Why You Should Build An M365 Digital Learning Team

In our hybrid world of work, technology is more important than ever before and staying on top of new updates or launches is vital to the success of businesses.

Many organisations have already begun a digital transition, using Microsoft Teams for their meetings and document storage for example, but may not be fully experienced in the ins and outs of different apps or how they can work together, therefore can’t support colleagues to the highest extent.

This is only enhanced by many people working at home for the most part, so learning can be inhibited due to difficulties in coming together or even lack of motivation for self-driven learning.  

As a result of this, many are considering building out their own digital learning team to help ensure everyone uses Microsoft 365 (M365) software to the best of their ability. A digital learning team helps breed digital champions, who spread knowledge throughout their teams to make the digital transition run as smoothly as possible. 

Here at Changing Social, we are experts in all things M365 and support organisations in their digital champion quest, building out highly skilled and confident employees to achieve greatness in the workplace.

Read on to find more about what it means to be a digital champion and how we can help you! 

 

What is a Digital Champion? 

A digital champion is someone within an organisation who is passionate about making a positive impact to the way you and your colleagues get work done. Not only that, but they recognise the value of technology. They are: 

1. Approachable 
2. Highly engaged and passionate 
3. Representative of the typical worker within their teams 
4. Interested in new ways of working and new digital tools 
5. Willing to invest some time in development outside of their current role 
6. Enthusiastic and interested in helping others 

Here at Changing Social, we run the Digital Champions as a Service (DCaaS) programme and give hundreds of people from a variety of organisations the opportunity to learn new skills, actively support their teams in the adoption of new digital tools and help everyone collaborate better.  

The DCaaS programme is delivered through Teams and gives champions the most up to date Microsoft learning resources through a community environment. Champions learn about Microsoft technology through Microsoft technology – and have fun while doing it. 

 

Why become a Digital Champion? 

   

Digital Champions are everywhere, from management all the way through to front line workers and more. There could be a new starter, for example, who is very knowledgeable in new technology and would like to tap into that better. There could also be an executive who may not know much, but really wants to learn to help support the organisation better. 

Managers may spot potential champions among their team – someone who is driven and open to new skills. But champions may self-nominate because they want to see more change and support others through it.  

There are so many reasons to become a Digital Champion and help create a strong digital learning team:    

1. You want to make a difference to those who aren’t as experienced in technology 
2. You want to improve the digital savviness of your organisation  
3. You have a growth mindset and are willing to learn new things – whether you’re technologically savvy or not 
4. You’re a self-starter  
5. You want to come together with like-minded colleagues and share ideas 
6. You want to learn new skills to benefit your professional and personal life 

Matt Walley, Community Manager at Changing Social, said: “Digital Champions communities have a high impact on scaling the adoption of M365 tools across the organisations we work with. Our champions cascade information from the programme in a variety of ways.

“They may present information about PowerPoint Live at team meetings or create a culture of live collaboration by tagging colleagues in documents, for example, to save themselves and their colleagues hours of time.” 

 

Accelerating change 

Introducing champions from across the organisation and in different roles will undoubtedly bring a different/diverse perspective, which can break help break down any barriers that may be present. Throughout the learning process, they will have different advantages thanks to their experiences and skills and will discover the ways in which the M365 tools fit together to share this with their teams.  

As this gets shared wider, it will help the organisation realise the benefits for all different parts of the business and contribute to the growth of awareness, desire and knowledge of the product, which are three key components of the ADKAR change management model.   

ADKAR stands for awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement – this is the model we at Changing Social base our programme on as it helps create change from the human perspective. All of our Champions develop and grow throughout the programme because they are in a community and can support leadership through encouraging others to get involved and showcasing their new skills.  

The Champions are enthusiastic about change and want to help out not just because they feel they have to, but because they are inspired by leadership’s involvement and know they’re not alone in change and adoption journey. 

As well, having Champions there means people are more likely to open up, ask questions, stand up and take note as those new apps are released, and having those champions across the organisation means we’re reaching teams, departments and other groups of people at a much faster rate. 

Kelly Orford, Head of User Adoption at Changing Social, has noted the speed with which people can adopt simple changes first hand. She said: “I remember the exact moment when I realised just how powerful our DCaS programme is. In a training session, I showed the attendees how to adjust settings in dictate to recognise punctuation pauses. The chat erupted with positivity about how much time and effort this one feature would save them, and how people stopped using dictate because it didn’t punctuate, and they were elated they could see use in it again. 

“A week later I had a meeting with the senior stakeholders of that company to discuss the project. They told me that dictate punctuate was spreading like wildfire and even ‘dinosaurs’ like them could give it a go.  

“In one week, one training session had spread across all layers of the organisation, improving productivity and assisting with smarter working. That is what we aim to achieve every time. Scaling adoption at pace. This is the key to getting the most out of M365.” 

 

Success story – Heidelberg Cement 

As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of building materials, with around 51,000 employees across 50 countries, Heidelberg Cement noticed it was working in often outdated ways, so approached Changing Social to help scale user adoption of M365 across the entire organisation through our DCaS programme. With our support, they were able to explore new ways of working through the introduction of new apps and tools, retiring old systems and saving thousands on licences and maintenance. 

Heidelberg Cement enjoyed the programme, with its webinars, gamification, challenges and badges as it helped engage colleagues and accelerate user adoption. The programme gave them the skills to make the most of M365 tools and equipped them with the right mindset to change up their daily routine – growing as a team and boosting productivity, effectiveness and confidence. 

On the 19th May we will be hosting a free webinar entitled: ‘Why you need a digital champions programme in 2022’ – this will dive further into the benefits of DCaS. Want to join in? Click here to sign up

 

If you would like to build your digital learning team out through our DCaS programme, and would like to explore more of what we can offer, get in touch with us and we can set up a free consultation to give you more details and see how we can help you. We cover all aspects of M365 and can tailor the training to your organisation’s skillset and awareness. Either email us on [email protected] or fill out the form below and we will be in touch.