optimising digital collaboration from the inside out

By Anthony Poncier, Director of Social Business, EMEA, MSLGROUP, and Sébastien Faure, Social Media Strategies Consultant, Publicis Consultants

Optimising Digital Collaboration from

the Inside OutHow Digital Collaboration Boosts

Employee Engagement, Knowledge Management, Company Culture and Customer Relations

Contents

01 Introduction01 Optimising Digital Collaboration from the

Inside Out: Fad or Fundamental?02 New Business Models Spur New Behaviours 03 Behind the Scenes at Airbnb

04 Digital Collaboration Leadership05 Digital Collaboration Transitions Backed

by the Executive Committee06 Governance to Support the Vision08 Case study: Behind the Scenes at Cannon

10 Boosting Employee Engagement11 The Crux of the Transition12 From Information to Participation13 A Culture Change for Employees15 Case study: Behind the Scenes at Ahold USA

16 Digitising Customer Relations17 Ongoing Actions and Reactions19 Organising in a Branded Content Setting

21 Conclusion22 A Fresh Vision of Your Company23 About the Authors

Introduction

When Andrew McAfee, now a research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), coined the term,“Enterprise 2.0” in 2006, he called it, “the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers.”1 More simply put, it’s all about companies using social media, collaborative tools and social networks to connect people, information and company assets in more effective ways.

Companies have come a long way since those early days, with many seeing significant improvements in operations, people satisfaction and bottom line results. Among the lessons learned is that it’s not just about technology. Determining digital collaboration’s role, how it will be used and how to incorporate it into company culture are what really matters. The focal point: improving internal and external interaction Smart companies use digital collaboration technologies to improve interaction within their ecosystems of employees, stakeholders, customers, partners and prospects – all of whom use various applications to network and streamline processes. Usage is growing, with 89% of top managers believing digital technology has a major impact on their companies.2 This is far from a fad, but rather a fundamental response to a world where the pace of work, change and collaboration continues to accelerate.

Technology expectations: target vs. truthWe all know the world is moving faster and faster, decisions must be made quickly and employees must be able to find the right information, right now. What companies need and what they’re getting, however, are two different things.

The truth is, companies must substantially increase knowledge worker productivity, the same way management increased manual worker productivity in the 20th century.3 Employees today waste about 5.3 hours per week due to inefficient processes.4 Two-thirds can’t find the help they’re looking for.5 Sixty percent of employees in European organisations spend at least an hour a day duplicating other employees’ work.

Digital technologies and collaborative processes help significantly by creating links between people, information and resources. Seventy-seven percent of networked organisations have increased their employees’ speed of access to knowledge, 63% have increased their marketing effectiveness and 45% have increased supplier and partner satisfaction.6

Technology certainly helped achieve these results, but it takes a change in a corporate culture to inspire employees to behave differently. Collaboration is the first thing CEOs seek from their employees; 75% consider it critical.7

Optimising Digital Collaboration from the Inside Out: Fad or Fundamental?

1 Andrew McAfee, Enterprise 2.0, version 2.0, andrewmcafee.org/2006/05/enterprise_20_version_20/

2 CSC 2015 Survey on the Switch to Digital Technology3 The productivity of knowledge workers increases by

between 20-25% if we improve the communication and collaboration processes. McKinsey: The Social Economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, McKinsey Global Institute Report, July 2012

4 Measuring the Pain: What is Fragmented Communication Costing Your Enterprise?: enterprise.siemens.com/open/se/docdownloads/secure/UCSurvey.pdf

5 Harris Interactive and Tacit Knowledge Systems Poll, 2003

6 McKinsey Quarterly: The Rise of Networked Enterprise: December 2010

7 IBM: Leading Through Connections’ - Highlights of the Global CEO Study, IBM Institute for Business Value, May 2012

some employees in European organisations spend an hour or more duplicating the work of other employees every day.

some companies have increased the speed of their employees’ access to knowledge

some companies have increased their suppliers’ and partners’ satisfaction

some companies have increased their marketing effectiveness

60%

77%

45%

63%

01

Introduction

There’s nothing particularly new about Enterprise 2.0 or “social business” concepts. What’s new are nontraditional competitors who are changing the playing field by interacting with customers in nontraditional ways. These may be pure players or companies from completely different sectors adopting new approaches. Free of the usual constraints and expectations, they are reshuffling the cards and redefining markets.

This change is occurring at a rate that traditional businesses struggle to follow. Uber in transport, Amazon in commerce, Airbnb in hospitality and Google in any number of areas are designing a networked society. There are endless examples in every sector including energy, telecom, transportation and so on.

The shift may motivate you to rethink your business model, not just because of new competitors, but because it shows customers’ habits have changed. They accept and demand an increasingly digital culture based on interaction, sharing and commenting.

There’s no question the new environment calls for technologies to improve your supply chain, customer service and employer brand. The biggest change, however, comes in adjusting your culture. These models require engagement among internal and external stakeholders to improve the experience and user pathway. Otherwise, “uberisation” awaits you,8 primarily because:

Social ties, mobile technology, real time, new web applications and digital tools make this requirement even more important and necessary.

The relationship with the outside world and specifically your customers and prospective customers is driving you toward this change so you can meet these new demands effectively.

It is not the technology that’s important, but what it provides and the new culture it spawns.

New Business Models Spur New Behaviours

8 “Everyone is beginning to worry about being Uberised. The idea is that you suddenly wake up and find that your traditional business has disappeared. Customers have never been as disoriented, or concerned about their brand and their business model.” Maurice Levy http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/377f7054-81ef-11e4-b9d0-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3rMtVIyGG

Consumers’ new practises

are forcing companies to rethink their organisational models

Social Mobile Connectionand real time

02

Q Would you introduce yourself and Airbnb?

A Airbnb, which was founded in San Francisco in 2008, is a community platform that connects people who want to rent all or part of their homes, with travelers from all over the world. We connect people in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries.

We opened a French office in Paris in 2012, which I manage. Before joining Airbnb, I was the regional manager at Groupon France, after working for McKinsey as a consultant.

Q What has changed in Internet users’ behaviours and/or practises that made the collaborative economy take off in such a significant way?

A The collaborative economy represents practises we are familiar with on a small scale (swaps between neighbours, for instance). It has increased significantly over the past few years for these reasons:

• Technological: the Internet has enabled development of local practises (barter, swaps and rentals) on an international scale.

• Societal: people have a genuine desire to escape from individual consumerism to focus on more human models.

• Financial: French residents’ purchasing power has fallen by 4% since 2009, resulting in searches for “good deals.”

Indications are that the collaborative economy meets a need and a desire, i.e., consuming in a different way. If we take the example of Airbnb, the travel experience has not changed much, even though global tourism has continued to grow. Airbnb not only provides additional accommodation capacity, but a new, more local and genuine travel experience. Accordingly, we believe that this new form of travel will stay the course and will continue to expand in the coming years.

Q What impact does this have on the way your employees work?

A We all use collaborative consumption services! This is undoubtedly reflected in our way of working as well: our teams collaborate naturally on cross-functional projects. We use collaborative corporate tools like Google Documents and Hackpad. Trust and discussions, together with a spirit of enterprise, are key collaborative consumption values, which are also found in our corporate values. We reinforce these values with team activities outside work.

Q What makes you stand out from your main “traditional” competitors in your business sector?

A Airbnb offers trips that are more focused on “experience:” sharing good times with your host, obtaining the advice of a local in order to take part in activities that are off the beaten track, staying in less touristic areas, etc. We also have a very strong community with which we have established relations based on trust and goodwill. Airbnb is much more than a website – it is a concept that can change the way individuals discover the world.

Introduction

Indications are that the collaborative economy meets a need and a desire, i.e., consuming in a different way.

Behind the Scenes at AirbnbAn interview with Nicolas Ferrary, Director of Airbnb France

03

Digital Collaboration

Leadership

Digital Collaboration Leadership

Digital Collaboration Transitions Backed by the Executive Committee

For a long time, collaborative working was all about the tool. It was thought that a new technology tool would naturally inspire employees to start collaborating. This assumption led Gartner to estimate that more than 80% of social network projects conducted by information technology (IT) departments would fail, as these departments are used to providing technological solutions, not solutions focused on the value to businesses or customers.9

Nowadays, executives know the transition to digital collaboration goes far beyond the tool – to organisational structures, attitudes and governance. Accordingly, 74% of executives have a digital strategy aimed at changing the way they work and meeting these new challenges.10

Escalating collaborative technology decisions to management, which is increasingly frequent, is good news, as we are actually talking about overall change in organisational structure. Let’s be honest, though. Many people still focus on the “tool” instead of the “transition.” Digital collaboration tools may have spurred the transition, but they are not the central issue by any means.

Management must commitSponsorship at the highest levels has been one of the keys to successful digital collaboration implementation. Therefore, companies must adopt a collaborative enterprise view, which goes beyond merely implementing a technology tool. The desire to change is increasingly important, since 88% of companies surveyed by Altimeter Group are introducing a system to transition to digital technology.11

Companies must “stand on both feet” and adopt an approach that addresses short- and long-term issues. It will show employees the company is not focused just on cost-cutting, but on a long-term view where all employees have a role. This strong signal opens up new prospects and enables organisations to move forward. The goal is not to add complexity, but to overcome stumbling blocks to change. Top management must focus on providing direction and measuring results, and less on micromanaging teams. They should help speed decisions, review and act on feedback, break down silos and encourage transparency as a result of information circulating more easily.

Action steps toward changeIf your executive committee is removed from digital collaboration issues, an inverse mentoring approach12 to raise their awareness is one possible solution. Caution: even if the executive committee backs the project, it must not give rise to a top-down approach.

9 http://www.cio.com/article/727817/Gartner_Social_Business_Software_Efforts_Largely_Unsuccessful_for_Now

10 Forrester: State of digital business 201411 Altimeter Group: Digital Transformation Survey, 2014.12 The roles are reversed: it is not a senior employee who is

transmitting their experience and know-how, but a younger employee, who will share their knowledge and bring the older employee “up to speed” on certain issues, such as digital technology.

05


Although the transition to digital collaboration is not merely a matter of tools, top management must understand the challenges and opportunities associated with these technologies.

Creating a digital culture does not happen overnight. It involves establishing a robust governance process, which can prevent the silo-based and hierarchical environment that exists in many companies. Processes must be flexible enough to adjust to what exists, as well as support practises that will evolve. As important as governance is, only 16% of respondents to a 2014 survey believed governance systems are well understood and rolled out in organisations.13

A governance process that serves corporate needsTo be legitimate, the governance process must genuinely support what the digital enterprise will be and its impact on employees’ and customers’ day-to-day lives. In a nutshell, it must have meaning and bring your employees onboard to respond to new customer challenges.

Digital collaboration must enable companies to meet business requirements and simplify existing processes before going further to develop new practises and meet other requirements. When raised to the highest level, this helps you avoid reproducing existing silos within your information systems via separate collaborative solutions, while covering most end-users’ requirements and practises.

In addition to enabling employees to interact differently, governance also helps employees understand the new culture and want to commit to it, entering into a win-win for themselves and the company. This is one of the main keys to digital collaboration success. Bringing employees onboard ensures they apply new practises to existing processes initially and develop new processes later.

Action steps toward changeThere is no perfect governance process, and the process must be suited to your company. It should address project governance (which can be more or less centralised), information systems governance and an overall operating process that enables everyone to share their experiences.

Yes, the tool mattersWhile the tool may take a backseat and blend into the background, it can become a genuine hindrance if it’s not ergonomic or does not meet user requirements. To avoid this situation, you must start with business requirements that can be turned into collaborative practises. Don’t restrict yourself to a short-term view; as your employees become more experienced, their collaborative practises will change over time. Although collaborative working did not wait for the 2.0 version, its expansion within companies is linked to the ramp-up of collaborative tools such as corporate social networks. These technologies make collaborative practises more tangible, just like e-mail in its day, which significantly simplified companies’ communications, even though they had done just fine without them until that point.

The tool can hide a forest of other problems Infrastructure is important, but it is only the vehicle for new collaborative practises. Results depend first and foremost on you. Your investment and engagement will make the difference, so don’t neglect preparation before launching the platform.

People often blame the tool when a technology project fails. The tool is rarely the problem. The reason for failure is more often the lack of getting employees to buy into the tool and use it in their day-to-day lives.

Governance to Support the Vision

13 Altimeter: Social Business Governance: A Framework to Execute Social Business Strategy, November 2014.

An unbalanced breakdown of the budget between the staff

and the solution

Technologybudget

Human resources

budget

20% 80%

80% 20%

06


Action steps toward changeThere is no miracle technology solution that will meet all your requirements. Instead, look at your business and end user requirements, then find a solution that meets those requirements and works with existing constraints such as knowledge management, social customer relationship management (CRM), co-creation and open innovation. Likewise, think about your targets, your requirements and your strategy from an external standpoint.

Communications director at the helmAs long as digital collaboration is seen as tool-based project, the IT department is responsible for it. Today, IT departments are responsible for 29% of digital transition projects.14

Now that these kinds of projects have been escalated to executive committee level, companies should assign them to a cross-divisional function that serves business lines internally and externally. Organisations often turn to the communications department and to human resources (HR) when the CEO does not back the project directly.15

HR, which remains somewhat in the background, rarely spearheads these initiatives and may be completely removed. Communications is typically more proactive on this issue and takes over to back it at the company level.

Internal communications leads the chargeThe internal communications department, which is used to social networks, is usually more aware of the digital culture and issues. In addition, communication processes are the first ones affected by the introduction of a corporate social network tool and collaborative environment. The tip of the iceberg is the infamous intranet – a symbol of top-down communications.

Change management, which will lead users to adopt the new tool initially and new practises later, is often driven by the internal communications department. This doesn’t mean they should be the only department backing it, but they should facilitate others who are involved, including IT, business lines and HR.

Do you need a chief digital officer?Chief digital officer (CDO) and director of digital technology titles are appearing more frequently16 at large companies. These professionals often find themselves in difficult positions. Sometimes they are attached to the board, which gives them a kind of moral authority, but they have no troops and find it hard to act. In other cases, they are attached to a division such as Communications, Marketing or IT, and end up engaged in trench warfare. They’re often either internally or externally focused, depending on their personal career paths, but they must manage both dimensions, as one cannot exist without the other in social business.

An effective CDO has a wide range of skills in technology, communications and change management. In addition, he/she must be able to:

1 Establish a sense of urgency2 Create a coalition of change

sponsors3 Articulate clear goals4 Communicate the philosophy5 Give people independence and

authority to implement programs 6 Celebrate short-term victories7 Build on the gains achieved8 Institutionalise change

Action steps toward changeShould you start by rethinking the internal operating process? Putting a corporate social network in place? Reviewing the organisation’s operating process? Reviewing the business model? Reviewing your customer relations?

The issue of digital collaboration did not appear at your company for no reason. There have been trials, at the very least, and people have experience on the issue. Put your key people around the table to see what you have, your strong points, your weak points, expectations, support and potential obstacles.

14 Altimeter Group: State of Digital Transformation, 201415 Ibid. 42%16 40% of companies in the CAC40 Index have already

hired a Chief Digital Officer (Microsoft Techdays Ideas, February 2015)

Managing change,an illustration

Based on Kotter’s8 stages of change

1

5

4

8

2

6

3

7

07


Q Can you tell us a little bit about Canon, its history and your role in it?

A Almost everyone will have heard of Canon. Synonymous with photography and visual imagery, the company has been going strong for nearly 80 years since it was founded in Japan in 1937. Most people know Canon from its consumer business of cameras and printers and we are frequently named as one of the world’s most popular brands for this reason. However, there’s a lot more to Canon than that. Not only are we involved in lots of varying industries from medical imagery to CCTV (closed circuit television), but for a company with such a rich history, we’re actually incredibly innovative too. We file an average of five new patent registrations every day in the U.S., and for almost 30 years we’ve consistently been in the top five most prolific companies in this area.

Most importantly, it’s our company culture that allows this to happen. It’s really special and something Canon and all our employees are very proud of. We call it Kyosei, a Japanese word that means, “living and working for the common good,” and it shapes the way we treat our people and conduct our business because we are mindful of how our activities impact our customers, employees, partners and the world around us.

On a personal note, I’m part of the Marketing and Corporate Communications team within EMEA and I recently led a project we called “Miru,” which was designed specifically to bring our employees closer together and enact Kyosei across all areas of the business.

Q What was Miru, and why was it necessary when you already had such a proud company culture?

A Everyone is very aware of our culture and lived it in their own silos, but we wanted to broaden it so teams in different areas, different countries and different parts of the company could reap the benefits of sharing knowledge and working together easily. In the most basic sense, it is a new company intranet but in reality, it’s more like a digital workspace that’s engaging, inclusive and – most importantly – incredibly useful.

Miru means “to see” in Japanese and the intended function was twofold. Firstly it was to encourage behavioural changes that would encourage diverse teams from across the broad Canon spectrum to work collaboratively, instead of just within their own offices.

Behind the Scenes at CanonAn interview with Neil Barnett, European Marketing Manager, Canon EMEA

08


Secondly it was technological. Our people weren’t fully empowered to behave according to Kyosei because they didn’t have all the necessary tools. In less than a year, Miru introduced lots of really useful, cutting-edge digital and social platforms such as Yammer, Skype for Business and OneDrive that have genuinely become part of Canon employees’ daily lives. Now everyone can – and does – work collaboratively, innovatively and with more agility and responsiveness than ever before.

Q How long has it taken to do this, and what have the challenges been?

A It’s taken about a year to conceptualise and start implementing Miru – nowhere near as long as you might think for a company that employs 17,000 people throughout 116 countries and with the obvious language barriers that go alongside this. In just a few months, we’ve got the vast majority of employees using Miru in some way and the feedback from this time has been inspiring – a 67% uptake of Yammer versus an industry standard of just 16%; an average of over 90% positive feedback from leaders, mentors and HR directors across the board; and dozens of business successes that have come about directly thanks to Miru.

The challenge is an ongoing one, because we don’t consider the process “finished” – and it may never be. While we have made good progress with Miru, we know that it is very easy to fall back

into old habits and, because technology is evolving rapidly, another challenge is to become comfortable with ongoing change.

But this is actually a big opportunity for us. A lot of the digital change we see in the world is tightly interlinked with products and services Canon can offer, including trends such as 3D printing and virtual and augmented realities. Having Miru in place means Canon is much better aligned with how quickly this new world moves, so we can be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to emerging digital and industry trends.

Q What’s next?A We keep innovating by using

the growing digital dexterity of our employees, which is – and always has been – really important to Canon. It’s about delivering a more consumer-like computing environment that’s better able to facilitate flexible working practises.

We believe that, to be successful, companies need to support the digital workplace by shifting their culture from “knowledge is power” to “knowledge-sharing is power” – no longer rewarding heroes, but celebrating collaboration. That will breed faster sharing of ideas, more innovation and the ability to make changes quicker, which is what Miru does, and will continue to do, for Canon.

Companies need to support the digital workplace by shifting their culture from ‘knowledge is power’ to ‘knowledge sharing is power.’

09

Boosting Employee

Engagement

Boosting Employee Engagement

The Crux of the Transition

Research shows that around 80% of employees are not committed to their companies and many do little more than show up.17 Many factors influence this situation, including management styles, leadership, company reputation, working conditions, opportunities to get involved, interesting work, recognition and personal development programs. Digital collaboration can help with most of these, provided you don’t just install a tool, but use the tool as a driver of cultural change.

It is important to understand how a digital collaboration engagement will lead to a win for the company, its employees and its customers. The goal is a better process flow to make life easier and the work more rewarding for all stakeholders.

This is especially necessary since, as part of an approach based on the symmetry of attention principle, the quality of a company’s relations with its customers is equal to that of the company’s relations with its employees.18 This internal-external mirror can be used in the context of an e-ambassadors program involving employees, as we will see later.

17 http://www.gallup.com/poll/165269/worldwide-employees-engaged-work.aspx

18 Employees First, Customers Second, by Vineet Nayar, published by Editions Diateino, http://www.amazon.in/Employees-First-Customers-Second-Nayar/dp/1422143872/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435146809&sr=1-1&keywords=employees+first+customers+second

Symmetry of attention

11


Circulating information within a company has always been fundamental and heavily controlled by the internal communications department.

Today, this top-down control is partly obsolete. Remember, 50% of useful information comes from conversations around the coffee machine. Although this mode of communication is obvious and natural for employees, especially younger generations, the company and communications department don’t see it the same way. Corporate networks tend to be used as top-down intranets rather than channels for conversation and employee interaction.

The end of top-down communicationsBreaking with the top-down approach to communication means reversing the flow of information in a traditional intranet, which is top-down by nature. You want dialogue, not a monologue. This may involve losing control of the message, possibly calling the timetable into question and creating the need to answer questions before you’re ready.

Historically, the communications department was in full control of the announcement timetable and production processes for a potential event. Once a collaborative approach is introduced, conversations emerge in various communities that affect timing and actions required. Information flows across divisions and among employees while the communications department becomes a mere spectator. This doesn’t mean they do nothing. Their jobs shift to curating, optimizing and sharing information for the benefit of employees, stakeholders and the company.

There’s no need to panicDespite its bottom-up nature, collaborative communications are not intended to be a forum for employees to say anything they want. Discussions can be guided, thanks to theme-focused communities. The lack of anonymity leads to self-censorship rather than people going overboard with their comments.

It will probably be harder to manage a lack of content than to moderate comments, but you must realise discussions can become emotional. These situations requires management to step back and allow people to speak up. You must trust your teams. This is the first step toward cultural change.

Action steps toward changeCompanies must address the issue of moderating comments in the event an employee “overreacts.” Many still lack the trust that forms the basis of collaborative working. You can’t expect people to engage if the message at the outset is, “We don’t trust you.”

Meanwhile, this absence of trust is mutual. Many employees wonder what will happen to them if they voice their opinions on the corporate network. This refusal to let go on both sides stems from the fact that collaborative working goes against current management methods, which are more “command and control” than participatory. It is up to you to make your management style more inclusive and send out the right signals.

From Information to Participation

12


As mentioned, projects of this kind have traditionally been implemented by IT departments, which applied the change management processes of large IT firms. Likewise, organisational and management consultants, who are more process-focused, have produced a large number of change management kits, which are undoubtedly useful and well-designed, but do not solve the main problem: how to gain employee buy-in to a new culture.

Unlike an integrated software package where use is mandatory, involvement in corporate social networks is typically more reliant on goodwill and voluntary participation.

Boosting employee engagementGetting employees to engage means the internal communications work will take place in two stages. It will initially involve producing a genuine change communications campaign (on the condition, obviously, that management has decided on genuine change; otherwise it risks a promise that will not be kept). This will trigger employees’ curiosity and make them want to embark on the “digital adventure.” It will be hard to get employees on board without this emotional connection.

Since a communications campaign is not enough to manage change, a network of change officers should also be set up. This will create support and more extensive employee buy-in to these new practises and the resulting culture.

Changing mindsetsUltimately, a culture change is a change of mindset. Digital enterprise is not limited to using a corporate social network “properly” or aligning a few business processes. We are talking about a change of stance and leadership for the management team, i.e., agreeing to give before receiving, sharing, copying, offering opinions, making suggestions and so on.

This implies freedom of expression and discussion, which leads to inclusive management and taking collective decisions by the entire team. Managers must not be perceived solely as part of a power and hierarchy-based relationship. They will play a role more akin to that of team leader or facilitator. They will need to know how to coordinate without centralising, and lead with no hierarchy. If the management process is inclusive, presumably there is also significant day-to-day delegation.

The time a manager saves by delegating will enable them to develop their teams, review and give meaning to their actions and differentiate between priorities in order of rank (important and/or urgent). This process embraces fundamental concepts including:

• Respect instead of domination• Trust instead of discipline• Transparency instead of opaqueness• The collective rather than the

individual• Promotion rather than appropriation

Although the communications department is not the only one that should promote this change of mindset and go beyond an informative role, it is the primary backer of this kind of transitional project. They have already been faced with rebalancing the relationship between the company and its customers via social media. The same change will be necessary for internal issues.

Action steps toward changeYour managers are the conduit to employees. You must rely on them to move the digital collaboration culture forward. Begin by making them aware of the issue and changing management guidelines so they have a reason to change their way of doing things.

Managers need incentives, like everyone else. There must be a desire to change and organise micro-events such as “lunch and learn” or “innovation breakfast” events to raise everyone’s awareness of new challenges and make them want to go further by awakening their curiosity.

A Culture Change for Employees

19 A hackathon is an event where developers meet in order to program on a collaborative basis, with the aim of producing an application prototype in a few hours. The term is formed from hack and marathon. The participants are mainly driven by merit.

20 http://mashable.com/2014/05/16/full-new-york-times-innovation-report/

Respect+

The values of the collaborative company

Collective working+

Transparency+

Promotion+

=Trust

13


Trust is the basis for collaborative workingAs noted, top management must embody a collaborative culture vision and share the digital technologies project with all employees. This will enable everyone to understand what they are contributing to. Thanks to the discussions the process may generate, everyone can contribute to resolving problems and innovating at their own levels.

This kind of initiative-taking is only possible when people trust the organisation and the right to err. This view must be shared so the project is collective and people get involved. This gives everyone a clear understanding of the challenges to come and prepares them to accept requirements for change. In fact, although decisions come from management, their application is the result of employees’ work.

Everyone must understand what is expected of them in order to commit. As Peter Drucker used to say, “Ninety percent of what we call management consists in making employees’ work more complicated. In a new management world, I see employees managing their workload, and asking a coach for support when they need it.” To achieve that ideal, employees need to:

• Be part of something that motivates them (vision)

• Make sense of their commitment (project)

• Develop a feeling of belonging (community)

• Know their work is recognised (impact)

As you can see, the essence of a digital collaboration culture is apparent in these four points. Sharing a vision is important, while being able to contribute to the resulting strategy turns out to be even more effective. This not only gives employees a better understanding of the strategy, it makes them feel they are stakeholders in its implementation. This dual approach is both top-down and bottom-up, and characteristic of a new operating method.

Action steps toward changeAs in the case of the governance process, you must find the organisational structure that suits you and embodies the cornerstones of a digital collaboration culture:

• A networked organisational structure that best fits (community, holacracy, revolving leadership, etc.) and includes a leadership process to be more independent, innovative and responsive

• A networked organisational structure that goes beyond the company’s borders to include all external partners who are sources of added value

• A networked organisational structure that is open and customer focused. Ultimately, if this structure is driven by “enhanced customer relationships,” it will spawn other methods of interacting with employees to reduce intermediate layers and increase contact points.

The cornerstones of digital culture

Motivation(vision)

Belonging (community)

Engagement(project)

Recognition (impact)

14


Behind the Scenes at Ahold USAAn interview with Kim Cannon, Director of Internal Communications

Q Tell us a little about Ahold USA.A Ahold USA (AUSA) represents the

U.S. sector of Koninklije Ahold N.V., a Dutch-based international company with retail grocery in multiple countries. AUSA’s four divisions operate more than 800 stores across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. Our family of stores includes Stop & Shop, Giant Foods and GIANT/MARTIN’S. In addition, Peapod is AUSA’s online grocery business.

AUSA stores put the customers’ constantly changing needs, habits and expectations at the core of our business. Not only do today’s consumers want to eat healthier, they want higher quality, more convenience and to save money. They want to shop in a warm and welcoming environment, but are often too pressed for time to enjoy a casual trip to the supermarket.

To meet these growing expectations, we offer better products, a better environment and better prices. This means containing costs, improving product selection and merchandising, and making sure we have friendly, knowledgeable staff in our stores. The success of our businesses depends on Associates’ commitment and passion. Without their buy-in, our businesses can’t achieve their goals. It’s incredibly important to have each and every Associate on board – and yes, that means supporting 100,000+ Associates to help them understand our markets and strategy and what they can do every day help our customers save money, save time and eat well.

Q How have you traditionally driven Associates’ engagement with the business?

A Most division Associates work in retail stores or at distribution centers. They aren’t at computers during the day, and a 9-to-5 schedule isn’t all that typical for them. This means our divisions have to rely on printed materials and manager-led communications to reach and engage with every Associate.

Over the past few years, we have developed a structure to help Associates understand our customers’ constantly changing needs. Our divisions hold quarterly engagement meetings to provide an inside look at our strategy and our expectations of them. Our divisions follow that up with printed communications and other tools such as sales aids, reference guides and posters. Recently, we also implemented recognition programs that reinforce customer service behaviours our divisions expect their employees to exhibit, and reward Associates for exceeding customers’ expectations.

While this infrastructure has worked, we’re excited to continue the transition to digital communications to support store managers and ensure we understand Associate concerns and challenges in real time. This approach allows our businesses to be more informative, interactive and inspiring. A few of the current initiatives underway include:

• Our divisions are launching an Associate web portal to give in-store Associates the opportunity to receive updates on the company’s success, recognition of associates doing great work and other interesting news without cumbersome processes or logins. Managers and district teams will be able to issue updates in real time, which is a huge advantage for Associates.

• One of our divisions is piloting an Instagram program with Associates to further spread success stories amongst store locations. Associates can share what’s working in their stores and spotlight recent successes or milestones. This program recognises great work, gets Associates involved and allows stores to copy each other’s success.

• Our divisions launched an interactive digital career tool that allows Associates to explore all the different directions they can go in the company and meet other Associates who have already advanced along the same or similar career paths. This helps Associates plan and develop the skills they need to grow.

Q Has going digital been a difficult sell with leadership?

A Not at all. Peapod pioneered the online grocery business and our company’s digital strategy is central to its overall business plans. It’s in our DNA. At the same time, our leadership wants to ensure we focus on the right activities and initiatives in this space.

For every digital initiative we consider, there are a host of questions, starting with, “Does it support Associates in focusing on our customers’ needs and expectations?” In addition, we always consider the business case from a financial perspective, as well as the risks, including the unique risks associated with social media. Risks are managed with a thorough discussion of the issues and, where appropriate, detailed mitigation plans to give our executives confidence we’re prepared to address any issues that arise. This lets us focus on the upside of driving engagement with Associates to grow our business.

Q How will this shift toward digital change Associate communications and business outcomes in the future?

A Our digital strategy is designed to give us the opportunity to be more responsive to our customers and our Associates. We will be able to gather more real-time insights from Associates about our customers and about their wants and needs, so the benefits are considerable.

However, we also understand the shift toward digital engagement and communications does not replace and should support and complement in-person interaction. It’s simply an added layer of connectivity, meant to improve the communications already in place. The combination of high-touch and high-tech will create deeper loyalty and commitment among Associates and, ultimately, lead to a better overall customer experience.

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Digitising Customer Relations


Ongoing Actions and Reactions

Companies are used to external communications that are top-down and completely controlled. Interactions with customers have been relatively limited, both from a contact and frequency standpoint, even though most companies now have a social media presence for customer relations purposes.21

The communications department will have to let go22 to respond to a new collaborative culture that creates added value via the interactions generated. This means overhauling interaction methods and developing new practises in customer relations, such as an employee ambassador program. This replaces “one to one” or “one to many” communications with a “many to many” approach.

21 IBM: CRM Study 201122 7 Chief Communication Officers out of 10 approve all

the messages on social media. Corporate social media governance (March 2015). Enterprise & Medias/PCNI

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Smoother inflows and outflows As mentioned in the previous chapter, the issue of changing mindsets and culture has already arisen, due to the increasingly dominant role of social media. The conventional internal organisational structure is far from optimal to produce content for external consumption.

In fact, teams are not coordinated and don’t take advantage of one another’s experiences or of possible synergies within the company. Internal and external aspects cannot be separated; there is an “ongoing experience” when sharing information. The information and knowledge obtained via social media must be injected into the company to be processed and disseminated outside the company. At this point, you are involved in an ongoing action and reaction through a process based on incorporating external information into a business function that is usually centralised (we will see this management process change later on).

Discussions on multiple themesThe various people responsible for communications on social media cannot answer all the questions or support all the requests from customers or other stakeholders. After all, it is rare to be a specialist in HR, marketing, research and development (R&D) and sales at the same time. They must act as human filters and forward the information or request to the employee in the best position to reply.

Depending on the answer to be provided, either the communications department will take charge of forwarding it outside the company, or a “more expert” conversation will be required. The communications department will be the link between employees and the contact person.

The goal is to give meaning to digital collaboration on a human scale, as there can be no engagement with customers without a human interface, even if a tool is the intermediary. This approach may increase the knowledge of all parties involved and can be capitalised on if it is transmitted, especially on a collaborative platform.

Action steps toward changeCollaborative customer communications calls into question the internal silos created by various departments who work on your “external digital presence” to avoid continually reinventing the wheel. Everyone must make their own contributions; however, you must overcome day-to-day obstacles in the organisation’s customer relations. This is the best time to call on the highest placed sponsor to get everyone into line. You must first introduce a governance process that cuts through the usual silos and allows everyone to express themselves.

This process will also show where there are disagreements and overlaps. It will help you make decisions while letting people express themselves and share their experiences and practises. The goal is to determine the main sources of value on which to focus to incorporate digital technology into your company’s day-to-day interactions with all stakeholders, short term and long term.

Inflow

Outflow

Consumer insights

Brand and product content

Competitors’ comments

Direct interactions with customers

Political, economic and environmental climate

Employees’ comments

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Gathering and using internal and external feedback are essential to enrich digital platforms and create valuable content. Collective participation does not mean disorganisation. Curation and editorial processes are needed. In fact, given the increasing number of messages to convey, your company may need to turn into a communications agency to manage information flow and capture the attention of your audience, who are overwhelmed by emergencies and requests.

You need to create a newsroom to gather your employees’, partners’ and customers’ data and content, as well as stories related to your events, culture, the market and so on. Every stakeholder will become a potential curator who feeds the newsroom either in push mode (by sending information), or in pull mode. Your employees can insert a specific hashtag on Twitter, for instance, when they relay information, enabling the “editorial team” to identify it more easily.

Organising to produce quality content quicklyThe issue is not to produce and disseminate as much content as possible to increase background noise, but to act as journalists and ask what will interest and engage your audiences. It means being creative and going off the beaten track to attract attention. An information item is only relevant and visible for a day or two; this means you must improve the smoothness of the process to be agile and responsive when retrieving, editing and disseminating information. You must have the right tools (for listening, sharing, etc.), as well as the right organisational structure and processes to meet these requirements.

Content creation in the new environment means the order of priority changes from media, themes and stories, to themes, issues, stories and media. It means identifying internal backers among employees who are positioned to find, draft and share information internally and externally. This is the crossroads between know-how and knowing how to behave, a new talent management stage, and requires a well-organised team:

• Analysts to identify weak signals and uncover trends

• Creators of new digital formats to change the way you create and tell your “stories”

• People who will set your campaigns “to music” to make them visible, attractive and interactive

This will allow you to keep every participant in the system informed of the actions to take, the content to co-produce and the dissemination rate to comply with. You will need ambassadors to make this happen.

Action steps toward changeEighty percent of useful information is inside your company; it is up to you to organise yourself in a network to gather that information rather than run after external content. Useful information does not necessarily mean material that can be used for a story. As part of your information-gathering process, think about what makes a “great story” to disseminate.

Some information is hard to use in its raw format, like a long report in PDF, for instance. A targeted interview with the author, or computer graphics, will allow you to highlight the main points in a more digestible and appropriate format. Showcase employee authors to get them to participate.

Content creation in the new environment means the order of priority changes from media, themes and stories, to themes, issues, stories and media.

Organising in a Branded Content Setting

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From creating content to the role of ambassadorAs we have seen, more companies know they need to focus on the outside world from a social and/or digital standpoint and not remain on the defensive.

This requires working with partners in a collaborative way and developing a digital marketing culture so employees feel at ease interacting with customers or prospects. Even though most companies still perform these tasks in a centralised manner, the need to call on ambassadors is increasing.

What’s done inside can be seen outsideTo prepare your employees to become ambassadors, you must give them resources and prepare them. This begins by sharing their experience with other departments, e.g., marketing, communications and HR, and arranging areas where these discussions can take place. This assumes the company is beginning to organise itself as a network, at least in terms of themes, and in its marketing and communication departments in particular. This is even truer for a global group, where interactions will be so numerous that an isolated department cannot reply to requests in a holistic way.

Supporting employees in this new roleYou must organise yourself to support employees who want to embody the brand as ambassadors. This means defining roles (watch, curatorship, content production, etc.), processes and metrics, and securing sponsors among top management who support the project and encourage employees. It is especially important to support employees with training, practise and knowledge sharing, give them tools to work in a collaborative manner, plan processes for responding in the event of a crisis and capitalise on all information gathered. The entire process should be coordinated by a center of excellence or expertise.

It is unrealistic to think all your employees will want to represent the company, or that you want to involve all employees in an ambassador program. It is up to you to identify your most enthusiastic employees, e.g., those who have already established a strong presence on social media and are happy to share knowledge on the company’s social network. The goal is to turn people into the organisation’s “eyes, ears and mouth.” This does not involve them promoting a product or a service, but embodying the company’s brand. In a digital approach, what you do inside can be seen outside, and vice versa.

Action steps toward changeAlthough some of your employees will become ambassadors, you must not forget that this is not their primary role. Encourage external ambassadors to make a commitment and contribute via employee ambassadors. Enable every customer to interact at every contact point along their pathway. This will increase loyalty, help you understand their expectations and requirements and increase business over time.

Another option is to use software packages that pool messages to be shared by your employees through their social accounts. Employee engagement is often supported by a ranking and/or gamification system.

Organisation of the newsroom

Consistent planning of the content publication process

Editorial Director

Editorial content production

FactoryContent management

DeskCreating content

LabIdentifying and

aggregating ideas

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Conclusion

Conclusion

You will be required to back a new digital collaboration vision for your company that welcomes new generations of employees, seeks to increase performance and keeps pace with external trends that are the focal points of executive committee discussions.

It is important to see this as an opportunity and not a hurdle.

If your employees are the focal point of your business model, you must “use” them as a genuine competitive advantage. That is, give them resources to produce collective intelligence by improving communication flows, giving them margins for independence and letting them participate.

You must also encourage and reassure employees in a world that is moving faster and faster, is increasingly complex and continually changes – all of which lead to contradictions. In this context, management communications will be central to your system to explain and share the vision. This is also true for external stakeholders, for whom collaborative processes will boost your corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation.

Your company is becoming a structure where controls and processes are more flexible to enable improvement in results, and where every employee is viewed as a resource who helps the company adjust to these changes.

A constantly changing communications department The communications department is at the center of this change and must evolve accordingly. More and more, the department is losing control over editorial timetables, information management, content production and timing from one end of the chain to the other. It can no longer be the sole producer or conductor of communications. The communications department is becoming a center of expertise that supports all stakeholders in the collaborative culture. They coordinate contributions to give meaning to the company’s vision both internally and externally.

Digital collaboration does not stop at the intranetPlanning your transition is undoubtedly based on the usual social technologies, and their reach is continually increasing. When used properly, data gathered on the Internet will enable you to better understand your stakeholders and create increasingly detailed strategies with fewer areas of uncertainty. The upsurge in mobility will require you to rethink your approaches based on a multiscreen model, not via a conventional intranet and/or extranet. Connected objects represent a new world that impact your products and services, how you interact with customers and where temporary or immediate factors alter these interactions. And what about connected objects that link the virtual and the real? That’s a discussion for another day, but it won’t be long. Stay tuned.

A Fresh Vision of Your Company

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Anthony Poncier Director of Social Business, EMEA, MSLGROUP Anthony is an expert in collaborative strategy. He helps companies and project teams set up internal social networks and specialises in digitising customer relations.

Anthony is on the Enterprise 2.0 All Star List, the author of “Enterprise Social Networks: 101 Questions,” and “Enterprise 2.0: the White Paper.” Before joining MSLGROUP, he was a management consultant in organisational transformation at the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities (IDRH) and director of social collaboration strategy at Lecko. He holds an executive master’s degree in strategic management and competitive intelligence.

Sébastien Faure Social Media Strategies Consultant, Publicis Consultants Sébastien is a consultant in digital communications strategy at Publicis Consultants in Paris and helps design and develop digital relationships between organisations and all their stakeholders. He is responsible for social network strategy, content strategy, social media, community management, analysis and reporting. He is an expert in the deployment and use of change communication in organisational digital transformations and also monitors and assesses the risk in sensitive situations.

About the Authors

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For more information, contact:Anthony PoncierDirector of Social Business, EMEA, MSLGROUPT +33 1 44 82 46 48M +33 6 23 34 08 81 E [email protected]

Sébastian FaureSocial Media Strategies Consultant, Publicis ConsultantsT +33 1 44 82 45 65E [email protected]