IGNITE ACC: A philosophical change from analog to digital

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. --  In a continuing effort to meet future challenges, Air Combat Command recently announced the IGNITE ACC initiative. 

Envisioned as a springboard toward a new "collaborative culture," IGNITE ACC is a blending of new organizational tools designed to help Airmen with a top-to-bottom change to ACC's organizational philosophy. 

"For some, it will be a philosophical change that's enabled by technology," said Brig. Gen. Steven Spano, director of Headquarters ACC's Communications Directorate. "So it's really a blending of process, technology and people, bringing them together to look at problems and challenges and come to better and faster decisions." 

General Spano said the goal was to "accelerate the speed of decisions," by giving Airmen tools to better link people with the knowledge they need to complete a task no matter what or where it is in the command. 

"What we're trying to do is create a collaborative environment that exposes knowledge, information and experiences to tap talent regardless of where it is in the organization," he said. 

For example, a staff organization may be assigned a task that calls for unique experience not resident in one particular part of the staff, but may be found elsewhere across the staff. Rather than re-create the knowledge to formulate a decision or response, the capabilities provided through IGNITE ACC will allow that organization or team to reach out across the command for assistance. A quick search of profiles that capture individual experiences could turn up people with the knowledge and experience that unit needs to complete the mission. 

Moreover, collaborative tools can determine if individuals are available to provide immediate help. 

"Through collaborative tools, you can see their presence status -- whether they are online and busy or online and available for a discussion," General Spano explained. "You could pull them into this collaborative environment, ask a question, provide the value and context to that answer, thereby saving hours or research time to find the answer yourself. 

"The key is exposing the people, the information and the knowledge better and faster so that people are not re-creating that knowledge and decision that often times already exist in other parts of the organization. It's increasing efficiency and accelerating the speed and quality of decisions." 

ACC will provide new tools and technology, based in large part on programs and applications Airmen are already familiar with, to make this collaborative culture possible.
One such application, MyplACCe, will allow Airmen to develop a personal Web site where they can post their biography, work experience and picture. It will provide the ability to not only locate and use the work experience of Airmen's peers within ACC, but also view their availability through their Web browser. 

"MyplACCe is our first step toward bringing the concepts of social networking that are exploding throughout the commercial industry to ACC," General Spano said. "It will look like a customized Web site similar to other social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace." 

The changes in both technology and philosophy will not happen overnight, General Spano cautioned, but some elements are already taking hold and being used, such as the Office Communicator Server, which is now available for use. Other programs, such as MyplACCe, will come later. The real challenge will be dealing with the human element, which , according to the general, is the hardest thing to change in any organization structure.

"This isn't a quick-turn fix in which the ACC culture will change overnight," he said. "It's a long-term process in which all levels of leadership will have to change their current modes of acting and thinking. In most cases, we will learn as we go. IGNITE ACC will evolve as we go forward and advance toward a knowledge-based culture. There needs to be a balance of dealing with human emotions and providing technology that is reliable, user-friendly and cost effective." 

General Spano said although some may be uncomfortable with such changes, they are necessary to remain effective. Collaboration, he said, is a means to overcome the challenges of doing more with less and empowers organizations to not only work together, but communicate effectively across organizational boundaries. 

"The reality is that we no longer have the staff in the Air Force to maintain the status quo," he said. "We have to become more efficient and effective. This campaign is the effort to address the challenges we face now and into the future. We cannot just continue to work harder and longer; that's the analog way. IGNITE ACC is about thinking and acting digitally."