Blur your background in Teams

Today I had a call with a Customer Success Manager from Microsoft, and friend of mine, Chris Slemp. Chris usually has his video on and before my calls I usually spend a good 5 minutes thinking of some excuse as to why my video isn’t on… I’d recommend going with bandwidth issues or poor Wi-Fi connectively ?

 

However, this morning Chris is sitting on the Teams call waiting for me, whilst I figure out my excuse why the video isn’t on and I see Chris patiently waiting but to my utter shock the ENTIRE background was blurred out!!!

 

 

Gobsmacked to say the least!!!

 

After the call and my LinkedIn excitement, I started to think about the benefits of this, and whilst, yes this is some pretty advanced technology for a VC call actually what business impact does this really have. On thinking of my own experiences here, the conversation was so much more focussed, and I wasn’t distracted by the books Chris had on his bookshelf or that his plants needed a watering. But actually what are the personal productivity benefits to those who suffer from ADD or working parents who avoid having their cameras on because they might have toys out, a bit of mess in the background or an suspecting visitor….

 

 

Blur background in teams: My key thoughts

So my key takeaways here are; how do we relate the features to business benefits and make work easier for our colleagues. Are you starting to promote some of the other accessibility features in Microsoft 365 like Blur background in teams?