An iterative design tour of the feedback commons

It has been four years since since we began developing a website where organizations could manage feedback loops within a clear, guided and get rapid insights. Our current design for the Feedback Commons has changed a lot! This is quite common when developing products. Here are some key lessons and moments of insight along the[…]

From knowledge management to knowledge discovery

I spend a lot of time dealing with data. Data is an ingredient in an organization’s larger decision making process. Institutions say they want “knowledge management” systems. This is a way to store all the information they create in one place and make it searchable. But the knowledge solutions I’ve seen only address half the[…]

Could you benefit from a free data audit?

No longer can anyone use the excuse that it’s “too hard” or “too expensive” to refrain from collecting the kind of feedback that you will actually use to improve performance. We built the Feedback Commons to provide a platform that any organization could use to collect, analyze, and respond to feedback from the people they work[…]

20 ways to know if partnering is paying off

Nonprofit organizations and foundations love to talk about “partnering”, “co-creating”, leverage”, and “synergy” – but do these hook-ups really yield as much value for the effort involved? Or is it just beneficial to be seen collaborating? I searched for reports on what value non-profit professionals typically get out of collaborations, but sadly, there doesn’t seem[…]

No Choice. No Voice.

– Showing up for Democracy’s Sake – Recently, US Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina cast the deciding vote* confirming Betsy Davos for Secretary of Education. I could not help but notice that Tillis ran unopposed for most of his political career. According to Wikipedia: “Tillis ran for the General Assembly in 2006. He defeated[…]

Do you work for a learning organization?

We believe that well-run organizations are also learning organizations. How do you know if you’re a learning organization? Take a diagnostic test. Answer some questions about the way your team works, and it will tell you what features your team shares with learning organizations, and what you need to work on. Here is one from[…]

When donors and beneficiaries see things differently

“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as WE are.” – Anais Nin once said. When this power of personal perspective is used to transform the world we call it “vision”. But it can also color the lens through which we see the world. In that case, we call this misperception “bias”. Observer[…]