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Welcome to the winning team

We can all get fed up with meetings sometimes. Finding that sweet spot of communication in companies is the silent problem few are aware of. We either spend most of our workday in coordination meetings or – this is usually the case for subordinates – spend most time finding, calling and waiting for the boss, just because we need some piece of data or a clarification. Well, today all of this can be resolved in a different manner and much more elegantly.

I’ll give another example. Most research from the days before the internet designated that one of the major issues for employees who – for a variety of reasons – worked from home, was alienation from internal information.

They did not get to chat with their colleagues while waiting for the printer to spit out the pages or socialized during lunch. Such communication is not completely innocent. It often springs the most sparkling ideas that later turn into business breakthroughs.

Yes, you’ll say, but we’ve had internet for a long time now. And chat. True. We have connections, but until recently we did not have the smart tools that could replace such informal exchange. Now we do, and it’s time to utilize them in our day-to-day processes in a smart way.

Let’s get to the heart of it. What is Microsoft Teams?

• An excellent tool for submitting ideas and know-how to a group.
• The suite of tools and apps that operate in the browser, without the need for installation and without constant coordination of different versions.
• An environment into which we can integrate internal and external content and tools, which we can then easily sort in different tabs.
• If you are a fan of artificially intelligent assistants, MS Teams introduces a simple use of so-called bots which can autonomously conduct some of your daily tasks.
• Even when you are not behind your desk. MS Teams and all of its functionalities is also available on mobile device s – anywhere and anytime.

When we dive into the details, we can find that this is a platform loaded with useful features, with three truly standing out: communication, project management and tight connectivity with Office 365.

We’ve already discussed the first. Collaboration is key in a modern corporate setting. With several people working on projects, they have to closely communicate while doing their work. This can quickly lead to a crash into the so-called collaboration overload. This happens when there is an abundance of opinions, suggestions and participants, so that we lose track of where we are and where we’re going.

The second, just as important factor of communication, relates to leadership and project management, which is really difficult, if not impossible, when not everyone is working in the same office, or, even worse, not at the same location. Daily meetings, no matter how lean they may be designed, eat away the time and nerves.

Once we grasp the design and work with teams through Microsoft Teams, planning even the most complex projects together becomes very simple. Tasks can be conducted by several users at the same time, with all of them entering comments that everyone can see, or they can use chat to directly iron out any disagreements.

This eliminates a considerable amount of chaos and disorganization, at least for all of those who used to do it through exchanging dozens of emails and coordination meetings, only to find themselves the next morning desperately trying to figure out which version is correct.

This brings us to the apps that we all use on a daily basis, even though mostly everyone for themselves. Tools, such as Word, Excel, Planner, Power BI and SharePoint are integrated in MS Teams’ user interface, which gives users the option of using them, while also retaining a clear and unified overview of their work progress. Naturally, we can easily add external apps and services, for example Github or one of social networks. Work, planning, communication and monitoring from the same place. Priceless.

Microsoft Teams is a promising and relatively new tool for group work, launched just two years ago. In this short time, it has found numerous enthusiastic fans, which has for a long time now also included myself. I recommend you try them out, and I also dare to claim that in the very near future they will completely revolutionize the processes at your job. For the better!

Welcome to the winning Team.