TOR158: Why Getting Feedback (Should Be) The Expected Thing To Do with Dennis Whittle

I’d like to start today’s episode with a quick, informal poll. Ask yourself: as a social sector professional, do you regularly receive calls or emails from the people who you’re trying to help where they ask - with great anticipation - about when the next version of your project or programme will be released?

While this regularly happens for other sectors, like mobile phones, automobiles, and fashion, for the vast majority of us in the social sector, the answer to this question is, emphatically, no.

The disconnect that this question exposes is the foundation that Dennis Whittle, who is my guest for today’s 158th Terms of Reference Podcast, stumbled upon a few years back and which has now grown into a powerful collaborative effort to change how we help those in need.

Dennis is the Executive Director of Feedback Labs, an organization that aims to change the norms in development, aid, and philanthropic policy to be more responsive to the people that those policies aim to help. Before Feedback Labs, Dennis was the co-founder of the groundbreaking Global Giving platform.

This is an important conversation because after we talk about the origins of Feedback Labs, we get into how they are helping to flip the, generally, top-down approach of the social sector to one that is truly responsive to local needs. The organizations that make up Feedback Labs believe we’re now at a stage where you cannot NOT afford to get feedback from those you seek to help and Dennis beautifully relates common issues faced by organizations and governments in being adaptive.

So I invite you to sit back and enjoy this conversation with Dennis that looks to a future where feedback is not only the connected thing to do, but also the expected thing to do.