Tools, tools, tools. Isn’t it enough already? One of the core competencies of our Pokeshot consultants is to help you introduce new tools to your company. As part of our training programs, we speak about how to do this and how to do that – but that’s not the end of the story. What we should never forget about is that at the end of the day it should always be about the people. They are the ones who should use the tools for their purposes.
Valuable networks
One solution that lets us connect the people with the tools in a more obvious way is Microsoft Delve. With Delve, we can build our network within our organisation. The more people join our network, the more value it will gain. By locating contact partners within your organisation and learning more about their expertise, you can find out who you can turn to in case of questions. Of course this also works the other way around. By adding our expertise to our profile, we give others the chance to find us and our contact details when they are looking for keywords that resemble our expertise.
Making our expertise visible
Here we see the Delve Profile of Sandra Brückner, our CPO at Pokeshot. We can see on the left hand side, that she has expertise – among other topics – in Onboarding with Office 365 and SmarterPath (our workplace learning tool) for Office 365, in Community Management, Social Learning and Enterprise Social Networks. If we have a question about one of these topics, we can be able to contact her directly. This way, we use a tool to make valuable connections and take the chance to learn from each other. Make sure to also add your expertise to your profile! What are you an expert in? What topics can we approach you about? Which topic areas are of special interest to you? In today’s digital world we might have a fairly unique name and maybe a photo – but show more of what you have to offer – try to make your profile as personal as possible!
Collaborating with others and accessing documents quickly
If we collaborate with Sandra on a project, it is also helpful to see which documents she has been working on recently. This is what we can see at the top of the Delve profile. Of course we only see documents we have access to, because they are public or because Sandra has shared them with us. Has this happened to you? You have a meeting with a colleague and then after the meeting you are trying to find the document that he or she was talking about? Well, we should have paid more attention, but this can happen to anyone. In this case I like to use Delve to look up the documents my colleagues have worked on recently so I don’t have to bother them (or admit that I didn’t take proper notes).
Online meets Offline
What I personally really like about Delve, is that it gives me the chance to get enough information about my colleagues to then approach them in person to learn more. We do not always have to communicate online. What about dialing their number and calling them up for a chat? What about finding out where they work in person and – if we happen to be at the same location – knock on their door to see them in person? Learning from each other is something that I enjoy the most and having a tool that lets me have insight into my colleague’s expertise is a great starting point for effective knowledge exchange, or, in the worst case, for finding out more about the people that we work with every day. Not too bad, is it?
So, no matter if you want to connect with your colleagues, find out more about their expertise or meet up for a coffee – Delve can be a tool that supports you in doing all of that. Even though it is a tool, it is one that puts us as people into focus, a perspective that I personally prefer. What about you?
P.s.: If you work with SmarterPath for Office 365, you can easily include Delve profiles into your knowledge paths. If you have any questions, feel free to approach us.
About the author
Kerstin Schachinger supports the Pokeshot team as a Workplace Learning Consultant. Combining experiences in adult education in Vienna and Berlin with her enthusiasm for training and her love of creating great content, she found instructional design, facilitating workshops and conducting webinars to be her favorite areas to work in. Kerstin’s linguistic background allows her to break down information and communicate complexity in an easy way, an essential skill when creating learning experiences for a wide variety of target groups.
Connect with us on facebook | twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube – we will keep you posted!
