Due to changing external factors A&O Services in Rijswijk, The Netherlands wanted to go through a major cultural enhancement: from an inward looking, bureaucratic organization towards a more forward-thinking, commercial operation. The current Management Team realized that it was urgent, so they wanted to react swiftly and profoundly.
They did the right thing first: asking themselves who they are, and why they exist. They crafted five core values that express A&O’s being: dynamic, entrepreneurial, enthusiastic, engaged and professional. Based on these new core values the company started to move ahead.
One of the issues with cultural enhancement or organizational shift is communication. Or the lack thereof. Let’s face it, most organizations make the same mistake over and over again: the top comes up with something new, tell it only to some and forget to tell all. Well, not A&O Services. First and foremost they left the crafting of the core values to the employees, or as a bottom up process. Next, all employees received training and were made aware of the need for enhancement. Our services were requested to visualize the changes within the organization using video podcasting. We started back in 2008 and till today we still enjoy making great content that is prepared by and for the employees.
But the company didn’t want to stop there. Realizing a shift in the attitude of the employees and the need to be ready for the future, the company embraced an Enterprise 2.0 philosophy. They asked our advice on how to set things up.
We started with a dedicated Enterprise 2.0 workshop for the management team. After all, you need involvement of the board for such a major process. Next, we drafted a plan that was build upon our LIPTALC process: First we investigated the current status quo (Learn), followed by brainstorm sessions how a platform should look and behave (Invent). Based on a detailed roadmap (Plan) we experimented with several platforms (Test). By then we knew what we wanted to have and crafted our functional design (Adapt) and started building. Before the launch we trained the entire organization (250 people) on the Enterprise 2.0 philosophy, so that they knew what to expect and where it’s coming from.
Currently we are, together with a dedicated in-house Community Manager, preparing for the Launch.
Activities deployed at A&O Services:
- Audio and video podcasting
- Webvideo
- OSCAR
- New Media Masterclass
- Enterprise 2.0 Platform building
- Coaching