February Adoption Theme – Boost Your Game!

February Adoption Theme – #BoostYourGame

Welcome to our February adoption focus on #BoostYourGame! Ensure that you are taking time for yourself and focusing on continuing to drive the awareness and learnings that put yourself first. Knowing that is a must to ensure your own wellbeing. As we continue our monthly themes and a focus on #PeopleFirst throughout them, boosting your game is critical!

You matter!

The first area to explore is YOU! Boosting your game means to invest in yourself, your career development and your technical skills. What is your passion project, what do others consider you the expert on? Are you taking the right amount of focus time to continue and expand those skills, to staying up to date with the latest changes, etc.? This can be a challenge with today’s pace of change and expectations of knowing everything the moment it is available, let’s break some of this down, both from our own learnings as well as some practical ways to help ensure focus on you. Remember, to always put #PeopleFirst, including yourself.

It’s okay to not know everything on day 1 – pause and find focus time.

We live in a fast-changing environment! We need a reminder that we don’t have to know the full impact and scope of something the moment it is available. That’s why we need focus time to dive into new areas, to stay alert, and to have the mental breaks to think through applications and use cases. Give yourself time to think about new ways to look at the latest releases and the impacts they may have to the groups you support. Think about your organizational relationships and how you can leverage the talent around you for greater impact.

Experiment and explore with your organization to bring them into the discovery process! It’s refreshing and imperative to get other perspectives. Your listening skills are your greatest asset. Hearing others helps you discover how to best introduce new areas to the business as well as helps to #BoostYourGame and the others you involve! (See what we did there!? )

Setup a Focus plan with Viva Insights inside of Microsoft Teams to ensure you are giving yourself the time you need to #BoostYourGame. Use this time to read through the What’s New announcements on the product areas that are of most interest to you (some examples of where to start: Teams | Yammer | Viva), stay up to date with blogs from our Tech Community (or your own favorites!), or time to connect with internal peer groups. The more you use and promote Focus plans, the more others will come to show respect, adoption, and dependence on for their own time to focus. Remember to make use of the automatic scheduling for Focus time, muting of notifications, and more to get the most use out of this time!

Recharge your drive! Learn and expand into new areas for yourself and your organization.

You have the time above to focus directly on your wellbeing and mental expansion in your passion areas, but where are some direct resources to really #BoostYourGame for your own drive, and how do you bring some elements in for others? Let’s look into a few areas we have that we think will help recharge and energize the path forward!

Showcase and #BoostYourGame through some courses that speak to your passions! Consider these building blocks to showcase and hone in on your drive for excellence within your role. Since we are focused on the adoption of Microsoft services, one great way to start is our Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist course on Microsoft Learn. While you’re there, check out the other content from Microsoft Learn in your other passion areas or jump into something totally new and add to your skill set! There are lots of courses and certifications out there around a multitude of topics.

While we really want to focus on your direct impact and how to #BoostYourGame, you should also think about your impact and inspiration to others as Champions. Often times you are at the forefront of inspiring others to increase their adoption and use cases of the solutions you inspire with. Help others keep to the theme of #BoostYourGame with fun learnings and gamifications, even a bit of #BetterTogether through two of our own solutions, Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways and Tournament of Teams!

Maybe create some custom playlists in Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways around the "What’s New" for your organization’s specific learning paths, gamify – have some fun! – it via a custom tournament in Tournament of Teams that directs people to the custom playlist to find out more about a topic, and award some points for learning along the way! Or view and share great videos like this one from Mike Tholfsen with 25 Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Teams Meetings.

Community connections – #PeopleFirst & #BetterTogether.

Community and connection help in so many ways! We think this community is one of the best around, but there are tons others that can help inspire, discuss, and drive you to #BoostYourGame!

Community matters! Chances are there is a community available today for you to join and share stories, get help, and connect with others. If there is not one, maybe it’s your time to start one! Some other great communities include Women in Teams, specific community hubs in the Microsoft Tech Community, or find some local communities in your area that share the same passions!

It’s all about you!

Hopefully some of the suggestions above will inspire you to the focus on #BoostYourGame. It’s never too late to start a new practice or to set new standards. Invest in yourself and continue inspiring others!

#BoostYourGame

Setup a Focus Plan and start to invest in your time into areas that you are passionate about and want to stay aware of!	Leverage sites like Microsoft Learn to build your acumen within the areas you are passionate about, like our Microsoft Adoption Specialist Course!	Build up and join communities with your participations, expand your network, and learn from a community of like-minded people as you boost your game!

Share other ideas with us using the #BoostYourGame and follow our adoption twitter @MSFTAdoption!

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/driving-adoption-blog/february-adoption-theme-boost-your-game/ba-p/3144338 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/driving-adoption-blog/february-adoption-theme-boost-your-game/ba-p/3144338 2022-02-17 01:56:38Z