Professional feedback, instant & peer-to-peer

Constructive feedback is necessary for both personal and professional growth, but is the annual review really enough? Launched earlier this month, Rypple is a web-based peer review tool that enables colleagues to give each other feedback on how they’re doing. Users register on the Canadian website, ask a question about their performance and select who to send the question to. Recipients quickly answer the question and fire it back. Employees can use the system for specific concerns, for example the impact of a presentation, or for more general issues such as areas of performance to focus on in future. Questions can be tagged with keywords, helping monitor progress in specific areas over time. Rypple’s digital interface lets it foster open and honest responses that might not be given face to face: feedback can be given anonymously, only to be viewed by the person who requested it. Still in private beta, Rypple is currently free to use, with paid services likely to follow. For offices that use it responsibly and accept criticisms made, Rypple provides a quick, on-demand method to help workers improve their performance. The system is also set up for use in classrooms, allowing lecturers to receive immediate and confidential feedback from students. For a broader look at how we’re moving ever closer to a fully informed marketplace and society, check out our sister-site trendwatching.com’s briefing on transparency tyranny and transparency triumph. (Related: Your very own focus group: personal image appraisals tell it like it is.) Spotted by: Stas Zlobinski