Now that we are all amid the COVID-19 self-quarantine most of you are probably working from home. This transition has probably started settling in for most of you and presents its own set of challenges. Instead of going to someone’s office or desk to ask them a question as one would normally do, now we email. This leads to long chains of email conversations that are a few sentences long that fill up that inbox. Meetings are a great alternative but normally would be done in person. But because of the current situation conference calls are needed. Setting up conference calls for meetings that would be done in person where you could all look a single screen can be difficult. Microsoft Teams is a solution to removing all that hassle. If you are already using Microsoft teams you know what I am talking about.
First, let’s talk about replacing all those long email threads with a single conversation thread. Microsoft Teams allows you to create individual teams and add those who are also using teams to them. Once everyone is in the team, each team has a post thread where you can begin your conversations where everyone in the team can see it. You can also use the chat tab to select your team and start a conversation there. Conversely, if you don’t want to have a public conversation you can start a private conversation with someone.
Next, Teams allows you to set up video conferences and event setup call-in numbers for people outside of teams. Setting up a video meeting is as easy as selecting the calendar tab and clicking the meeting button. The video meetings also have the feature of being able to share your screen so that everyone can see what you are talking about. Screen sharing is especially good for giving your team a tutorial. Learning a new standard or procedure can be tough especially now with social distancing screen sharing is a great way to do this. Lastly, if your team is in need of diagrams Microsoft Teams also lets you use a whiteboard.
Lastly, let’s talk about how teams can help your team stay organized. This can be achieved through Teams creating a new tab in your team and creating tasks. These tasks can be assigned to individual members or a group of members. Tasks have various options you can set start and end dates for task, colour code them and give those colours titles. These tasks can have a checklist set up by simply right-clicking the task. Adding to the checklist is a simple as clicking next to the check circle and typing and hitting enter. Once tasks have been added you can see them on a calendar by selecting the schedule tab. You can even attach files to a specific task using SharePoint a part of the 365 suite or share the file directly with everyone under the files tab.
If You have Microsoft teams and need some help they have a very useful documents page where you can find anything you might need. I hope you found this quick little dive into what Microsoft Teams can do helpful.
