”Everyone” has Teams these days. But are we as productive as we could be?
There are many people who walk around with a little knot in their stomach and an inner voice that says ”"We should be able to do this better, and where is that discussion about that thing again? I don't remember..."”
We don't want to hinder work so everyone can create Teams. It went like that, but we hope people will learn. Soon. Maybe (probably never). Cynical? But we get it. We've heard this in so many customer conversations, in so many inquiries, in so many places.
The problem is not that people don't understand technology. It's that we lack structure, strategy, and a clear vision and idea of how we should use this tool.
For governance groups responsible for delivering a stable, compliant and efficient digital workplace – this blog post (and our upcoming webinar) is for you.
We're not just going to talk about What that needs to be done. We will go through the concrete why and how that makes the difference between a Teams environment that works and one that gives you that knot in your stomach.
Problem 1: The ”Teams Explosion” – Copy of the Old SharePoint Sprawl
You might recognize this:
- ”Should we create a new team for this too?”
- Proliferation of Teams sites leading to confusion and redundancy
- Old teams that no one dares to clean up (what if there was something important there?)
- The eternal question: ”Wait, which team were we supposed to use?”
Remember SharePoint Sprawl – what we called it when SharePoint sites grew in an unmanaged way, resulting in a jumble of sites with no clear owners, outdated content, and disastrous search capabilities? Now we’re seeing the same pattern with Teams.
The root cause: ”"We let everyone create teams so they don't get blocked. They'll definitely learn..."”
Spoiler alert: They don't learn. Without governance, the steady growth of Teams, SharePoint sites, and Microsoft 365 groups creates information management problems.
Concrete hack
A simple hack that instantly creates order – if you manage to make all Teams owners actually ARE information owners. It will narrow the explosion considerably.
Problem 2: ”Finding things is like looking for a needle in a haystack”
You recognize this:
- ”I KNOW we discussed this two weeks ago…”
- That important file that exists in 7 different versions in 4 different places
- Duplicate sites, multiple versions of documents, outdated objects, test data – all clog up your search results
- New colleagues asking ”Where do I start?” and you don’t really know what to answer
The root cause: We didn't think through the information flow from the beginning.
The result: Smart people who waste time searching instead of creating value.
Specifically: The search function
This is a problem – but we can actually improve the situation today by learning to use the search functions which are really, really good:
Microsoft 365 home page (office.com):
- Use filter searches: Click ”Files” and filter on ”Recently modified” or ”Shared with me”
- Search by file type: Type "filetype:pptx budget" to only find PowerPoints about budget
- Use quotes: ”project plan Q2” finds that exact phrase instead of just the words separately
- Search within a specific site: Add ”site:era-teamname” to the search
In Microsoft Teams:
- Use advanced search (Ctrl+E): Filter on "from:", "in:", "subject:" to narrow down results
- Search in specific channels: ”/files budget” shows all files with ”budget” in the current channel
- Use @mentions to find discussions: Search for "”@anna project” to see when Anna was tagged about the project
- Search by date: "budget after:2024-01-01" to only see discussions after the turn of the year
Problem 3: ”Compliance by Head in the Sand”
You recognize this:
- Compliance is often an afterthought because the problem feels too big
- Controlling access, managing permissions, and enforcing regulations has become increasingly difficult in this dispersed digital landscape.
- Law and IT don't talk to each other
- ”We will resolve the compliance issue when we have time” (spoiler: that time never comes)
The root cause: Compliance is boring and lawyers used to be scary to talk to. We're rounding them up instead of building it in from the start
The truth: Without robust governance tools and real-time reporting, the risk of compliance violations grows significantly.
The goal: Compliance by Design where we have templates with policies, review processes and everything built in. But to get there we first need to work through the structure and strategy. Then we slowly work our way forward and chew our way through the elephant – piece by piece.
Problem 4: ”The Wild West with naming standards and membership”
You recognize this:
- Anyone can create teams with any name.
- Nobody knows who is responsible for which team
- Difficulty finding files: Users struggle to find relevant documents due to inconsistent naming conventions
- Team without owner, team with 200 members where 3 people are active
The root cause: We started without rules for names, ownership and membership
The result: Chaos that grows exponentially.
Concrete hacks:
So that everyone can see who is a member and owner:
- In Teams: Click on the team name → ”Manage Team” → ”Members” tab. Here ALL users see the complete list of members and owners (no secrecy)
- In the SharePoint page for the team: Click the gear → ”Site permissions” → ”Advanced permissions settings” for a complete overview
To rename and link existing teams:
- Team name: Go to the team → three dots → ”Edit team” → change name (also affects the SharePoint site title)
- SharePoint link: In the SharePoint site → Settings → ”Site information” → ”Site URL” (NOTE: Changes the link for everyone who bookmarked it!)
To create order in existing chaos:
- Naming standards: Use SUFFIX, not prefix! ”Project name – HR” instead of ”HR – Project name” (better for mobile experience)
- Descriptions: Enable description requirement when creating a team: Teams Admin Center → Teams policies → Team settings
- Team Request channel: Create a central channel where all new team proposals are discussed first – it often turns out that suitable teams already exist
Pro tip: Suffix format works better on mobile where team names are truncated. ”Recruitment Q1 – HR” becomes ”Recruitment Q1…” instead of just ”HR…”
Excel template "Teams Structure Planning"”
Download directly here: LINK TO EXCEL TEMPLATE
A practical planning template that helps you structure:
- Teams inventory: List your existing teams with name, owner and purpose
- Structural planning: Map which teams you really need
- Contents overview: What should be where, and who is responsible for what
- Template library: Standardized structures for different types of teams
- Ownership matrix: Clear division of responsibilities and roles
This template helps you bring order to the chaos by forcing you to think through what you actually need – before you create it.
Maturity Model for Microsoft 365 (focus: Collaboration Competency)
The Maturity Model for Microsoft 365 is an open source model that focuses on defining business competencies that resonate with Microsoft 365 but support real-world business activities. The model is designed to help organizations understand where they are and what ”better” means, focusing on business needs rather than technical capabilities.
The Collaboration Competency describes how organizations can use the Microsoft 365 platform for collaboration at five maturity levels:
- Level 100 – Initial: ”Collaboration is document-based – a way to share documents we work on”
- Level 200 – Managed: Structures and content rules begin to be defined based on specific goals
- Level 300 – Defined: ”The collaboration process is well-defined and agreed upon as a standard business process”
- Level 400 – Predictable: Teams can determine their own collaboration style within defined policies
- Level 500 – Optimizing: Continuous improvement and optimization of collaboration processes
