When down a hole, it is essential to distinguish a shovel from a ladder – one gets you out, one digs you in deeper. So too, with society’s opinion- and decision-makers. You are invited to nominate any of them for a Ladder or Shovel Award, explaining to fellow Villagers why they should endorse your Award.
Ladder and Shovel Awards
Ladder Award: Adam Hutchinson for easy-to-use system for texting feedback
20th March 2009
A Ladder is awarded to Adam Hutchinson for developing a user-friendly customer texting service for inviting feedback. Businesses can subscribe and customers can text their feedback.
The system has been trialled at 3 Christchurch (New Zealand) restaurants according to a report in The Press 4 March, 2009. Customers are texting their feedback at the rate of about 30 texts a week.
Hutchinson is given the Award for four main reasons:
- The principle involved: All concerned are better off if there are effective feedback loops and giving and receiving feedback is made easy. This application could be developed for many other situations, including and especially village development.
- Innovative use of technology: Organisations often say they want feedback, but it is not always easy for people to give it, especially in a frank way. Many New Zealanders find texting a user-friendly form of communication.
- Win-win approach: without such a service, New Zealanders tend not to complain directly to those concerned, but they do tend to tell many others of their complaint. Hutchinson’s approach enables text feedback from a safe distance and for organisations to choose or not to take the feedback on board.
- Modelling effective processes: Most of us welcome feedback that is complementary, but are less eager if feedback is of the negative kind. This kind of service can provide a model for business – or community – or whoever, for demonstrating how getting feedback (positive and negative) can be easy and, importantly, provide valuable information necessary for effective decision-making.
What do you think? Send in your comment or your Ladder or Shovel Award.
Local community practitioners, academics and policy-makers are invited to blend theory and practice to help support a “whole of locality” paradigm, one in which all can flourish by recognising and fulfilling their potentials.
Brokering Solutions
New Media Enables New Participation – So Why Isn’t It Happening?
Knowing who to vote for in an age of social media
What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs - book review
see more →
Following the maxim that “there’s nothing as practical as good theory” the aim here is the co-creation of practical, robust and relevant theory. Blog contributions, comments and suggested links are most welcome.
Theories
Lectures on Ancient Greek Economy & Leisure
From Localities to Network Localities & Nations of Well-Connected Villages
Village Theory Think Piece: How to better understand the global from the perspective of the local
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What kinds of local and local-through-to-global connection-building can help Villagers to better recognize, refine and fulfill their aspirations from the places where they live? You are invited to let us know about projects and share successes and challenges.
Projects
New Local "Currency" Systems by Edward Goldsmith and Perry Walker
Clare Cooper Marcus on "The Needs of Children in Contemporary Cities"
Janine Benyus - Recognizing What Works: A Conscious Emulation of Life's Genius
see more →Recent Comments
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