The Inform Team podcasts: Recent Episodes
The Inform Team
Ready to kick start your digital transformation? Our change management and technology podcasts are for like-minded leaders who want the latest industry ideas. Inform podcasts are the place for good ideas if you’re carrying out change in the workplace or are looking for insight on how technology can improve how your organisation works. Ideal for hot topics like: ⭐ unlocking workplace and organisational efficiency ⭐ new ways of moving from adopting technology to exploiting it ⭐ understand how culture drives your organisation and approach to change Take your pick!
Effective leadership and AI meet to steer organisations towards growth. This session is crucial for leaders aiming to weave AI into their strategy.
- We’ll show you how AI reshapes decision-making and streamlines operations.
- Attendees will receive insights into engaging stakeholders, promoting innovation, and navigating ethical considerations.
- Learn to articulate the benefits of AI initiatives, address concerns, and ensure a unified approach towards leveraging technology for strategic advantage.
In this session, you'll discover how to streamline workflows and enhance collaboration. You'll:
1) Gain valuable insights from industry experts who will share their experiences and knowledge on leveraging Microsoft 365 for process optimisation
2) Real-Life Success Stories: Hear firsthand accounts of how organisations have successfully transformed their operations with Microsoft 365, leading to significant improvements
3) Receive practical, step-by-step guidance on implementing Microsoft 365 tools to digitise your processes, ensuring you can immediately apply what you've learned
4) Interactive Q&A: Get your burning questions answered during our interactive Q&A session with our panel of experts
Fostering a culture that promotes continuous learning and digital skills development is key to staying competitive and resilient. Most importantly, it keeps your people learning and boosts their digital literacy.
Not all burgers are made equal.You’ve got the traditional no-nonsense go-tos, the extra comforting, cheesy-oozy options, and those that pack a louder punch with big, bold flavours. But fundamentally, a burger is made up of a top bun layer (brioche perhaps), a solid base, and everything in between.We can look at your change programmes in a similar way.
Copilot is coming – look busy. There’s a lot of buzz about Microsoft’s upcoming AI assistant.You may have heard that Copilot is going to become the most powerful productivity tool on the planet. Meanwhile, initial research from GitHub suggests that the AI tool could help us work 55% faster.Big claims… but what on earth is Copilot? We caught up with Mark and Kirsty, two of our resident Microsoft 365 experts at The Inform Team. Together we’ll find out what Copilot is, what it isn’t, and how it could change the way you work.
The AI revolution has become a prominent topic in the technology field, rapidly assimilating into mainstream conversations in the media.Initial concerns that AI would replace human effort are being replaced by the realisation that machines are here to assist, easing the burden of mundane, repetitive tasks that often consume valuable time. This allows knowledge workers to dedicate more of their day to higher-value tasks.
Join us as we explore Microsoft 365’s Copilot in the workplace. It’s a hot topic! Mark Thompson and Kirsty Brown are seasoned industry experts with a deep understanding of the evolving landscape of workplace technology. As thought leaders in the field, they have closely followed the advancements in artificial intelligence and its potential impact on employees and organisations. Mark and Kirsty will shed light on the revolutionary tool that is set to transform the way we work. This intelligent companion leverages the power of AI to enhance productivity, streamline workflows and revolutionize the employee experience. But the question is, are organisations ready to adopt it? With their wealth of knowledge and expertise, Mark and Kirsty will delve into the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot, exploring its potential to empower employees and shape the future of work.
Join us as we chat with Kirsty Brown, our learning + skills specialist and Microsoft 365 expert. In this episode, Kirsty and Natasha discuss:💻 How can leaders benefit from technology training too?🏆 How tech training can break down barriers and empower leadership❓ Why asking for help isn't a weakness, even in leadership roles
Join us as we take a deep dive into Emma Henry and Samantha Kinstrey’s journey as Inform’s directors.We’ll be exploring:🏆 What kind of leadership makes for a win👩 Why putting your people first makes a difference💪 How self-empowerment was a big part of their 10-year journeyTo find out more about our approach, visit The Inform Team.
🚀 What does culture mean when it comes to leadership and self-empowerment? Let Virginia Holden, Behavioural Consultant, answer that for you.Gini has extensive experience developing and implementing people-focused change strategies. By applying key scientific and psychological principles, Gini has created data-driven methodologies for sales, partner and transformation processes with impressive global results.Natasha Bradley, our commercial manager, and Gini will be discussing what it means to be a leader in 2023 and how culture can impact a whole organisation from top to bottom.
📣 Join us as we talk to Jodie Evans, leader of the Defence Women's Network who provides an inclusive, supportive network that encourages discussion and exploration of gender equality issues and challenges – open to men and women alike.
Meet Sara Fennah, our special guest and Microsoft 365 expert speaker for this webinar. With years of experience working with Microsoft products, Sara is an expert on Microsoft Viva and its integration with other Microsoft tools.During this podcast, Geoff Williams, our Microsoft 365 consultant will join Sara in sharing their in-depth knowledge on how Microsoft Viva can benefit any organisation and how it can help increase productivity and collaboration among teams.They’ll also be sharing their personal experience with the tool, giving you a first-hand account of its capabilities and potential. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the top Microsoft experts in the industry and discover how Microsoft Viva can help your organisation thrive.
Join Chris Kalko from NHS England, formally Digital, and Natasha Bradley from The Inform Team for a ground-breaking podcast: Digitalising Social Care with Microsoft 365.
In this session, Chris and Natasha will discuss the impact of technology on the social care sector and how Microsoft 365 can be leveraged to resolve current challenges, including staff shortages and financial pressures. The importance of staff and patient accessibility to information from anywhere will also be explored, as Chris and Natasha share their insights and expertise on how digital solutions can streamline processes and enhance the delivery of care.
Changing behaviours – without a change programme
How do you lead change and inspire your team to engage with critical projects in an organisation that’s constantly undergoing change? That was a question facing Jim Robinson when he took over as leader of End User Services in the Defence Digital arm of the Ministry of Defence.
Jim wanted to improve the team culture and keep it aligned to the wider digital transformation activities in his area.
Outlining the challenge he and his team faced, Jim says: “We deliver critical projects and programmes … that rely on our ability to work together, share ideas, and get the most out of the tools we have. It’s important we understand how to harness our platforms of course though I also need my team members to understand their value and it contributes to the team and our work – so I chose to work with experts who can help me do just that.”
Learning from people we know and trust is the key to successful change. In this audio blog, we explore how a digital champions programme can help your team adopt Microsoft 365 effectively.
This tried and tested approach builds confidence, develops expertise and helps your organisation embrace new ways of working.
Find out more at www.theinformteam.com
Lisa Woodall, was Chief Enterprise Architect at Ordnance Survey (OS), while Inform supported OS on a host of change and technology programmes. She now works for a multinational communications and advertising company and continues to champion people’s needs in the digital workplace. Lisa observes that there are great opportunity for organisations to improve the way they work – and it’s not all about technology and transformation; the real secret to success is putting your people first. Lisa has stayed connected with one of our strategy + change leads, Michele Payne. Together they talked about digital transformation.
Find out how:
- Your organisation can embrace technology change
- Putting people first makes a difference in digital transformation
- People experience change differently and how you can help
- Knowing the difference between technical, operational and business readiness makes a difference
- How social media has influenced adoption and change in today’s world
Patient discharge is where the NHS and social care come together. Once a patient is fit to leave hospital, the race is on to find an appropriate care setting. Simple tools for communication, collaboration and process automation can help streamline the patient discharge process and improve care.
To find out more and book your free 30-minute consultation with a Microsoft specialist, visit The Inform Team.
How do you get your team to successfully adopt new technology? In this episode, Natasha caught up with Sam McVaigh to discuss the positive impact a digital champions programme has had within his organisation.
An effective digital champions programme can boost business transformation to support some of the challenges organisations face today. Introducing a team of champions from each department can drive Microsoft 365 adoption in an engaging and cost-effective way across your organisation.
In this recorded webinar, Sam McVaigh, Director of People & Inclusion at Bury Council, shares insights into their journey through a successful Champions programme.
Find out more at theinformteam.com
For some organisations wellbeing is mostly a tick box exercise, yet they’re at risk of being left behind. Wellbeing is no longer just about doing the right thing. It also can make a difference to an organisation’s bottom line. Whether reducing the cost of absenteeism and presenteeism or ensuring your best employees don’t leave for a business where they feel better supported, it makes financial sense to invest in the wellbeing of your staff.
New research says one in four UK workers would leave their job for another organisation that supported them better around stress and burnout. Yet barely half say their organisation supports them well at the moment.
How clued up is your organisation about wellbeing? And is it leveraging any of the opportunities to support wellbeing through technology? Technology can make our work easier though only when we use the tools well.
Agile is a mindset that empowers organisations and employees, creating high performing teams. The key benefits of agile working are recognised as increased customer satisfaction, faster time to market, greater innovation and increased employee engagement.
Ordnance Survey is the national mapping agency. They create, maintain and distribute detailed location information for Great Britain. They record and keep 500 million geospatial features in the Ordnance Survey master map up-to-date.
Technology can enable freedom from the traditional office working model. It’s helped Chris Chambers, former Head of the PSGA, relocate over 200 mile away from the head office and still lead his team to keep delivering a major project for Ordnance Survey at the time. Effective use of collaborative technology like Microsoft Teams and SharePoint really unlocks the potential of hybrid working and remote working.
How a leading public sector organisation successfully pivoted from a Teams implementation to an adoption and hybrid-working project.
About the client: as a tech-mature organisation, Ofwat already had video conferencing and chat platforms and was eagerly anticipating implementing MS Teams. Then, like most organisations, the Covid pandemic altered its digital transformation strategy.
Inform won the Teams implementation contract as an approved supplier within the government’s G-Cloud procurement process. When Covid hit, it accelerated Ofwat’s Teams rollout and changed the scope of the project. Inform is used to scaling and changing at short notice to support clients. Inform was able to quickly pivot, providing Ofwat with an adoption strategy to help embed their mature digital workplace culture further and better instil a hybrid model.
How do your new work arrangements impact culture – the lifeblood of your organisation? You’ve probably realised a hybrid culture is more important than ever.
In the hybrid workplace, you need a culture that drives mindset and behaviours to encourage your people to stay healthy, happy, productive – and aligned with your organisation’s goals. Whether your people are in the office or at home. Tools, policies, and processes just aren’t enough. To truly embrace hybrid work, you need thoughtful consideration of a hybrid culture.
As Attend Anywhere contracts come to an end across the NHS, we look to the future with Microsoft Teams
Since the NHS bought Microsoft 365 Teams licences last year, we’ve witnessed numerous Trusts, departments, and teams start using the platform. They’re taking the chance to enhance virtual care, expedite processes, link data from different clinical areas, and eliminate overreliance on third party IT.
While there are many success stories, we’ve found adoption of new ways of working using apps like Teams for video consultations for example, to be slower than initially expected.
With a reliable service, being able to have a consultation with patients, wherever they are, brings huge opportunities for Trusts. And with the Microsoft 365 licence, Trusts have the chance to align digital consultation solutions under Microsoft’s world-leading banner. It’s even more timely given that Attend Anywhere, an online consultation service some had started experimenting with, contracts will be ending from March 2022.
Congratulations! You deployed the tech and launched your first hybrid working model. You now have people in the office and at home. So how do you support your people to feel connected and experience those natural, ‘water cooler’ moments?
We know that strong engagement levels lead to higher productivity, better work-life balance and more closely connected colleagues. Getting those natural water cooler moments is key.
Microsoft Teams has become the foundation of many businesses’ communication and collaboration frameworks but can easily become chaotic without the right governance policies.
Managing an organisation-spanning Microsoft Teams environment is not an easy task due to major governance measures that must be in place to contain sprawl, secure internal data and ensure organisational-wide visibility and efficiency.
How are your digital transformation efforts going? Now the world is adjusting to living and working with Covid, we know that many NHS Trusts are focusing on putting the right tools and systems in place to make new ways of working sustainable for NHS professionals and patients.
You can read our blog here too: https://bit.ly/3iT18nB
In just two years the Covid pandemic has turned business upside down. Homeworking is now widespread, and customers are more likely to engage digitally. It’s brought digitalisation from hype to the new normal.
If organisations are to survive and prosper in this new normal, they need to reimagine strategies and operations to unlock future value through digital technology.
You launch new tech and suddenly the whole organisation is streamlined, collaborating and efficient. Employees are ecstatic and change the way they’ve been working for the last twenty years. If only!
Digital adoption is only 20% about technology. The other 80% is people and processes. So why do so many organisations miss out the importance of delivering business change?
Join Gini Holden, a culture change specialist from Ricoh.
Gini uses what she learnt and researched, to help businesses deliver transformational culture change and maximise ROI on the IT tools they give their people. If you’ve ever bought a Bag For Life, you can blame Gini for the fact you paid for it without thinking.
Humans are fascinating programmed beings. We’ve used tools since the dawn of our evolution 6.5m year ago. If you want to drive ROI on IT tools, placing people and their programming at the heart of any transformation is how to do it.