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In my train-the-trainer course, I teach people how to connect with an audience, control a crowd, and motivate the group to make an immediate and permanent change in their behavior. My favorite way to connect with an audience is to use analogy. In this example, I use something that isn't technical like doing the laundry to introduce SharePoint concepts to users for the first time. I've heard some people say that concepts like content types should not even be mentioned to the end user but since my audience of end users includes site administrators or people who may one day become a site administrator, I don't ever shy away from teaching people new vocabulary. In the long run, it will only help to empower the users to talk to the technicians and support staff using the same language. If they need a new content type added, they need to be able to say that to someone who can show them the steps. So, for me, I absolutely think that people need to know the right terms for the technology and I've had a lot of success with audiences using analogy to teach them new words.
This analogy is used as the outline for a two-hour hands-on learning class to teach site administrators how to create a library, add content types, add metadata, and create custom views in a web part. In this example, the concept of document retention is new to the users, so content types are a requirement for them (and have already been pre-defined).
1. Site collection – Think of a site collection like your house,
2. Libraries – and libraries are similar to the rooms in that house. Even if the room is a mess and we can’t find anything in it, we know that this shirt that we found in the living room belongs to our son, and so we put it in his room. Ownership is a logical place to begin classifying something, and
3. Content types – content types are all the things in your house. I’m using the term ‘shirt’ as an example of a content type and my son’s room as an example of a library, but there are other rooms (or other libraries) and many other things (or content types) in your house that you put in each of those rooms – things like electronics, lamps, chairs, dishes; even pens. Do you see how giving a group of items a name like ‘shirt’ doesn’t mean that there is only one room in the house to put it in? I know it’s my son’s shirt, but is it clean or dirty? Does that piece of information about the item change where I need to store it? So, if ownership and a content type aren’t good enough to decide where this one shirt goes in the house, then I’m going to need more information.
4. Metadata – That’s why we need metadata. Metadata is how you differentiate between the same type of thing. This not only allows us to decide which library to put a document in, but it also helps us to quickly scan through each room in the house to find just what we’re looking for. For example, dirty shirts, and if your goal is to do laundry, then you may also want to separate dirty shirts by color or style. Depending on the age of your son, you may not be so inclined to do his laundry, so metadata may even define workflow. Who washes this dirty shirt?
5. Web parts – For this exercise, let's assume that you want to find all the dirty, dark-colored T-shirts in the house. If this is a search you do often – going into each room of the house looking in various places where dirty shirts could be hiding, then you’re going to appreciate the concept of a web part. Imagine if you could hone in on all the dirty dark-colored shirts in the house without asking for anyone’s cooperation to SORT their laundry for you. Metadata makes it possible to filter out all the stuff we’re looking for and show it to you in a web part. They can keep it wherever they want to in the house (so, you may know about a dirty shirt in his locker at school but you’re web part can’t get it for you if it’s not in the house). Still, this is pretty powerful stuff. We’re saying that if all the shirts in the house have metadata associated with them, then they cannot hide from you.
You think that’s great? Consider this. If you classify all the documents in your site collection, you'll be able to check to see if you already have a clean, blue shirt before going out and buying a new one. If people are classifying their content, then it is not only easier to find what they are looking for but to make better decisions about the data they have. Using content types and metadata in addition to libraries and web parts allows you to be confident that you have uncovered all the documents you are looking for.
And there’s one more way that corporate documents are a lot like T-shirts in your house – trying to get your son to voluntarily throw away one of their favorites away is impossible. It’s not always the case that whoever owns the shirt is in charge of how long it is kept. Moms work like document controllers to go through the house and get rid of shirts that have outlived their usefulness or shame the entire family each time they are worn out in public. In the same way, libraries and content types in the Records Center allow your company to be in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. These retention rules happen behind the scenes to make sure that certain documents are kept as long as required and no document is kept too long. While you may disagree that your tie-dyed Grateful Dead T-shirt is a permanent legacy of your glory days, it doesn’t make sense to keep that old shirt in search results. It’s like the shirt in the drawer that even when all other shirts are dirty, you still won’t wear it. Let it go.
If you are focusing on content management during your SharePoint implementation then remember that you are requiring everyone to change the way they are currently storing and retaining documents. Communicate the benefits and remember to use analogies like these when introducing new terms to your users.
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