What do I define as a “web 2.0 friendly” organisation ?

Well, for starters it’s a place that values empowering staff to make their own decisions around how to do their jobs above enforcing tight controls, rules and security over what they can do. Naturally you need to consider these things – pity help the organisation who doesn’t have strong firewalls these days.

But it’s a place that tries to get the balance right to encourage staff loyalty and stimulate innovation while also managing business risks. A place that actively shows their staff that they both trust and value them whilst also having some safety nets in place if / when things go wrong.

A place that has a very flat structure and comprises self-organising ad hoc groups (rather than organisational divisions / depts) that form the way they think best around business opportunities and then disband when done.

Examples:

- a place that has blogs and wikis for knowledge sharing but minimal guidelines about usage beyond those needed to protect the organisation’s reputation and exposure to risk

- a place that lets employees make their own decisions about the tools they need in order to best do their jobs

- a place that is process-light and provides an environment to encourage doing over talking

- a place that lets employees create their own knowledge sharing structures, groups and systems, e.g. adopting folksonomies and social networking tools for business use

- a place that provides employees with access to a range of data sources and lets them make decisions on what to “mash”.

Wikis, blogs, communities of practice, instant messaging, flat structures, light processes, self-organising teams, hands-on approaches to getting things done, working when you need to  and where). All good stuff, conducive to getting the best out of people.

That’s my type of organisation.