Organization 2.0 Presentation


Organization 2.0

Originally uploaded by Wandering Eyre.

CIL 2007

Rebecca Jones
Dysart &Jones Associates
Organization 2.0

[my comments in brackets]

[The picture is a little blurry but it is what a first round restructure should look like.]

Three things we have to think about:

  • People
  • Organizational structure and people processes
  • The technology

Many organizations are separated by the haves and the have nots of technology. Where do our professional blogs end and personal blogs begin? [do they always have to be separate?]

Organizational change is scary and that makes it difficult because it is about making choices.

The Basics: past structures are not effective, younger staff are more comfortable with technology, small groups move faster then large ones, leadership and fellowship, corporation evolves collaboration, technology impacts orgs, and the 85/15 rule (see below).

Young people are not comfortable in a command and control environment. [holy crap, yes!]

Web 2.0 and the future is about collaboration, the past is about cooperation. Collaboration is more like a choir then the past metaphor of the sports team.

85/15 rule – 85% of the time that there is a “people” problem, it is really a process problem

What does the Org 2.0 look like?

  • Design principles
  • Form follows function
  • Function changes quickly
  • Form drives behavior
  • Reporting relationships creates the “ties that bind”
  • Collaboration decreases as distance increases (more then 50 ft apart) People collaborate more closely with people who are not in their building. [This is very true of my life. I feel like my collaboration outside of MPOW are much more meaningful then what I have in my org structure.]

Structures should not even last two years. The org chart should fluctuate, always. [I wonder how many people this type of flexibility would completely freak out.]

How your org is shaped reflects your values as an organization. Our libraries do not support teams, they support individuals. Organizations should be like amoebas, always changing. Decentralization means that more people have control. The structure should exploit what makes you unique, not the technology. [Yes. It should always be about the people not the tech.]

If you redo an org chart, use post-its and make sure it says draft. The draft of the organizational structure should directly reflect the priorities of the institution.

The people that get 2.0 have the power in our orgs. [I disagree. Most of us are on the bottom of the structure. We have almost no power.] [I asked Rebecca to clarify this: she says it is not real power, but they are the go to people in the organization. True, which is why we are always overworked.]

–Jane, is that really power though?