John is head of talent and organization for IDEO, where he leads internal efforts to help the firm stay at the leading edge of design and innovation consulting.  John also works on IDEO client projects to assist and guide organization design components.

I’ve just starting working on a new project with the folks at Rypple. You may have heard about them recently as they are getting some great coverage from traditional media like The Economist and Business Week, and blogs like ReadWriteWeb. We’ve been using it at IDEO and finding it very useful.

One thing I love about their approach is that it’s free for individuals, which makes it very easy to, well, just start using it. And once you start using it, you get nearly immediate benefits, so you are likely to keep using it. These benefits are summed up well by one of their CEO users: “Those who learn fastest win.” Rypple helps you learn faster.

But when you consider “pushing” Rypple into an enterprise context, there are some important issues to consider:

• Cultural implications: How do you get more people to use such a tool without corrupting the self-directed ethic? Are there unique cultural issues when a person asks for feedback within each organization?
• Group dynamics: Is it possible to use the information discovered by the individual for more than personal awareness? Can you use it to assess groups of people on engagement or decision making?
• Performance management: Could it be used to construct learning or performance goals that effect performance evaluation? Is it possible that this platform could supplement or even replace other enterprise tools used in employee assessment or (dare I say it?) performance management? We think so. In fact we don’t do performance management any more. I’ll post more on that another time.

So I’m very excited to announce that we’re launching the Rypple Learning Collaborative (the LC). Recently co-founded by IDEO and Rypple, we expect to publicly announce some very interesting member organizations as soon as we’re able. The LC will be an exclusive set of forward-thinking organizations that will work together in a design process to explore and share their experience of Rypple in the enterprise context.

• What are the goals? The LC will push the boundaries of giving and receiving feedback in companies. We will help each other get better at this important capability. These ideas will also feed into Rypple for further product development where appropriate.
• What does this mean for you? Feedback is an integral part of every successful business, yet it is very illusive and difficult to cultivate. Learning to listen to the ideas and opinions of those around you is a critical step toward high performance. The LC will be exploring these topics and sharing them so that people everywhere can benefit.
• How can I get involved? I’ll keep you posted here on what we’re doing as the whole thing unfolds and we welcome your comments, suggestions, and feedback. If you’d like to be more involved, possibly as a member of The LC, please contact me.