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When “Groundswell” came out, I was frequently asked the seemingly innocent little question “How open do I need to be?” It was asked in the face of managers and executives being asked to engage with customers and employees for the first time. It seems fairly obvious to those of us steeped in the world of social technologies — you just are open, authentic, and transparent.

But for many people where Facebook and Twitter represent alien planets fraught with danger, this is a very valid question. For organizations in particular, being open brings with it the reality that business — and people for that matter — simply cannot be completely open and transparent.

So to answer the question “How open do you need to be?”, I first define what it means to be open in 10 different areas. Those areas are laid out in the graphic here, and are divided into two areas: 1) Information sharing; and 2) Decision making.

The next step is to then conduct an Openness Audit that looks at how open your organization is across these 10 areas. The six Information Sharing elements of Explaining, Updating, Conversing, Open Mic, Crowdsourcing, and Platforms in particular can be evaluated on a simple numerical score, giving you an openness score.

That score and the detail behind it becomes a powerful tool for aligning your organization — it provides a starting point for discussing how open you need to be because you’ll start from an understanding of how open you ARE.

And I’ve seen the Openness Audit in action, using it within companies to create alignment, and at conferences with a diverse group of attendees. Last week, I rounded out a keynote speech at Buzz2010 in Washington, DC with an openness audit, and I thought I’d share some of the observations:

• Some people were astonished at how low their scores were, especially in areas where they thought they were fairly open. The Audit became a task list for them to go back and understand if they were appropriate open, or if they needed to be more open to accomplish their goals.
• Two people from the same organization, but two different problems, arrived at radically different scores. It was interesting as a group to hear how this was possible, and also a warning that such disparity can lead to tension within the organization on how to approach engagement with employees and customers.
• And several people planned to take the Audit back to their organizations, to use it as an assessment and change management tool, aiding discussion around how open they needed to be.

So to that end, I’m making available the Openness Audit from the book and workshops so that you can run an audit directly. You can download it directly from Slideshare.net or use an interactive version on this site in the Resources section. Of course, I’d love it if you’d also buy the book to get more detailed explanations on what each of these open elements entail, and also how to craft and execute an open leadership strategy!

And please comment back with your observations on how the Openness Audit helped you better understand how open you are. And if you’re brave, share the results of your openness audit!

Openness Audit PDF Download