Great Example of What Not to Say

This post was written by Jacob McNulty

I participate in an on-line forum of learning professionals that exists to answer questions, swap best practices, etc.

Recently one of the other members (Christie) posted something that suggested some changes to the forum.  The response of one of the moderators shocked me - he has since apologized so I decided not to publish the name of the forum or the company that sponsors it (of which the offender is an owner).

In Christie’s post, she suggested that the forum could have some additional features that would add much more value for the participants.  Her tone was constructive and not at all harsh.

The moderator’s response was as follows:

“Thanks once again, Christie, for your predictably negative comments about the Forum.

All—we’re in the process of allowing attachments to be added, which is a feature that should be available in the next day or two. We will notify everyone the moment it is ready to go.”

I receive these message on my BlackBerry and stopped in my tracks in the grocery store when I read this.  I had to re-read it a couple times to be sure of what I was seeing.  This message was just distributed to learning and development professionals at hundreds of well-known companies and the author was an owner of the company that sponsors the forum.  I know the saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity but I can’t see this making a favorable impression in the eyes of any potential clients that are (were) a part of the forum.

In a place that was set up for learning professionals to learn more about learning, one would think the moderators would be open to suggestions from the community - that’s what learning is all about after all.

Tags: business training, corporate training, development, learning, learning strategies, organizational learning, professional development, workforce development