Interesting elsewhere – 10 December 2013

Five Ways to Learn Nothing from Your Customers’ Feedback – Rob Markey – Harvard Business Review
Anonymity in customer feedback is, frankly, overrated. People want to be heard. They want their feedback to be acknowledged. They want to know that the time they invested sharing feedback meant something and was acted on. Closing the loop is essential to building lasting customer relationships, and it is an invaluable opportunity to dig more deeply into the details of what delighted or enraged them. It offers an opportunity to begin digging into the root causes of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction to uncover policy problems, issues with product design, or other pesky issues that require cross-functional collaboration.

Is the public sector more innovative than we think? « MindBlog
The public sector can be just as pioneering as the private sector when it comes to organising innovation. The degree of complexity that characterises many public issues means that organisation, incentives and processes often need to be more sophisticated than in the private sector.

Agency of the Future Guide: Telework More Than a Trend – A Workplace Transformation – GovLoop – Knowledge Network for Government
Roughly 35% of the federal workforce is eligible to telework, but only 11% take advantage. The main reason for the low percentage is that employees feel culturally pressured to work in the office by supervisors who are not comfortable managing remote professionals.

Care Connect: there is a better way | Patient Opinion
As patients and carers, we now want to be more than ‘feedback’. We want to be heard. We want to be reassured. We want to support those we care about. We want to encourage staff we see doing their best, against the odds. We want to know our stories get to the right people. We want to see what others are saying. We want to see real change. And we expect all of this to be transparent, right down to seeing who has read our stories.

Pitting Cyclists Against Drivers Is A Bloody Stupid Idea | Londonist
Stupidity is a statistical inevitability. What we actually need to do is to redesign our roads to make it less likely that stupidity is a fatal condition.

Designers ! The challenge that needs your attention | Redjotter
How do we create interface design that rewards patience?

How do we design email systems that represent people and not information?

What does hardware that reminds you you have a body look and feel like?

How do we build social networks that develop compassion?

How does a website that supports concentration and presence work?

» Healthcare.gov and the Gulf Between Planning and Reality Clay Shirky
An effective test is an exercise in humility; it’s only useful in a culture where desirability is not confused with likelihood. For a test to change things, everyone has to understand that their opinion, and their boss’s opinion, matters less than what actually works and what doesn’t. (An organization that isn’t learning from its users decided it doesn’t want to learn from its users.)

Schneier on Security: A Fraying of the Public/Private Surveillance Partnership
It’s impossible to build an Internet where the good guys can eavesdrop, and the bad guys cannot. We have a choice between an Internet that is vulnerable to all attackers, or an Internet that is safe from all attackers.

LGiU the council of 2043: Catherine Howe | LGIU: Local Government Information Unit
Being digital by default means the creation of shared digital and civic space where communities and councils can network and collaborate – not simply pushing 19th century transactions online.