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Practical experiences with social collaboration
software at the working heart of Air France - KLM !
Background We are proud that Air France and KLM are so
often mentioned and commended for their use of
social media to communicate and serve
customers. We have garnered a great deal of
experience in how social media can be used to
connect with people in an inspiring and
worthwhile manner.
ishare is based on the Winkwaves Harmonics
social business platform.
Vision for social business!
Our commercial organization is always looking for
ways to respond more alertly to market
developments and opportunities. Its ambition is to
become a truly social business.
!Triggered by this success, many people within
!An
the Air France-KLM commercial organisation
became convinced that an internal social platform
would be valuable, facilitating knowledge sharing
and making cooperation better, faster, more
efficient and more fun. The global Commercial
Sales & Marketing division, which has 10,000
employees at Air France and KLM, launched an
internal social collaboration platform, called
“ishare” at the end of 2012. agile, learning organisation, connecting
colleagues all over the world. Where knowledge
comes to life and people support and inspire one
another. Where daily work, learning, innovation,
organisation and social business technology are
interwoven to make this possible. The aim is to
contribute to the commercial objectives of the
division and Air France-KLM in general.
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We believe that social collaboration will come to
life if we adopt three mechanisms:
OBJECTIVES!
!With our internal social platform, we aim for:
• Stimulate transparent work. By making clear
what people do and what it achieves, you can
connect them in a proactive and reactive
manner, in order to learn from and support one
another;
Higher productivity
• Easier contact, collaboration & knowledge
sharing between colleagues worldwide
across departments & positions •
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Offer e-learning modules and online training
supports
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functional. It is implemented to enhance the
social dynamics of collaboration: we focus
on promoting transparency, breaking down the
“knowledge = power culture”, and removing
thresholds, so that we can connect with one
another;
optimise steering and latitude, giving
people the latitude to decide for themselves
how they wish to use ishare in their daily work.
Community managers help to steer the
dynamics of the platform by framing or
spotlighting interesting dialogues and themes. !!
Easier access to sales presentations and
other knowledge documents !
Approach: Reversed Engagement !
Real-time collaboration on documents
between colleagues
To achieve our ambitions, we needed a social
collaboration platform. Although we already have
numerous systems in place, none of them
complied with our social vision.
While we were assessing various options, we
realised that our endeavours would have
consequences for the ways in which we
cooperate and share knowledge. We therefore
needed a tool that would provide a total concept
and have the capacity to effect the proposed
cultural change.
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Efficiently channel key messages and
information from Management to colleagues
worldwide !The Software as a Service concept offered by
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Managing and safeguarding knowledge
within our organization
Winkwaves Harmonics offered us a technical
solution that would give us access to a social
collaboration platform within a few weeks.
This freed us up to devote our full attention to
building a truly worthwhile content environment,
co-creating it together with it users, our
colleagues. Winkwaves calls this approach
“reversed engagement”.
Embrace ‘Social dialogue’
• To adapt to the way today’s generation
communicate •
•
!We
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Better connectivity, in spite of organizational & ‘social’ change
• Keep connected with colleagues world
wide •
•
!The collaborative platform is not technical or
Quick access to documents & internal
experts to work more effectively Higher sales efficiency and revenues
• Share innovative ideas & best practices
amongst colleagues •
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!Community management plays a crucial role in
Thermometer function: know what’s going
on within the organization
reversed engagement. Before they start, most
people have no idea what a social platform has to
offer them. Social collaboration is learned through
experience, which only reveals its value when
(source: the initial project plan)
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This reversed engagement triggers three working
mechanisms that make ishare increasingly
valuable to a growing group of our colleagues:
REVERSED ENGAGEMENT
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! Pacemakers
Don’t try to push people to become involved in
the platform (the usual strategy for promoting
engagement), but opt for the alternative route:
reversed engagement.
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Seek ways to make people’s work more fun,
smarter and more efficient by making use of the
power and possibilities of the social
collaboration platform. This ensures that the
platform becomes the heart of the organisation
and is experienced as worthwhile and relevant
from the start.
you use it. As community managers, we actively
engaged with our colleagues. We started helping
them to achieve their business objectives with the
aid of the social platform. We offered tips, gave
hands-on support and connected them with
people and other initiatives.
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!Setting examples
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!Self-actualisation
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Pacemakers are people who take others in tow
to ensure the success of their own initiatives.
This part of their daily work is assessed at their
end-of-year evaluation. The social business
platform also becomes relevant to those who
have been taken in tow, because it adds value
to their collaboration with and contribution to a
project or team.
All successful, smaller initiatives provide proof
of concept and of the value generated by
social collaboration, helping to inspire others to
take initiatives themselves.
A social platform helps active users to be
successful in their work and visible to the
organisation. There is a strong need to be
seen, heard and acknowledged, and ishare
makes this possible.
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The effect of the reversed engagement approach
is clear. ishare is not seen as something run by
the communications department (or HR, or ICT),
but as a platform for everyone at the commercial
division (and other departments in due course).
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was to transform the information into a “topic of
discussion”: tangible and enriching.
!The programme manager decided not to accept
any more emails on this topic and encouraged
colleagues to pose these questions to the online
community dealing with commercial flexibiity
procedures. By combining static information (the
description of procedures) and the dialogue (the
community) in a group on ishare, the topic sprang
to life in a very useful way:
!Contrary to most traditional ICT projects, the first
users did not have to grasp abstract requirements
or designs on paper before they could begin.
They were able to build up practical experience
straight away and begin to refine the platform,
making it more and more suited and relevant to
the daily work. As a result, the first pacemakers
and ambassadors not only felt involved in the
project, they also shared responsibility for it.
! Tips and ideas for enhancing customer service
•
within procedures are actively exchanged;
!Procedures are refined on the basis of daily
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experiences and ongoing insights in practice;
!Colleagues working with comparable topics
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feel far more connected and acknowledged;
!The community corresponds fully to about the
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Examples from the work floor!
We would like to give you several examples of
how reversed engagement has resulted in
worthwhile engagement in various types of
“management” processes.
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1. Managing and standardising
processes !
Along with all other large organisations, Air
France-KLM often works on the basis of
standardised processes. This “bureaucratic”
approach cannot simply be dismissed. These
processes enable us to manage an organisation
with hundred thousand employees and
guarantees safety for our passengers. Safety is in
our DNA, but it also derives from clearly defined
procedures, checks and double checks.
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ambition to enhance customer service. The
social component stimulates and inspires one
to assimilate such thinking in the DNA of daily
practice;
!And last but not least, internal email traffic fell
dramatically (by 90%!). The time savings –
especially for these employees – translate
directly into more attention for customers. RESULTS!
!We asked the Group Manager of Commercial
!Even
Flexibility what the social platform delivered in
real terms:
• ishare is now the only source of information;
• 500 experts are now actively connected with
one another;
• There’s been an enormous increase in
interaction and knowledge sharing;
• There’s now 90% less email volume.
our (relatively far smaller) commercial
organisation works on the basis of standardised
processes and procedures, such as those used
to guarantee that customers in similar
circumstances are, as far as possible, catered for
in the same manner. For example, there are clear
rules concerning the degree of flexibility you have
as a staff member to offer customers extra free
services, products or compensation.
!
!The
manager of the “Commercial Flexibility”
programme was keen to be involved in one of the
first initiatives to discover how ishare could make
his work and that of his colleagues in other
countries easier, more effective and fun.
A comprehensive PDF toolkit with a wide range of
procedures served as input. The first step was to
split the document and make it clearly accessible
online. But this wasn’t “social” yet. The next step
2. Project management!
Our project teams generally work from different
locations (and in time zones). Coordination and
collaboration is organized virtually as much as
possible. The utilisation of ishare as an online
social project environment was also welcomed
warmly as one of the first initiatives within the
reversed engagement approach.
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A collaborative group was established on ishare
for a worldwide project surrounding Bluebiz – our
loyalty programme for businesses - to save
“credits” over and above individually saved air
miles. ishare supported four dynamics:
project calendar and pending activities;
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• Project communication
All email communication surrounding the
project was limited, opting as far as possible to
use the social collaboration platform. In line
with wanting to be “on the same page”, each
discussion point or item of communication had
its own page, where the project manager could
e ff i c i e n t l y a n d c l e a r l y s t r e a m l i n e a l l
communication and discussions surrounding
the project;
! Timeline
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In keeping with well-known timelines like
Tw i t t e r a n d F a c e b o o k , t h e t i m e l i n e
conveniently displays the project timeline that
can easily be “followed”, featuring all projectrelated updates, such as project updates from
the project manager, newly available
information, reports, practical experiences,
tasks and new versions of documents; !
• Chat2learn sessions
By way of regular “open online group chat
sessions”, the project members had an
opportunity to ask questions about the project
and discuss potential challenges. Those who
were technically unable to be present during
the scheduled session could follow the chat
timeline later and raise questions too. These
were then answered swiftly by the project
manager. This gave life to a great combination
!Cover
Whereas the timeline is ideal for the project
members to stay abreast of everything, the
group cover offers a structured project
overview managed by the project manager.
This includes a clearly set up project library of
relevant documents, the project schedule,
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of synchronous and a-synchronous
communication.
pleasant, low-threshold, effective place to ask
questions, share reports of good practices, and
post reading tips or reviews. Many posts
prompt discussion, raising and answering
questions such as: What does this mean for
us? How do you do things? And why have you
taken a specific approach?
RESULTS!
!We asked project managers what contribution
the social platform had made to their project:
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Greater efficiency and less email;
Increased involvement among project
members (often one of the greatest
challenges of long-distance collaboration);
Countries that had been active on the social
platform achieved much higher local
business results than countries that were
not (yet) connected;
A single place where all relevant information
was conveniently and contextually gathered
and shared.
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!Instrument development
Gradually, the community develops a living and
ever developing library of relevant
documentation and sources which are
highlighted on the group’s cover.
Community participants constantly seek each
other’s support to make their daily work easier
or better. The group co-created together a
manual of tips and tricks for making better and
smarter use of existing tools.
4. Managing a team!
ishare offers colleagues the opportunity to tailor
its use to their own needs and any objectives
they consider worthwhile. For instance, objectives
that got less attention and facilitation in the past.
ishare has been used by country and team
managers as a platform to support
communication and collaboration within their
team. Examples include:
3. Knowledge management!
One of the primary aims of ishare is to promote
knowledge sharing. One great example is the
community around Business Intelligence (BI).
!AIR FRANCE KLM has a vast quantity of data on
! Dynamic
customers. It is important and potentially very
worthwhile to share insight into how this data can
be best analysed and used to improve customer
service.
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!Knowledge bank
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!In this Community of Practice, knowledge
shared and brought to life in various ways: ! Expert finding
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overviews allow relevant static
information (i.e. HR forms) to be ordered on
the basis of current popularity (views, likes,
discussion). Information that is relevant at a
given moment is hereby automatically
spotlighted on the team homepage, while a
single click will take you to a full overview of all
schemes and forms;
is
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The promotion of knowledge sharing is first
and foremost intended to ensure that people
know who they need for specific answers and
to ensure a low engagement threshold. The
community participants can be found via a
static “knowledge card” and a dynamic
“expertise profile”, indicating which users are
given above-average ratings on specific topics
(likes for contributions and replies to
questions). These people can then be
contacted by online chat or telephone. This
who’s-who also offers a platform where you
can present yourself to colleagues, seek
kindred spirits and learn together.
!We
RESULTS!
asked the group managers of the BI
Community: What does ishare do for you?
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• Community
The timeline of the BI ishare group is a
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We enhanced our knowledge together,
improving the quality of our work (even)
further;
We started working a lot more efficiently;
Expertise and experts are much easier to
find.
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• “What’s cooking”
own notes and MT reports as much as
possible. This creates more openness and
connectedness and is an intrinsic motivator to
collaborate more extensively.
The timelines of your team members offer
insight into what they are doing at any given
time, what’s keeping them busy, what they’re
proud of, and what they’re struggling with. This
ensures that you know what everyone is up to,
so that you can offer support if need be.
Consequently, together far more can be
achieved.
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The countries and teams that have adopted
ishare are enthusiastic about it. They see a
greater sense of solidarity, have more insight into
who they should approach for advice, are
inspired by the topics discussed on ishare, save
time because there are fewer meetings and less
email, and they have a greater ability to respond
and steer.
!News as a starting point for discussion
The news articles that country and team
managers share on the social platform are not
only informative, but could serve as a starting
point for a discussion on what the news means
for staff. This brings news to life, helps steer
communal action and thus serves as a
management instrument.
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5. Imagining the next level !
We are proud of the results. Within 18 months,
70% of all staff at the international commercial
division of Air France-KLM has registered for
ishare, and 40% have become regular users. Not
by making it compulsory or exerting pressure via
management, but via the reversed engagement
!Working transparently We see more and more team and country
managers setting an example by sharing their
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approach, which targets worthwhile initiatives at
the heart of our working lives. The result leave us
wanting more. We want to make more of our
internal information flows social. By migrating
information to ishare or by placing ishare at a
social level that supersedes other sources and
systems.
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It is a continuous process to keep activating
colleagues and to keep the content on the
platform inspiring and relevant to daily work.
There are obstacles and challenges. Success
depends on loyalty to your vision, maintaining
your course and sheer stamina. And one
definitely needs all of these abilities to change a
working culture.
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Gradually, ishare is helping us to grow towards new collaborative working methods, which extend
beyond the internal and external boundaries of the organisation. A lean and learning organisation,
which can respond promptly to continuous changes in the market.
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COLOFON!
Sandor Vrij - Manager Communications at Air France - KLM
Colin Wells - Communitymanager ishare at Air France - KLM
René Jansen - Managing director at Winkwaves
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ishare is proudly realised with the Winkwaves Harmonics social business platform: http://winkwaves.com/english
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