[Show theme music]
STEPHEN ROSE: So, for our first Feature Focus segment,
I have an old friend: Dan Rey.
Dan, how are you today?
DAN REY: I'm doing great, Stephen. How are you?
STEPHEN ROSE: Good! Dan is an ex-Microsoft employee
and has now become a huge impact,
not that he wasn't before, on the community,
but even more so.
You do LinkedIn demos, YouTube.
You got a ton of great stuff going on.
And today, we had chatted,
and you are going to talk about...
DAN REY: I'm going to talk about Teams
and dynamic groups in Microsoft 365.
STEPHEN ROSE: So, why is this important?
Why is knowing dynamic groups,
something that's kind of
on the SharePoint side of the house,
so important for Teams?
DAN REY: Yeah. So the reason that it's so important is
that it allows an administrator to define
a Microsoft 365 group
that auto-populates and removes people
as the settings change that the group is based on.
STEPHEN ROSE: All right. So we're hacking it
from the back end. I love it. DAN REY: Yes.
STEPHEN ROSE: So, let's take a look at your demo.
DAN REY: Excellent. So Stephen,
we talked about having "rare superheroes"
as part of our environment.
And so here I have M Heroes,
and you can see the membership type
is assigned in my tenant,
and the members and the owner, at this point, are just me.
What I'm going to do is
add one of our underrated superheroes--
Bob, agent of Hydra--as an owner,
and then we're going to add a couple other people.
"Xorn" with an "X,"
and I gave "Xorn" the last name "Corn,"
and "Zorn" with a "Z."
And they must be related somehow
because they both have the same last name.
And this is typically how a team gets built:
You either add them
to the Microsoft 365 group behind the team
or you add them to the team itself from Microsoft Teams.
So, we'll do a refresh here,
and we'll take a look at our M Heroes'
rare superhero names,
and we'll go in and we'll change,
just waiting for the update here.
And when we go back to "Manage team,"
we'll see immediately that Bob, agent of Hydra,
has been added as an owner.
And as soon as the synchronization happens,
we'll see the members and guests of Xorn and Zorn Corn
added to the members.
However, this requires an administrator or a team owner
or somebody to go in and manage the group
as heroes come and go.
What I can do under the "Properties"
of the Microsoft 365 group
is instead of "Assigned," I can choose "Dynamic User."
And what "Dynamic User" allows me to do
is come up with a rule
that is used in a query to
populate or remove people from the actual group
and thus the Microsoft team.
So, the dynamic query is powerful
because I can use things like department.
I can use location, geography,
or other things in my dynamic rule membership.
So the first thing I can do
is look at the different properties.
I could go with "city,"
I can add "complexity,"
look for people that are in a particular state
and a particular department.
In this case,
we're just going to look for the department.
We're going to do "Equals,"
but I could just as easily do "Contains"
if I want to pick up anything with "heroes"
in the name of the department.
And in this case,
we're going to add the value of "Rare Superheroes."
And by adding that to the expression,
now if I save that,
and I save this,
everybody that's been put into
that "Rare Superheroes" group
becomes part of the team automatically,
and the team actually manages
its membership and its ownership automatically
based on these settings.
This is super powerful for a Teams administrator
because it's the least amount of effort
to keep everybody that's in a particular department
or a particular role in your company
associated with the appropriate teams.
There is no overhead beyond this.
So, we can see here
all of the different user names that I have.
We can see that I have a user that I'm going in to change
and make sure they're under the correct department.
This is what fills in
when you have the "Rare Superheroes."
So, we've just added "Xorn Corn,"
and we've got "Zorn" with a "Z,"
and we're going to add that property
to make it a department of "Rare Superheroes."
And then, once all of this updates,
what happens in Teams
and the group behind it
is, everything would be changed to,
and we can see already this team has membership settings
that prevent you from adding or removing members.
The reason for that,
that you can't add or remove,
is because we've already moved
"Xorn" and "Zorn" into this group,
and thus the team.
So, instead of the way that we managed it before,
where we just added people here
as an administrator or owner of the group,
we can now do this through
the dynamic group and the membership query
that gets defined here within Microsoft 365 Groups.
So, I could add additional information to that
or leave it as just the, the one variable.
STEPHEN ROSE: Dan, that's great.
It's, you know, really nice to see a shortcut.
That certainly makes it easier to do it.
Could we also do this with like, Azure AD groups?
If I could say,
"Hey, everybody in sales,
and everybody in marketing,"
and as people come and go from the company
or vendors come and go,
they're automatically added and removed?
DAN REY: Yeah, these are Azure AD groups.
They're just "Defined" instead
of "Assigned" membership... STEPHEN ROSE: Right.
DAN REY: ...which would be the typical membership.
They're dynamic based on that rule.
So, it could be sales, it could be marketing,
it could be people in sales
in a particular state. STEPHEN ROSE: Yeah.
DAN REY: You could do whatever you want with it.
STEPHEN ROSE: That sounds like a perfect topic
for the follow-up blog based on the show,
if you're up for it. DAN REY: Yes, yes,
we'll definitely do that.
STEPHEN ROSE: Awesome. Well, Dan Rey, my fellow Chicagoan,
always great to see you. thanks for joining us.
And to hear more and to dig in a little bit deeper,
check out the blog, where Dan lists
how you can join his YouTube,
all the cool stuff that he's doing.
He's got some amazing content,
and we'll look forward to your blog, as well.
Thanks for joining us today, Dan.
DAN REY: Thanks, Stephen--appreciate it.
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STEPHEN ROSE: All right, everybody. Welcome back.
For our second segment on the show,
I have one of my new favorite MVPs:
Karoliina's joining me today.
She is a three-time MVP.
She joined us in our Ignite video,
knocked it out of the park. I said, "You have to come back."
And she has chosen to talk about Viva Insights,
which is such a great topic
because I get all the time,
"What is Viva, and really, how does it work?"
And the question I get a lot
about insights is, "Is it private?"
You know, "Are people able to spy on me,
and see all my information?"
And I know, you're going to talk about how really
your managers see all their employees as an aggregate,
or the company sees people by organization,
by sales, marketing, OU, or by manager,
but they can't see individuals.
So, first of all, what is Viva Insights?
And then, tell us a little bit about the privacy,
and then you have a demo for us.
I'm excited to see you.
KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: Yes, I'm super excited to be here.
Because, just like a bit background information.
So, I think that we all in Finland, since that,
since like, this remote and hybrid work became the norm--
like, I'm at the office, you are at home.
All the employees have really struggled
to stay connected to the Teams,
and employees are maybe feeling overworked,
on their toes, like massive workloads.
It's 7:00 PM here, by the way.
And employees, they work longer days, like me.
They sit in more meetings than ever before,
they're producing content, more content than ever before.
But still, like, despite all of these, these meetings,
all of these materials, communication channels,
still managers and leaders feel disconnected
with their team members.
And I think it was in the Work Trend Index study
said that over half of the managers feel that leadership
is actually out of touch with employees.
and I think that's super, super scary.
STEPHEN ROSE: I agree, I agree.
It's interesting, because our company used,
our marketing org used Viva Insights and took a look
and realized very early during the pandemic,
we were doing, you know,
five days worth of work in four days.
That we had gone from hour-long meetings with breaks,
to 30-minute meetings back to back.
And because of this,
we added that functionality in Outlook,
where you can start and end meetings early.
And they've given us Friday afternoons
as no-meeting Fridays. KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: Yeah.
STEPHEN ROSE: So, we have from noon on without any meetings.
There's that time to get caught up on everything,
so we can actually enjoy our weekend.
So, the Viva Insights tool is
super powerful for that, and when
it can create very actionable things to do
to what you were saying. KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: Yes.
And I love it
because it's based on data--
like, real data
collected from M365... STEPHEN ROSE: Right.
KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: ...which is private. It is anonymous.
And I see that many people are very worried about now,
"Can my manager see if I'm joining all
the meetings in time?" STEPHEN ROSE: Right.
KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: Or, "Does my manager
see all my personal information?"
And no, so it can't. STEPHEN ROSE: Nope.
KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: It's all group-ified at the team level
or at the organizational level.
STEPHEN ROSE: Right. It's all aggregate data, absolutely.
So, let's take a look at a demo.
KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: Cool, yeah.
Viva Insights is all about leading
employee experience and well-being
with data and actionable insights.
It collects that user data all around [indistinct] five,
but it makes it anonymous,
and it creates automatic reports based on
how your team members communicate and collaborate.
And, I think Viva Insights is an amazing leadership tool.
It's built to help managers lead your teams better
and to focus on that employee experience.
I think it's about being able to lead
based on facts and data, not just the feeling.
In Viva Insights, you'll find two sections
that are especially relevant to managers:
"Teamwork habits" and "Organization trends."
And you will see these sections
if you are given a group manager access in Viva Insights.
You will see all of these people according
to the AD structure
or by a separate data file,
but you can also edit your own team
by removing or adding relevant persons.
One-on-one discussions with team members
are an easy and human way
to stay connected with your colleagues.
I think they create trust,
and they give people an opportunity
to open up in a safe environment.
Actually, almost half of the leaders
say that relationship building
is one of the greatest challenges
in remote and hybrid work,
and simply having that chat goes a long way.
One-on-ones taken via chat, during a coffee break,
or a longer meeting with specific agenda.
And remember also to reserve time
for that free discussion, as well,
because supporting employee experience
and work-life balance requires also
this, like, personal touch.
Viva Insights, it will also send you emails that tell you
to reserve the precious one-on-one time
with your team members,
and you can schedule the slot with just a simple click.
Okay, with meeting insights,
you can see how your team is performing in meetings.
All the information, yet again,
is on the team level.
So I can't see any unique employee stats.
These insights monitors could and should use
improved teamwork and better meetings.
For example, if you have lots of long meetings,
is it relevant?
You have to really know your team
and how to interpret the results.
For some teams, long meetings are normal;
but for others, that's not the best way to work.
Another interesting data point in here is
that whether have people have joined in time in meetings.
If people are always running late,
it's maybe a sign of overlapping
or even double-booked meetings.
But of course, we are humans, and we need breaks in our day.
Having a day filled with those back-to-back meetings
might feel more productive,
but actually, studies show that it's the opposite.
So, as a manager,
help your team members to have those breaks.
Could this meeting be 45 minutes instead of 60?
Or, could this meeting be
just a message in Teams, after all?
And sometimes, we also need to take a look in the mirror.
Lots of times, it's us team managers
who are actually responsible for their team
burning the midnight oil.
According to research,
both overtime accumulates to employee overtime.
So living is, in this asynchronous, hybrid world,
gives us actually,
the false feeling of having to be always on.
So as a manager,
you have the power to do better
and to help your team members to try.
Share that information about how to set your working hours
and quiet time settings.
No more those late-night notifications.
If you get a great idea during the weekend,
maybe schedule your message
to be sent onto Monday morning.
And if you workday
is looking like like Triple Peak Mountain,
maybe try virtual commute.
Viva Insights gives you suggestions to do the right thing.
So maybe heed the AI's advice,
and the place to see
all of those suggestions is "Organization trends."
Yet again, I can't see any individual information.
It's all on team or organizational level.
The data can see here is chosen based on research,
what kind of behavior at work advances
or disturbs good collaboration and well-being.
So, remember the data itself is just information.
With actionable insights,
you can transform your data into knowledge,
and easily help your colleagues to work smarter today.
STEPHEN ROSE: That was great.
And one of the other things I also love about Viva Insights
is when you haven't had enough time in your week
to just get work done,
one of the things is if you,
I love the multitasking.
You're multitasking in meetings,
that means you don't have enough time to
get all together things that
you need to get done... KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: Yeah.
STEPHEN ROSE: And it will say,
"Hey, you have some open slots.
Let's protect this time
so that you can get that kind of work done."
Has that helped you in sort of organizing your week?
Big heart, yes.
KAROLIINA KETTUKARI: Yes, that's amazing.
And I really love that, as a manager,
you can also reserve those,
for example, no meeting days to your team.
You can read more about it in the blog.
And focus time for yourself
is maybe one of the most nice,
and most used features in Viva Insights, alongside praise.
STEPHEN ROSE: I agree, it's awesome.
So with that, Karoliina, of course,
thanks so much for staying up late and joining us.
And for everybody else,
this is our last episode of season 6.
We want to thank all of you for joining us,
for sharing your episodes,
telling me at conferences
the things that have been impactful,
what you'd love to see in the show, your feedback,
and you know,
your continued support of the show means the world to us.
From myself here in the United States, up in Seattle,
from Karoliina in Finland.
Thank you so much for joining us, and we will see you.
Have a great holiday, have a great New Year's,
and we will see you next season.
So, thank you so much.
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