Everyone can criticize a Dell, a Rogers, a Bank, or any large faceless organization. But try and criticize the startup down the street. Criticizing your friends is harder than a big organization.
But even so, there is absolutely none of it going on. Even if it is harder, we need to do it.
Even if you write a whole blog post or a comment with the most appropriate ideas and in a critical manner, it’s a different game when someone you know is on the receiving end of it. We’re much more used to using our social media influence to bash the failures of the big guys, the Walmarts, Microsofts, and Pepsi’s. But what is it we lose by not criticizing, and by not giving feedback to the people we know?
Mistakes are still being made. Is it just taboo to point out the mistakes made by people standing on top of pedestals that the community has placed them on?
This may sound very anti-social or something that would be a stain and negative element of the community, but I disagree. Without it, we risk developing a culture of permissiveness. An environment where things without any control don’t improve, they just get bigger.
Feedback, continual improvement, and renewal (I’m tempted to use the term “refresh”) are fundamental to positive growth. Hell, it’s why Rypple exists (Though in my opinion Rypple is difficult to use in open feedback situations).
As no exception myself, I have a couple of people and companies I could criticize, sure, but the bottom line is that my own opinions matter much less than a change in the mindset of even just a few people,
Definitely just some incomplete thoughts on this. I hope we can continue the conversation though.
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