The first human element we dig into is “open,” which is the focus of chapter 6. We started with open because we think it has always been the foundation of social media’s power. Social media took what was closed and made it open. It was decentralized, it gave power to distributed systems, and it enabled everyone to take action in the ways they needed to. And it’s also something we aspire to be as human beings. Open to possibility. Open to new ideas. Open to growth.

So what does it mean for organizations? Well our trellis, as I indicated in the last post, always looks at the three levels of culture, process, and behavior.

Open culture is about decentralization. Note that this does not necessarily mean radical decentralization. These issues are never either/or. You don’t have to burn down the executive suite and call each other comrades (though, really, in some cases there’s a compelling case that might make things better). The issue here is about embracing decentralization, not becoming totally decentralized. In the book we ask you to take a close look at who really steps up and makes decisions, speaks, and takes action. Are there ways you could expand who falls into those categories?

Open processes embody systems thinking. In the book, we actually have a mini-primer on what systems thinking is–ideas that were developed in popular business books 20 years ago but still not adopted widely. It’s basically about understanding what happens in complex systems without always demanding simple, linear cause-effect explanations. You know when you keep trying that logical solution to managing that department…and it fails every time? There are system dynamics you’re not seeing. Open organizations build a capacity for systems awareness into how they do things. It can help you create silos that actually work and maybe help you move past the evils of strategic planning.

And open behavior is all about ownership. Not the “I’m in charge so I own it” kind of ownership. It’s the kind of ownership that lets the right person do the right thing at the right time. It requires that you know a lot more about how things actually get done in your organization (as opposed to only the official version), and it requires you to be able to handle conflict, among other skills. The result are people who are “empowered,” not in the mushy self-help kind of way, but in the get-things-done, solve-problems-where-they-are kind of way.

At the end of Chapter 6 we introduce the idea of our downloadable worksheets. We love that people are reading this book, but that’s not enough. We want them to do something about it. So we created worksheets that will help you assess the openness of your organization, have some conversations with colleagues about how to be more open, and then develop an action plan. There is a separate 20-page worksheet document for each chapter on the four human elements.

All the details, of course, are in the book.