Resilience

 

Tjörnin Pond, Reykjavik Iceland

Once during an interview, I was asked to describe myself in one word. Without hesitation, I said, "resilient." The interviewer, looking somewhat perplexed, responded, "Like a duck?" I laughed and replied, "Exactly. Like a duck." 

I was offered the role—one of many where I transitioned from being a technical writer to a SharePoint person. I wrote workflows in Visual Studio, fought to get approval for a paid version of SharePoint (which sadly went nowhere), and eventually I moved on to a contract role. Life at the time required flexibility, and unfortunately, that role was not as "duck-like" as I'd hoped.

Words like resilient, adaptable, and flexible have become buzzwords, but that doesn’t mean embodying them is easy. I struggled when transitioning from SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online. I feared that I would lose control over my environment and, with it, my job. But what I found instead was relief—from ornery server patches, IIS issues, and the dreaded people picker. My resilience helped me navigate the uncertainty and embrace the change.

The same could be said for my early experiences with AI. As an English Lit major who spent a significant portion of my career as a technical writer, I feared losing my identity to this new wave of technology. I came up in the days of Clippy the Office Assistant—rolling out Office while avoiding the annoying paperclip. Why would I want AI to do what I do best? But then, before I knew it, I was paying for an AI subscription, realizing that AI is the editor I’ve needed for years. No one invests in editors anymore, but here was AI, helping me elevate my work. I started taking training and certifications because, wow, I could do so much more with this technology than I ever imagined.

It’s natural to resist change—we are creatures of habit, after all. I see this often in my current role as a SharePoint consultant, where I help customers plan and migrate their data to SharePoint Online. Many business processes are built around the structure and security of file shares, which don’t directly translate to SharePoint Online’s flat hierarchy. The idea of moving files and folders into a multitude of sites and libraries feels overwhelming and almost alien. I’ve seen—and made—attempts to migrate millions of files into a single library. It’s not pretty, nor is it the best user experience.

Yes, migrating to many sites and libraries is disruptive. It requires planning, user adoption, and training. But the result is a resilient SharePoint environment. By following best practices and embracing new technologies, we future-proof our systems, our data, and ourselves. Resilience is what propels us forward. It doesn’t always feel comfortable at first—we might resist it, that's a normal response. But accepting the challenge and change creates a better experience for users, administrators, and product owners alike.

Segmenting data and security helps you align with what’s possible with AI technologies, keeping your data secure and manageable. Resilience isn’t just about surviving change; it’s about thriving in it.