Microsoft
Stop attaching files to emails
Knowledge Management is one of my hobbies. I like doing it so much that I managed to appoint myself as the deputy knowledge management officer for my unit—we have a full-time professional knowledge management officer and I just asked if I could be her deputy.
We are on a crusade to get people to start using Microsoft 365 correctly.
The Army has training for everything. At Basic Training, soldiers are taught how to make their beds, how to fold clothes, etc. We all get training on weapons and how to call for artillery fire. These are things very few people will ever do. The one thing that everyone will do, especially officers, is operate computers. And yet, we have exactly ZERO mandatory computer training. This causes all kinds of problems. People don’t know how to update spreadsheets, people hit Reply All on emails, people attach huge files to emails and ask people to make updates to them and send them back, then they spend hours consolidating updates, on and on and on. So much time is wasted because people don’t know how to use their computers.
So, the knowledge management officer and I are putting together a dummy guide to using computers. We are showing people how to send links to files that reside on MS Teams, rather than attach files to emails. Then we are showing them how to do version control inside of the one file, rather than having different versions and naming them all different things. We’re also showing them how to use “track changes” so they can easily see what’s been changed.
No one told us to do this. Teaching people the basics of file management and how to use MS products is not in the job description of an infantry officer. The knowledge management officer’s job is to manage the systems, not teach people how to use them. No, we’re doing this because it will help our organization.
This goes back to the essay on focus. As of the writing of this essay, we just got back from holiday block leave and our schedules are open. We are able to expend an enormous amount of energy going cubicle by cubicle teaching people stuff because we’re not doing anything else. We are, on paper, unused manpower. If someone wanted to give us work to do, we wouldn’t be able to focus our efforts on this thing that’s really important for the entire organization.
Along these lines, if you’re in the Army and not super computer savvy, here are some things you should do to help make your days more efficient:
Set your computer clock to military time. This will also turn your outlook calendar and all your other programs to military time.
Set your Outlook default font to Arial 12.
Open MS Teams and set it so that files open in the Desktop App automatically.
If you haven’t set up your OneDrive, do that.
Stop. Attaching. Files. To. Emails.