The Benefit of Asking

I recently asked  the academic community at my University about their opinions and experiences of our learning environments. The responses were very  useful in that it gave real as opposed to anecdotal evidence of issues that need to be addressed.
I often feel that when someone is evangelising (often considered complaining) about something, in this case the need to modernise learning environments, they are often ignored. I accept that evidence to support ones ideas and proposals needs to be gathered but sometimes even the blindingly obvious issues are ignored if it is the same person calling for them to be addressed.
The most useful thing about the responses was the common thread running through them. This will be invaluable in being able to address what is being asked for but as important is what to eradicate.
I have written previously that involving the stakeholders is essential but asking what they think about current learning environment has been very informative with regard to designing the new.