{"id":16078,"date":"2024-08-01T11:46:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T18:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=16078"},"modified":"2024-09-26T12:35:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T19:35:27","slug":"driving-copilot-for-microsoft-365-adoption-with-our-copilot-champs-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/driving-copilot-for-microsoft-365-adoption-with-our-copilot-champs-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption with our Copilot Champs Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nobody helps employees adopt a new tool like their peers\u2014the people who know their responsibilities, their organizational culture, and their day-to-day tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the initial stages of our Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption, a technology that brings many new possibilities and ways of working to the table, we knew we needed an unconventional approach to change management. At Microsoft Digital, the company\u2019s IT organization, we understand that peer-to-peer support is one of the most powerful levers for driving excitement, engagement, education, and action for employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We turned to a grassroots approach to adoption support: The Copilot Champs Community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New technology needs a new approach to adoption<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Cadie Kneip (left to right) led our Copilot Champs Community with support from Chad Hawthorne and Lisa Fryc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As we began our Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout, it quickly became apparent that a community-based approach would be particularly powerful for this technology. That\u2019s because individual people use Copilot in ways that are highly specific to their work and organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, although Microsoft Digital has an extremely robust team of change management professionals, we could never hope to address the needs and culture of every organization across the company. We also recognized that excitement for Copilot was leading many of our employees to dive in headfirst and become early super-users when it came to applying this tool to their roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way to get people to really adopt a change is to make it relevant to their roles, and you achieve that by showing them the value of that change,\u201d says Lisa Fryc, director of business program management on Microsoft Digital\u2019s readiness team. \u201cPeer-to-peer adoption efforts create a trusted environment where people can get the best information from their own community members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a centralized change management perspective, our role at Microsoft Digital becomes providing the \u201cone front door\u201d to the assets and resources employees need, then relying on community support to direct employees to the material most relevant to their work. The result is a hub-and-spoke model that involves both core and local change management teams working to empower the Copilot Champs Community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The internal benefits of our Copilot Champs Community<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Our Copilot Champs Community enables scalable awareness for Microsoft 365 Copilot, encourages peer-to-peer engagement, and provides feedback for our product team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cPeople learn better peer-to-peer,\u201d says Cadie Kneip, readiness business program manager responsible for the Copilot Champs Community on Microsoft\u2019s Digital team. \u201cEveryone has their own learning style, so our job is to develop training material and package it in a way that peer leaders can grab hold of and customize for their specific audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Building a community that drives change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although Microsoft has always encouraged culturally driven change initiatives, we\u2019ve never run a champs program of quite this scale or sophistication. Microsoft 365 Copilot called for all-in peer-to-peer adoption efforts with a structured, targeted approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an internal culture of peer-to-peer knowledge generosity,\u201d Kneip says. \u201cYou can always find someone in a specific area of the world or organization who can touch on their colleagues\u2019 concerns\u2014it\u2019s just a matter of bringing them on board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft Digital\u2019s Employee Experience Success team developed a strategy for building our Copilot Champs Community, then nurturing champs as adoption leaders. It started with establishing the community, a process that continues as the team grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n