20201h