What is a Modern Work Mentor?
To get work done and make products or offer services, an organisation needs to work together as a team of teams. There are some common activites we all need to carry out, whatever the goal. We need to:
Communicate with our team members.
Collaborate on files, processes, gathering and making sense of information.
Coordinate our work, from an initial idea or task through to delivery.
Connect with with people outside of our teams, across the whole organisation.
Today, Modern Work can be defined as a combination of where we physically work and where we virtually work. Our physical location is increasingly less important to the outcome of our work, because the tools and services we need to work are available from virtually anywhere, using an Internet connection, cloud-based services and at a minimum, a device with a web browser.
In our workplaces, a scenario is a combination of activities we carry out to achieve a goal. It involves people, processes and technology.
A Modern Work scenario is when we carry out our activities to achieve a goal, using a blend of cloud-based services. It enables us to work as individuals, as a team and as an organisation, from wherever, whenever, with whomever to achieve whatever.
Why is it important to recognise our scenarios?
People understand scenarios. Ask someone what they do in their workplace and they'll probably start by describing their industry and role. If it's a commonly known role, like a retail associate, a nurse, a project manager, then you may have some idea of what it is that they do. But ask them to tell you about a typical day and the scenarios they face throughout the day, you will get a much clearer picture of their work. If they are enjoy their work and are highly engaged at their workplace, chances are they might begin to describe a common scenario they face in more detail.
People understand scenarios and they can tell you about them in the context of a story or experience they have had. They can tell you the people involved, their roles in the scenario, the processes they need to follow and the tools and resources they need.
Because people understand scenarios, we can use scenarios to help people understand new technolgies that enable and improve those scenarios. When you start with something they know, they can anchor the new knowledge in what they know.
What is ModernWorkMentor.com about?
I'm Darrell 'as a Service' Webster. I have been working in the Modern Workplace space since 2011, centred around Microsoft cloud-based productivity tools and services. Today these services are collectively known as Microsoft 365. Wherever I have worked, I have always made it my goal to help people and teams achieve more with the tools they have available. In more recent years, my interests have become my vocation - I'm a user adoption specialist and practising some change management disciplines too. I have observed that people learn and achieve more with technology when learning and applying new skills are anchored in the scenarios they know and understand.
This site used to be just a blog with a collection of thoughts, tips and tricks, randomly thrown together based on the inspiration and energy I had at the time of writing / recording. But it's time for me to demonstrate the values I share in my work by changing this site.
ModernWorkMentor.com will be a productivity library, a collection of common scenarios we see in our workplaces, enabled through Microsoft 365 tools and services.
I will create how-to articles centred around these common productivity needs to help my audience learn how to make the most of their Modern Workplace environment.
The how-to articles will be based in scenarios. They won't just be an exhaustive exploration of lots of features, or simply a place for announcing newly released features. My content will always be connected to the common scenarios we all need to carry out to get work done.
I may also cover the same scenarios with other technologies outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. While I work predominantly with Microsoft 365 day to day in customer engagements, I hope to share what I learn from other useful ecosystems, platforms and apps.
My goal is to encourage community around what I share. If you every have something to add, suggestion or correction to offer, don't hold back. Drop them in the comments. I have learned more from maintaining a receptive community attitude than from trying to maintain a fascade that I know everything. I don't. I do know that in a community, between us all, we have the answer... or we'll find it together.