Library Revolution

One point that kept coming up at Computers in Libraries is the importance of not asking for feedback unless you actually intend on doing something with it.

In this age when “transparency,” “collaboration” and “feedback” are the hot buzzwords everyone is trying to capitalize on, there is no faster way to wreck your credibility than saying you want to hear what your users or staff have to say, only to blow off the comments. That’s a sure-fire recipe for squashing any creativity or collaborative spirit faster than you can say “totalitarian regime.”

I think that we can really learn from a recent experience of the New York Mets on this one. See, the Mets organization asked fans to vote online for a new theme song to play during games, and they totally got rickrolled. Yes, indeed. An online viral campaign ensured that when the five million or so votes finally were tallied, the winner was Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

The results were obviously the result of a prank, but the Mets organization did something I can really respect. While they didn’t go so far as to actually declare the song the official winner for the season, they did play it at a game… where it was soundly booed. They were prepared to follow through based on the feedback they received, even if it was in a tongue-in cheek sort of way.

When you ask your staff, users, and colleagues for feedback, are you prepared to do something with that feedback? Do you have a mechanism in place for handling suggestions in a productive way? Are you ready to encourage the development of the ideas offered up, constructively criticize, and put forth the effort necessary to transform raw ideas into effective, creative, and innovative efforts? How do you prove that the suggestions you’re asking for will be taken seriously… even if they involve bad 80’s dance-pop one hit wonders?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 9:55 pm and is filed under Conferences, Library Administration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.