Feedback Strategies

The first article I read was "Be a Mirror." It discussed being able to give feedback without judgement, which means focusing on the person's effort. One quality of feedback the author listed was to "focus on what the reader is doing" rather than what the reader is missing. I love this idea because it allows a person to work with what they have and it gives them the confidence that what they have is good enough. Another quality mentioned was that you should not use first person pronouns (e.g. "I think..."). While I do agree with this to some degree, sometimes it can be helpful for feedback to be in first person because it makes the writer feel like they have a choice in the matter. It tells the writer that it is only one opinion but they don't necessarily have to agree with it and they don't have to change their writing if they feel it is okay.

The second article, "Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback," talks about how a lot of feedback focuses on the past rather than the future. This limits feedback and limits opportunities. Instead, the author has coined the term "feedforward" and describes how it works. One part of it is that feedforward cannot be taken as personally because the critiques would be given ahead of time, and the person getting the "feedforward" would decide whether or not to take the advice. This way it lacks any suggestion of an attack. I really love this idea and I can see how it could be useful for a variety of situations, such as public speaking, working, and writing.

I typically do not feel confident about giving people useful feedback. I never want to hurt anyone's feelings (because I myself am very sensitive), and I am worried I am wrong a lot of the time. Sometimes people just have a different vision than me and I can't see it. I would hate to critique something that someone was proud of just because I didn't see where they were going with it. Because of this, I usually only give positive feedback, commenting on what I enjoyed from someone's work. I know this isn't extremely useful for most people, but with the feedback strategies I learned from the articles I am hoping to be able to grow in this area of my life. One feedback strategy I would like this try this semester is the "being a mirror" idea. I would love to be able to help someone see their work in a non-judgemental way while still being able to provide them critiques.

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Image information: Effort Cat from Growth Mindset Memes blog. Let's put emphasis on a person's effort and applaud them for it!