From the Manifesto: Celebrate the Complaints
Complaints suck. And they are awesome.
Complaints from children, spouses, employees, co-workers, clients and others are all incredibly valuable…we have a hard time benefiting from them though, because they suck so much. They just do not feel good.
So, sometimes we are not even open to receiving them.
So, sometimes we punish the people that do the complaining.
So, sometimes we just ignore them.
So, sometimes we minimalize or jusify or rationalize them away.
Complaints are not gospel, sometimes they are inaccurate. Sometimes they emerge from a personal agenda…but complaints always have at least the potential of carrying valuable information. If we are to harvest that information we have to be the muscles necessary.
How does your organization respond to customer complaints? Is it easy for customers to share their complaint? How is that information used?
How does your organization respond to employee complaints? What do you do with exit interview data?
What do you do to seek out complaints (and feedback of all varieties)? How do you respond to complaints from peers, subordinates, supervisors?