By Nqaba Mpofu
It’s been almost a year since South Africa (and many other countries around the world) went into their first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At IPK, we made minor adjustments to our ways of working. This was due to the fact that we had already adopted a hybrid approach to working, and were thus able to build on the lessons learned as we were forced into an entirely virtual collaboration modality.
Part of our learning includes exploring a host of virtual tools and platforms that can enhance our service offering. With the market flooded with such tools, sometimes making the choice to explore a tool or platform is driven by our clients’ needs and their IT departments’ security protocols. While we often try to the best of our ability to work with our clients’ preference for a specific virtual platform, we also advise our clients which virtual platforms are best suited for the type of interactions they would like to realise in their virtual events.
Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) is one such platform that our clients use. MS Teams is a chat-based collaboration platform with document sharing, online video meetings, and many more useful features for collaboration. For the purposes of this blog, we’ll share the features that we most often use to encourage participation and co-creation. These features, which we list below in no specific order, have either been released recently or have existed for a while. Let’s explore them one by one.
Like all video conferencing platforms, getting the basics right is crucial to have an enjoyable experience. With MS Teams having so many features that promote collaboration, productivity and communication, receiving a user training is essential in order to unlock the maximum benefit. At IPK, we have made this our standard practice when exposing our clients to new platforms and tools. Changing the way people go about their work is not about switching from one platform to another, it’s about changing the behaviour of people. It’s naïve to think that shifting habits and styles of work which have been ingrained over time without any effort will happen overnight. This is why we invest the time and effort to ensure that our clients are trained on how to navigate the many features within MS Teams.
At IPK we continuously explore new possibilities of meeting and working virtually in fun, engaging and results oriented ways. If you would like to learn more about our experience or MS Teams training offering, please contact us by email on info@i-p-k.co.za. We look forward to connecting with you!