A simple look at the company and it metrics can tell you:

1. Are the workers happy?
2. Is company communicating its goals and processes all the way to the bottom?
3. Is the top management feeling the pulse of the company at all levels?
4. Is the talent being best utilized by management?
5. Is the company attracting, hiring and keeping best talent?

This is despite companies implementing HR systems and processes, internal communication strategies and still companies are not becoming as Jim Collins would say “Good to Great”

Jim Collins says “Sustained great results depend upon building a culture of self-discipline people who take disciplined action.”

Assuming that a company’s leadership is committed to establishing a culture where in employees are self-disciplined and are acting as a team just like in a Olympic rowing team.   Alignment of people and teams around common themes is important. The right balance of competitiveness and cooperative instincts is important in taking the company to the next level.

There are consulting companies that offer courses, tools, and training to do this, but there is nothing like the teams themselves coming up with solutions to problems and refine teamwork.

This is where Web 2.0 comes in; it is the rowing boat that allows employees to row together in sync, moving as a team.

Many vendors now have applications that designed for  Web 2.0 that empower organizations and employees to connect, collaborate, create and share experience, knowledge and updates without constraints of organizational hierarchy or physical location.

Web 2.0 or Useful Social Networking can be used for structured dissemination of controlled information and to build an organized knowledgebase that enables and enhances knowledge creation, sharing and consumption not only thru individual contribution, but also thru powerful collaboration features. Implicit knowledge of customers and employees gathered over a period of time thru experience is priceless. Traditionally there has been no channel to enable the creation and consumption of this knowledge, latent or otherwise, which means that the knowledge remains untapped.

Communication is the key to any lasting relationship but effective communication in an organizational scenario has always been a challenge creating gaps resulting in customer and/or employee dissatisfaction.  Such Web 2.0 systems bridge the Organization – Management – Employee - Customer divide while advocating ‘You Connect’.  They connects stakeholders virtually with not only peers, but other internal stakeholders across hierarchies and functional departments directly which creates a transparent atmosphere which in turn fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie creating a congenial, happy, harmonious atmosphere in the organization resulting in Happier Employees, Happier Customer and thus, Happier Workplaces

Other benefits include:

1. Productivity increase – reduction in poor process utilization, reduction in inefficient use of manpower and talent and increased throughput by teams.
2. Quality and Waste – reduction in off-specification product, low yields and poor quality.

Organizations that implement such systems share four important characteristics:

1. Leadership Focus.
2. Employee Involvement.
3. Repeatable processes that are practiced consistently.
4. Excellent housekeeping.

Employees of such organization have three personal characteristics:

1. Knowledge.
2. Commitment.
3. Awareness.

When you have Organizations and Employees have such characteristics built on a solid foundation of unwavering culture of collaboration, strong leadership, and efforts to improve and sustain high level of interaction between management and associates, companies will get from “Good to Great”