IM BLOG: How a Five-Week SharePoint Reset Delivered Real Results

Everyone hates SharePoint.

At least, that's what they tell you. ‘It's too complicated.’ ‘I can't find anything.’ ‘Just let me use Google Drive.’ Meanwhile, you're drowning in shadow IT, information is scattered across OneDrive and Teams channels, customer data lives on personal C drives, and you're being told about ‘change fatigue’ every time you suggest fixing the disaster.

Sound familiar?

Here's what Engineers Australia discovered: the problem isn't SharePoint. The problem is how we've been trying to fix SharePoint - top-down mandates, generic training nobody remembers and technical solutions that ignore the humans actually using the systems.

We cracked the code with a different approach: work with one team at a time, maximum one hour per week, let teams design their own solutions within a consistent framework and actually stick with them through completion.

The results? Nineteen teams transformed in 15 months. Over 3 million files moved. SharePoint satisfaction ratings flipped from frustration to functionality. And a repeatable model that other complex organizations can actually use.

This isn't theory. This is what happens when you stop treating information governance as an IT project and start treating it as a change management challenge with the humans at the centre.

The Mess: What ‘Normal’ Looks Like in 2023

Engineers Australia isn’t special. We’re typical - which is exactly why our story matters.

Picture this: 450 employees supporting 133,000 members across a mission-based not-for-profit. During COVID, we did what everyone did - fast migration from network drives to SharePoint and Teams with minimal planning. The result?

The technical nightmare:

• Significant technical debt accumulating
• One site, one document library, hundreds of folders (the classic SharePoint disaster)
• Inconsistent expertise across teams
• Decommissioning Confluence with ‘little effect on employee experience’
• Shadow IT everywhere - Google Docs, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive proliferating

The governance chaos:

• Old information piling up (information management risk)
• Customer personally identifiable information stored on employees' OneDrive or C drives
• Dependence on Service Desk for basic issues
• Dependence on email, with lost control once files were sent
• Use of non-endorsed tools creating compliance gaps

The user pain:

• Difficulty and frustration accessing files
• Unmanaged permissions - who had access to what? Nobody knew.
• SharePoint and Teams skills varied wildly
• Old files clogging libraries and folders
• No archiving, no retention labelling, no control

And the organisational confusion: Multiple initiatives creating noise - privacy, risk, document control, records management, cybersecurity, data governance, AI. Everyone talking about different priorities. Nobody making progress.

The constant refrain: ‘We have change fatigue.’ Translation: ‘Stop bothering us with more initiatives that don't actually solve our problems.’

We needed a different approach.

The Breakthrough: One Team at a Time

Instead of another organisation-wide mandate, we built something different: the SharePoint Connect Toolkit - a repeatable, branded, five-week program working with individual business teams.

The key principles:

• Work with one team at a time. No boiling the ocean. No trying to fix everything for everyone simultaneously. Pick a team, transform them completely, move to the next.
• Don't be time-taxing. Maximum one hour per week from participants. Respect that people have actual jobs beyond fixing SharePoint.
• Upskill through doing. Not generic training they'll forget. Hands-on learning while solving their specific problems.
• Let teams decide architecture. Don't impose structure from above. Guide teams to design filing systems that make sense for their work.
• Create consistent look and feel. Use templates so teams benefit from standards without losing autonomy.
• Move files properly. Not just ‘you do it yourself.’ Actually migrate content correctly.
• Archive and delete. Clean up the mess as you go - over half those 3 million files went to archive libraries.
• Establish clear roles. Two to three Site Owners maximum, with real accountability for keeping sites healthy.
• Enable ongoing management. Set teams up to maintain their sites after the program ends, not create dependence.

We spent two months designing the toolkit, then ran it with three friendly teams as ‘test and learn’ pilots, gathering feedback and refining constantly before scaling.

The Program: What Five Weeks Actually Looks Like

Here's the week-by-week breakdown that moved 3 million files and transformed 19 teams:

Pre-program: Get the team committed. Introduce everyone one week before starting. Set expectations.

Week 1 - The Collaboration Apps: Information session clarifying what each tool is actually for:

• SharePoint = document management and source of truth
• MS Teams = messaging and collaboration (NOT file storage)
• OneDrive = personal files and shortcuts to SharePoint

Stop uploading into Channels and Chats. Use SharePoint. Share links instead. More libraries equals better experience, better access, better search.

Week 2 - Common Ways of Working: The practical stuff people actually need:

• Master security and access panels (sharing, copy link, manage access, link settings, expiry dates)
• Use ‘copy link’ and paste into Teams or Outlook - no more file uploads
• Share at the highest level possible
• Enable versioning
• Search effectively across tenant, hubs, sites, libraries
• Use OneDrive shortcuts to access SharePoint via File Explorer

Week 3 - Working Group designs filing structures: The team collaborates to build architecture that works for their specific needs. Not imposed templates - guided co-design.

Week 4 - Build and move: Build hubs, sites, libraries. Apply site templates. Complete the build and migrate files. The heavy lifting happens here.

Week 5 - Site Owners training and handover:

• Establish two Site Owners (no more than three)
• Understand M365 Groups
• Learn what Site Owners can do versus members versus guests
• Audit guests and members regularly
• Keep the site healthy going forward
• Delete or archive old information

Week 12 - Check-in: Follow up three months later. Address issues. Reinforce practices. Ensure sustainability.

Throughout: Communicate in a dedicated chat group outside formal catchups. Provide support when teams hit snags.

The structure is rigid enough to be repeatable but flexible enough to accommodate different team maturity levels and engagement.

The Results: What Actually Changed

Strip away the hype and look at hard outcomes:

Organizational Transformation

• 19 teams completed in 15 months (202 employees)
• 3+ million files moved to proper locations with improved structure
• Team site template created ensuring consistency across organisation
• Dedicated hubs for each area with sites per team function and multiple libraries
• Over half of files archived - cleaning up clutter while enabling future retention labelling

Capability Building

• Improved SharePoint and Teams skills across all participants
• Enhanced access methods - sync replaced with OneDrive shortcuts
• Security practices upskilled - sharing, access management, permissions, M365 groups understood
• Site Owners established - minimum two, maximum three per team with clear accountability
• Guest management implemented properly

User Experience

Survey results (36% response rate) showed dramatic shifts:

• 88% valued new document libraries for similar context documents
• 79% valued archiving old information
• 72% valued having team documents in one hub location
• 56% valued understanding permissions and access
• 56% valued information sessions

Before vs After SharePoint experience:

• Before: clustered heavily in ‘poor’ to ‘average’ ratings
• After: strong shift to ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ ratings

Teams experience similarly improved, though messaging tools are inherently easier than document management.

Governance Improvements

• Replaced shadow IT - Google Sheets converted to Excel, Lists and Planner
• Moved files out of OneDrive into proper SharePoint governance
• Commenced retention labels for some teams
• Enhanced data governance - PII off personal drives, proper security controls

What Didn't Work: The Honest Assessment

Not everything succeeded. Here's what we learned the hard way:

Metadata in libraries failed. Users didn't adopt it. Too complex, too much overhead, not enough perceived value.

Self-directed learning had poor uptake. Only 25% found LinkedIn Learning pathways valuable. People are time-poor, self-directed learning isn't a priority when they're overwhelmed.

Not all team members engaged equally. Some participated enthusiastically. Others went through motions. You can't force engagement, only create conditions for it.

Some teams were rigid about keeping old files. Not everyone embraced archiving. Attachment to information is real and hard to overcome.

File migration was more labour-intensive than expected. Some teams had no time or desire to move files themselves. Needed backup plans.

The OneDrive battle continues. You can lead a horse to water, but some people will keep using OneDrive for team documents no matter what you tell them.

These failures matter because they're honest. This wasn't a perfect rollout where everything worked. It was a real-world implementation where you solve what you can and accept what you can't.

Lessons Learned: What Would We Do Differently?

After 19 teams and 15 months, here's what we’d emphasise:

Take time to refine the approach. We spent two months on design and ran more than three test-and-learn teams before scaling. That investment paid off.

Every team has different engagement levels. Recognise the importance of a leader - teams with engaged champions succeeded more easily.

Flexibility is essential. The program must adjust to participants' skill and engagement levels, not force everyone through identical processes.

Working groups advance the project dramatically. Collaborative design creates ownership and better outcomes.

People are time-poor. Self-directed learning sounds great but fails in practice. Information sessions work better - meet people where they are.

Have backup plans for file migration. It's labour-intensive and risky. Don't assume teams can handle it themselves.

Communication is everything. Group chat, working groups, formal catchups - catch people however you can, whenever you can.

The meta-lesson? Successful information governance transformation isn't about technology or policy. It's about change management with humans at the centre.

What's Next: Sustaining the Transformation

The formal SharePoint Connect Toolkit project finishes April 2026. But the work doesn't end there.

On their radar:

• Continue building M365 controls - risk management, site management, guest and sharing controls, DLP, recordkeeping, privacy and sensitive information types
• Build expertise supporting M365 platform applications - QMS systems, Dynamics 365 integration, intranet
• Understand Copilot and other AI tools plus required controls
• Most critically: build the SharePoint Operating Model - how do they sustain capability after the project ends? How do they keep building on the toolkit?

This is the real challenge. It's easy to run a project. It's hard to embed ongoing capability that survives after the project team moves on.

The Model: Why This Matters Beyond Engineers Australia

Here's why this story matters for your organisation:

It's repeatable. Not a one-off success dependent on unique circumstances. A structured approach you can adapt.

It's human-centered. Respects that people are busy, have varying skill levels and need autonomy within structure.

It's pragmatic. One hour per week. Five weeks per team. Achievable without heroic effort.

It acknowledges reality. Not everything works. Metadata failed. Self-directed learning flopped. OneDrive battles continue. That's okay - solve what you can.

It focuses on teams, not individuals. Information governance isn't an individual problem. It's a team practice. Fix it at team level.

It builds capability sustainably. Teams manage their own sites after handover. You're creating competence, not dependence.

Most organisations fail at SharePoint transformation because they treat it as technical implementation. Deploy the tools, provide generic training, expect adoption.

Engineers Australia succeeded because we treated it as organisational change. Work with teams, solve their specific problems, build capability gradually, create sustainable practices.

Your Action Plan: Starting Tomorrow

Don't just read this and move on. Here's how to adapt this model:

1. Stop trying to fix everything at once. Pick one team. One pilot. Prove the model works.

2. Design your toolkit. Spend real time - two months isn't excessive - creating a structured program that's repeatable and scalable.

3. Test and learn relentlessly. Run multiple friendly teams as pilots. Gather feedback. Refine constantly.

4. Respect people's time. Maximum one hour per week. Make every minute count.

5. Let teams co-design solutions. Provide frameworks and guidance, not rigid mandates.

6. Build real capability. Information sessions beat self-directed learning. Hands-on practice beats theoretical training.

7. Establish clear accountability. Site Owners with real responsibility for ongoing health.

8. Measure what matters. User satisfaction. Files moved. Skills improved. Not just technical metrics.

9. Be honest about failures. What doesn't work matters as much as what does.

10. Plan for sustainability. How does capability continue after the project ends?

The Bottom Line: People, Not Technology

SharePoint isn't the problem. Teams isn't the problem. OneDrive isn't the problem.

The problem is treating information governance as a technology challenge when it's actually a people challenge.

Engineers Australia figured this out: work with teams one at a time, respect their time and autonomy, build capability through doing, create sustainable practices and be honest about what works and what doesn't.

Nineteen teams, 3 million files, 202 employees, 15 months. Not magic. Just disciplined, human-centered change management applied to information governance.

Everyone still won't love SharePoint. But they'll use it properly. They'll find their files. They'll understand security. They'll maintain their sites. They'll stop creating chaos.

And you'll stop hearing ‘I hate SharePoint’ and start hearing ‘our new setup actually works.’

That's the transformation that matters.

Meet your blog authors:

 

Mel Finnigan

Mel is a senior modern workplace leader with extensive experience in Microsoft 365 delivery, governance, optimisation and user adoption across complex, regulated environments. They have successfully led diverse teams and partnered with business units to develop digital solutions that improve productivity, enhance employee experience and support sustainable ways of working. With expertise in business process improvement, training and change enablement, they are passionate about building digital capability, driving adoption and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.

 

Annabel Hay

With a career dedicated to building trust in organisational information, Annabel combines deep expertise in information and records governance with more than 15 years of knowledge management and business improvement consulting experience. Currently at Engineers Australia, she focuses on improving employee experience and productivity through effective use of Microsoft 365 while strengthening information governance, privacy, recordkeeping and data management practices.

Previously, she led information management at EnergyAustralia, embedding recordkeeping requirements into systems, compliance frameworks and vendor relationships. Their consulting career spans more than a decade across government, energy, industrial and retail sectors, developing expertise in stakeholder engagement, business case development, human-centred design and organisational change. Known for their approachable and practical communication style, she is equally comfortable engaging frontline teams and senior executives to drive meaningful and sustainable outcomes.