The following is speculation and i can not at this stage back any of this up. However i do fundamentally believe in what i am about to post.
In the current economic climate there are huge pressures to reduce costs and to increase value and this often leads organisations to either announce “radical” changes or even large scale “transformation” programmes. You can see it in all aspects of society and government and it features quite heavily in all political manifestos to some degree.
However how can you really tell if an organisation is really up for “radical” change or “transformation”? There a few ways in which you can do this but i want to suggest a simple measure.
If an organisation is seriously considering the use of Social Software to improve ALL aspects of their business then i believe that they are serious about “radical transformation”
Now i don’t mean organisations who on face value seem like they are doing stuff but when you scratch the surface all you see is one person working very hard to make it work (Long live these people by the way). But i suspect that if they left then the desire to continue would also leave with them.
The reason i say this is because to fully embrace the adoption of social software means that you are prepared to fundamentally review your business strategy, business structure, engagement strategy, communications strategy, knowledge management strategy, workforce development strategy and your ICT strategy. It will mean a fundamental review of your organisations current thinking. This is the radical transformation that will be required to fully embrace and adopt social software platforms.
The organisations who are prepared to do this, in my opinion will be the ones who succeed and not just succeed but build sustainable relationships with staff and customers.
Ok so a simple test maybe but one i believe will give a measure at least as to how ambitious and transformational a particular organisation wants to be.
A journey through life - Carl's Notepad 
Carl, an interesting post. The use of social software is indeed a useful indicator of an organisation’s willingness to engage with new ways of working and change.
Perhaps we should see use of this sort of technology as an output of the wider change culture of the organisation. An input for me would be whether the organisation has a defined innovation strategy. It’s an indicator of how seriously they take improvement.
I agree an Innovation Strategy would be a good indicator, but i can’t see many councils producing one which was separate to their business strategies. This was one of the reasons behind suggesting social media as a measure it itself as it is more visible.
And are we?
What do you think based on the above?