Every month, Microsoft make lots of updates across SharePoint, Viva, Teams, Yammer and all the other tools across Microsoft 365. Keeping on top of it can feel like a full-time job, and if you’re not a techie, it’s difficult to know which updates will actually make a difference to your day-to-day work life.
And so, each month we’ll bring you the essential updates, and how they can help you to Work Happy.
Let’s jump in.
Viva Goals – OKR Management in Teams Chat
What’s the update?
Create, edit, update and share OKRs with teammates directly in a Teams chat.
Why is it important?
OKRs help employees feel connected to the business. 60% of employees who work with OKRs have a tangible understanding of the company’s strategy – vs only 37% who don’t use OKRs. Having your OKRs available in chats makes company, team and individual goals more visible in the spaces you already use on a daily basis.
Plus, 60% of companies conduct OKR check-ins at least bi-weekly. Checking in and sharing updates in chats, without having to switch to another app or jump on a call, makes the check-in process more streamlined, and gives your employees time back to focus on the tasks that make a real impact.
How can it help me to Work Happy?
If your organisation is already using Viva Goals, use the in-chat features to help cut back on your internal meetings. Rather than holding an hour meeting every two weeks to review your team’s progress on OKRs, you could try:
- Create your team’s OKRs in your team chat where they’re accessible and visible to everyone
- Set tasks in To-Do for your team to complete an OKR check-in every two weeks
- Save meetings for larger quarterly check-ins, to iron out any blockers and to celebrate successes
Asynchronous working with less meetings and more time to focus on the important bits is a good recipe for Work Happy.
If you’ve got this far thinking ‘What on earth is an OKR?’, you can find out here.
Microsoft Loop – Now in Outlook
What’s the update?
Loop components in Teams chat is now available in Outlook for Windows and the web. You will be able to make changes in Loop directly in the body of an email and have these updates stay in sync across Outlook and Teams chat.
Why is it important?
We spend five weeks a year switching between apps.
If you can save some of that time by not having to switch back and forth between Outlook and Teams to collaborate on a Loop, then great. And it helps keep work moving regardless of which apps you may be able to access at any given time. If you don’t have Teams on your phone, you can still collaborate on the go without having to wait until you can access Teams back to your desk.
This is all about collaboration and being prepared for hybrid work.
How can it help me to Work Happy?
Loop is still fairly new, and lots of people are still figuring out how it can make a difference for them.
An easy place to start is creating a collaborative meeting agenda. Add a Loop component to your meeting chat, and ask everyone to add in their agenda items, for example, a bulleted list. If you want to test out this new feature, hop over to Outlook to add your own input and see how it syncs up with Teams.
Or, if you’re new to Loop entirely, you can practice how to use the components in a chat with yourself. (Tip: the option to chat with yourself is pinned at the top of your chat list.)
Once you’ve got it sussed you can share your new #ProductivityHack with the rest of your team.
For more Microsoft 365 tips, join us for the monthly Morning Cuppa. Everything you need to Work Happy delivered straight to your inbox.
Microsoft Whiteboard – Templates
What’s the update?
Create and save custom Whiteboard layouts as templates.
Why is it important?
If you’re frequently using similar Whiteboard layouts – whether it’s a SWOT analysis, a Kanban style board or a weekly planner – creating templates is a great time-saver. You can share templates, too, so standardising Whiteboard layouts across your organisation will become much easier.
How can it help me Work Happy?
Take some time to review the Whiteboards you’ve created in the past few months. If you see similar layouts popping up regularly, create some templates. Even starting with one or two can make a difference. Your team will thank you for streamlining the process of managing boards.
Polls for Teams – New Questions Types
What’s the update?
Two new question types have been added to Polls for Teams meetings.
- Multi-question polls – create polls with multiple questions that can be launched at the same time, removing the need to launch each question as a separate poll.
- Instant polls – ask questions without having to prepare polls ahead of your meeting. Instant polls have three option pairs: yes/no, thumbs up/down and heart/broken heart.
Note: At this time, written questions can’t be added to instant polls so the meeting host will need to add context to the question verbally before launching an instant poll.
Why is it important?
Polls are a great way to help employees feel included in meetings, and to keep attendees engaged.
Multi-question polls allow organisers to gather more information, across a variety of topics in a more streamlined approach than having to create and launch multiple single questions.
You can set up polls in Teams ahead of your meeting, but instant polls are great for those meetings where you haven’t planned ahead. Perhaps you didn’t even know you wanted to ask a question until you were halfway through the meeting. Although the options are limited for the time being, it’s good for those easy yes/no questions. It also provides an easy, low-resistance way to gather feedback after a meeting or event, without needing to direct people to a separate form afterwards.
How can it help me Work Happy?
If you’re the person who clicks ‘Launch’ on polls, then this update will save you from having to click the same button over and over, which is a simple, but an effective way to help you Work Happy!
For business leaders and management teams, using Polls and the evolving question types is a simple way to get a snapshot into how your employees are feeling.
But the Work Happy bit only comes when you take those insights and use them to make change. Then you’re really helping your employees to live the Work Happy dream.
Are you ready to start your journey to Work Happy?
