In a blog entry for the UN Dispatch, Alanna Shaikh listed the top five responses of people behind an aid project when their efforts draw criticisms. The health consulting veteran cited the example of One Million Shirts project, which is now the center of a debate.
These are the primary replies, in verbatim, according to Shaikh:
- We’re just trying to do good here.- Being mean doesn’t help / I don’t like your tone.- You need to offer constructive suggestions, not just criticism.- Don’t you have anything better to do than pick on people?- I’d like to see you do better!
“The problem with these responses is that people use them instead of actually listening to criticism and finding a way to learn from it,” Shaikh said. “Helping other people is hard to do well. If you don’t know what went wrong you can’t learn from your mistakes.”
