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Hello,
Welcome to Connecting Dots, the monthly newsletter on Innovation Leadership by Brett Macfarlane.
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Processing Feedback
I’m sure you’ll agree that getting and giving feedback is the lifeblood of innovation. Whether it’s someone’s opinion or hard evidence—feedback tells us if we’re on the right track and what work remains.
What we don’t normally discuss though is how we process feedback. Whether good or bad, how does it hit us and what do we do with it.
It brings to mind scenes of Elon Musk in the Netflix documentary Return to Space. Where he stands in the control room, observing and processing the latest tragedy or triumph of progress. Every step of the way, time after time.
Processing feedback is on my mind as I’m testing a prototype leader assessment tool. It’s based on the Innovation Leadership Map and the vision is a tool enabling a leader to monitor whether they are staying in the performance zone.
To push send on a request for feedback at early stages can be a vulnerable experience. For as much as people espouse the benefits of “failing fast” it’s not something many people aspire to do, no matter how strongly they believe in the value of “learning”.
The tears in Musk’s eyes affirm that even for someone with billions in the bank and a gold-plated innovator reputation it’s damn hard taking feedback on the chin, objectively embracing what it says and what it means for your dream. Even when it’s positive.
My Innovation Feedback Experience
For my user test, I started with a friendly yet fierce feedback audience. I found them in the safe forum of a WhatsApp group featuring my business school peers.
It was a sunny morning as I posted a link to the prototype. Send I did while sitting in my favourite mid-century Danish armchair. The chair gave a comforting creak as I shifted from send to receive mode. Bracing myself like an astronaut on the launch pad entering the void ahead.
Within minutes the first blasts of qualitative group feedback trickled in. Then, objective data on the users going through the product flow filled my dashboard. As well, candid and sometimes fiery hot-takes pinged through direct messages.
At this early stage, my hope was 5 respondents. My goal was to learn of any blind spots and validation of whether the tool provided value. Easy to say yet in my experience many leaders find it hard to deeply engage with such feedback.
Good companies that develop talent commonly invest in training people on how to give feedback but rarely do we train people on how to receive feedback. Now, I’m quite numbed to bad feedback on an innovative concept. All thanks to professional gristle from years of feedback exposure across every conceivable culture.
I think being a competitive athlete in a sport where truth had a brutal arbiter—the clock—gave me bonus years of practice receiving feedback even before my professional career. Damn, that’s nearly 30 years of ruthless feedback.
Fortunately, you can short circuit that experience. Let’s jump to the process you can develop now to effectively receive and process feedback. Enabling you to maximize progress and resilience.
How to process feedback
As professionals trying to develop a new idea and doing some user testing, here’s how to receive the feedback you receive. Imagine you are in a debrief with colleagues or observing data coming in real-time on-screen:
Notice and grab onto what’s good, even if they are being nice
Take the critique on what’s bad as “what if they are right?”
Note your immediate thoughts and ideas of what to improve that spontaneously come to mind
Sleep on it
Consolidate all the data and synthesize themes, notable suggestions and ideas on what to do next - be generative by resisting the impulse to quickly narrow in on one area
Cluster points into Keep, Drop and Add - be relative by ranking points in order of potential impact
Turn the top one or two points in each column into actions for your next iteration
Get to work
Cling Onto Diamonds
The problem with feedback is we often focus on what’s wrong and discount what’s right. In fixing what’s wrong if we aren’t careful we can discard what’s right. It’s always easy to focus on problems over opportunities.
Yes, it’s important to identify problems so you can improve, but always remember that value creation comes from the discovery of what’s right. Hence you must hold onto the precious fragments of what’s right—so cling onto those rough diamonds.
Not only are the diamonds the source of tangible value they give you pride and motivation to continue addressing the parts that aren’t yet right. Sometimes those problematic parts are significant, maybe even terminal, and feel like a massive setback.
With a well-practiced way to process feedback, you’ll be able to thoughtfully work with and act upon the feedback you receive. Feedback always contains gold and with the right attention with a good filter, you’ll be able to hold onto it and build something of value. While staying sane.
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Check out the tools section on my website for the latest developments.
Image: the resident sheep on the grounds of lavish Chatsworth House in the Peak District, UK.
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