INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Microsoft announced a number of new tools for its MyAnalytics tool for Office 365 users today that are geared toward giving employees more
data about how they work, as well as ways to improve how teams work together
In today businesses, everybody has to be a team player, after all, and if you want to bring technology to bear on this, you first need data
— and once you have data, you can go into full-on analytics mode and maybe even throw in a smidge of machine learning, too.
So today,
Microsoft is launching two new products: Workplace Analytics and MyAnalytics nudges
Yes, Office 365 will now nudge you to be a better team player
&Building better teams starts with transparent, data-driven dialog—but no one is perfect and sticking to good collaboration habits can be
challenging in a fast-paced job,& Microsoft Natalie McCullough and Noelle Beaujon, using language only an MBA could love, write in today
announcement.
I&m not sure what exactly that means or whether I have good collaboration habits or not, but in practice, Office 365 can now
nudge you when you need more focus time as your calendar fills up, for example
You can block off those times without leaving your Inbox (or, I guess, you could always ignore this and just set up a standing block of time
every day where you don&t accept meetings and just do your job…)
MyAnalytics can also now nudge you to delegate meetings to a co-worker when your schedule is busy (because your co-workers aren&t busy and
will love you for putting more meetings on your calendar) and tell you to avoid after-hours emails as you draft them to co-workers so they
don&t have to work after hours, too (that actually smart, but may not work well in every company).
With this new feature, Microsoft is also
using some machine learning smarts, of course
MyAnalytics was already able to remind you of tasks you promised to co-workers over email, and now it&ll nudge you when you read new emails
from those co-workers, too
Because the more you get nudged, the more likely you are to finish that annoying task you never intended to do but promised your co-worker
you would do so he&d go away.
If you&re whole team needs some nudging, Microsoft will also allow the group to enroll in a change program and
provide you with lots of data about how you are changing
And if that doesn&t work, you can always set up a few meetings to discuss what going wrong.
These new features will roll out this summer
