Summary of Guardians of M365 Governance Ep.18
In Episode 18 of the Guardians of M365 Governance monthly webcast, Joy Apple (@joyofsharepoint), Ragnar Heil (@ragnarh) and I were joined by Diego Domingos da Silva (LinkedIn), a Miami Beach, Florida-based Microsoft 365 Architect, to tackle the realities of Microsoft 365 governance in an AI-powered world. Diego shared hard-earned lessons from real-world deployments, where governance is often an afterthought—only prioritized after data issues or compliance risks arise. He emphasized that while Copilot and AI agents spark user excitement, most organizations still struggle with the basics like versioning, document sprawl, and cleaning up legacy file shares. Governance, he argued, must be reframed not as a barrier, but as an enabler of clarity, compliance, and trust in AI tools.
The group discussed the tension between speed and structure, especially with Copilot adoption. Organizations rush to implement the latest features but often lack a foundational content strategy or lifecycle management process. Diego advocates for a return to basics—cleaning up information architecture, removing default sharing groups like “Everyone except external users,” and building a culture where metadata, archiving, and purposeful sharing are the norm. AI can only be effective if the underlying content is clean and current.
The panel also explored strategies for cultural transformation. Rather than pushing top-down training, we championed community-driven models: brown bag lunches, user-led prompt sharing, and internal user groups. Joy and Diego stressed that governance isn’t a one-time campaign—it’s a continuous drip of education and improvement. Whether measuring success through ticket trends or prompt effectiveness, the team encouraged organizations to shift from “Copilot readiness” to an ongoing governance mindset, grounded in practical change and people-first adoption.
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