Controlling Sprawl in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has become the fastest-growing product in Microsoft’s history. As of January 25th, 2022, Teams boasted 270 million monthly active users, and generated $6.8 billion in revenue in 2020, which is a 700% increase year-on-year (BusinessofApps). While the platform has quickly become the centerpiece of Microsoft’s modern workplace strategy, since the launch of the platform administrators and information management professionals have expressed concern over the sheer volume of sprawl generated from Teams.

But what is sprawl, exactly? It can take on many forms, beginning with orphaned or “dead” teams and channels, many of them empty of content. Documents and files and chat logs that are no longer relevant, and were never properly tagged and flagged within proper content lifecycle management processes. Duplicate content is also a problem, often due to lax controls or bad user habits. No matter how the sprawl originated, organizations are realizing that it can have a huge impact on collaboration and productivity — and security.

In the next #CollabTalk TweetJam taking place on Tuesday, May 24 at 9am PDT (UTC -7), the community will once again join forces and have a focused discussion on the topic of “Controlling Sprawl in Microsoft Teams” to discuss the causes and impacts of sprawl within Microsoft Teams, and share some best practices on how to get things under control. In this 1-hour Twitter-based panel discussion, we’ll bring together MVPs and Regional Directors, community experts, partners, consultants, and practitioners to share their perspectives on this important topic.

Anyone can join this community discussion using Twitter and the #CollabTalk hashtag or your favorite Twitter platform. You don’t even need to be an “expert” to participate in the online conversation. Anyone can ask questions, comment on the questions posed, or just “lurk” in the background. These online discussions are open to anyone — you do not have to be on the panel to participate.

As always, this month’s tweetjam is being sponsored by tyGraph and AvePoint. Thanks for your support!

If you have never participated in one of these tweetjams, it’s pretty simple: anyone can jump in and share their thoughts, or just lurk in the wings and absorb the wisdom of the crowd. Either way, it’ll be a TON of content to consume in a single hour. You can follow the live session using the Twitter UI of your choice (Twitter.com, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, whatever). How it works is that I’ll post a series of questions every few minutes, and people will respond to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3, always including the #CollabTalk hashtag with their answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow up questions, share relevant links, re-tweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss during the session include:

1. What is sprawl, and what are the leading causes of sprawl within Microsoft Teams?
2. Is sprawl a positive or negative? Is it simply a sign of adoption and growth of Microsoft Teams?
3. What are the risks of sprawl in Microsoft Teams if left unmanaged?
4. What is the role of governance in preventing (pre) or managing (post) sprawl in Microsoft Teams?
5. What are 3 “technology” solutions to managing sprawl in Microsoft Teams?
6. What are 3 “soft skills” or best practices in managing sprawl in Microsoft Teams?
7. What else can/should Microsoft do to curb sprawl in Microsoft Teams?

As always, there will be side questions, side conversations, and wise-cracking throughout. This is open to the public, so please join in the discussion! The dialog is always thought-provoking and fun.

Participating on this panel (so far):

• David Drever (@DavidMDrever), Office Apps & Services MVP, senior manager and enterprise architect at Protiviti
• Sarah Haase (@sarahhaase), Microsoft MVP, corporate collaboration evangelist & librarian, organizer of SPS Twin Cities
• Patrick Curran (@pcfromdc), federal cto at Planet Technologies
• Wes Preston (@idubbs), SharePoint MVP, evangelist,  and owner at TrecStone
• Kurt Kragh Sørensen (@KurtKragh),  intranet consultant and owner of IntraTeam.com
• Kevin McDonnell (@kevmcdonk), Office Apps & Services MVP and solutions architect at CPS
• Deanna Glick (@deannaglick), communications and content strategist, content director at AvePoint
• John White (@diverdown1964), dual SharePoint and Data Platform MVP, cto at UnlimitedViz and tyGraph
• Stacy Deere-Strole (@sldeere), SharePoint MVP and owner of Focal Point Solutions
• Nicki Borell (@NickiBorell), Microsoft MVP & RD, evangelist & consultant for SharePoint, Office 365 and Azure
• Matt Varney (@thevarnish), intranet manager at KCTCS
• Eric Overfield (@ericoverfield), Microsoft RD & SharePoint MVP, founder of PixelMill
• Martina Grom (@magrom), co-founder of atwork.at, Office 365 MVP and Microsoft Regional Director
• Jay Leask (@jayleask), Office Apps & Services MVP and US federal director, strategic accounts & solutions for AvePoint Public Sector
• Eric Riz (@rizinsights), SharePoint MVP and ceo of Empty Cubicle
• Norm Young (@stormin_30), Office Apps & Services MVP, director of collaborative analytics at UnlimitedViz
• David Patrick (@DavidEPatrick),  Office Apps & Services MVP, user group organizer, subject matter expert with DSA, Inc.
• Shari Oswald (@shortcutshari), co-founder and productivity evangelist at PowerUP! Learning
• Hal Hostetler (@TVWizard), Microsoft MVP and senior field engineer and social media coordinator for Roland, Schorr & Tower
• Ed Senez (@edsenez), president at UnlimitedViz and tyGraph
• Eli Robillard (@erobillard), SharePoint MVP, musician, fly-fisher, collaboration technology guy
• Phil Worrell (@worrelpa), ICT engineer and business analyst at Swisscom
• Bradley Geldenhuys (@bradgcoza), co-founder Geldenhuys and Tarr Group
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Microsoft MVP & RD, #CollabTalk founder, brand alliance director at AvePoint

If you would like to be included on one of these panels, please drop me a line via email, LinkedIn, or Twitter. And thank you again to tyGraph for your support of these CollabTalk tweetjams! And finally, if you are interested in being a sponsor of a future tweetjam, please contact me.

We’ll be back on Wednesday, June 22nd with another CollabTalk TweetJam on the topic of “Managing the Microsoft 365 Content Lifecycle” so be sure to follow me (@buckleyplanet) for news and updates.