Feedback Strategies

Feed-Forward:

The first article on feedback that I read this week was the one about providing feedforward rather than providing feedback. I liked the idea of feedforward because it focuses on how to fix any potential issues rather than just commenting on what they are. Identifying issues is great, but coming up with ways to fix the issue is far more helpful than just addressing what the problems are. The article made a point that providing feedback often entices the person giving the feedback to attempt to sound overly smart about what they are responding to. Whereas providing feed forward simply focuses on suggestion to fix, and leads to a more pleasant interaction between all those involved in the process. 

Feedforward vs Feedback

Criticizing Praise:

Praise is not always the best option when it comes to giving feedback on a project. If the goal is to improve the project overall, providing nothing but praise does not accomplish the goal at hand. The article describes praise as a verbal reward, and also as a way of "doing to" people rather than "working with" them. It also goes on to say that praise has many undesirable effects. Praise can lead to a lack of interest of the recipient of praise, and usually leads to lower quality work. I would agree with that, one must learn to deliver praise in the right time and place as to not cause the quality of the project at hand to suffer. 

Feedback Thoughts

Feedback is very important to any creative process. It allows creators to know what their desired audience likes and dislikes about their current project. It also can provide valuable insight from other creators about specific parts your own work.I often ask others for input on music projects I am working on, and can definitely see the value in asking for the same kind of input with writing projects.

The article 5 tips for taking feedback like a champ was one that stood out to me. It stood out to me because I feel that many people, myself included, often take these criticisms on the chin when they are made to help develop your writing. I especially liked that it basically told you to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Uncomfortable situations in creating new content usually coincides with growth and learning. Any time I ask for feedback and get a lot of comments back about growth area it feels good. That is because I know that I have not "arrived" yet, and still have things to improve on. It makes the game of creation that much more satisfying.

The silence the critical voices in your head article also resonated with me. When writing music I have often scrapped ideas entirely because I doubted hat they were enjoyable to listen to. Overtime Ive gotten much better about this, but as the old saying goes "you are your own worst critic". That can be both good and bad. On one hand you are always analyzing all facets of your work and thinking of how to improve them. On the other hand you often toss away potentially great ideas because of self doubt. Casting away those overly critical thoughts will be of great benefit to any creator.

Feedback is very important to creation