Yesterday I was with a friend talking and somehow we drifted on the topic of feedbacks. Like self analysis, on what we did wrong, what we can do correctly next time onwards and how we can really improve. So that's how I thought about talking about feedback loops. We also spoke on how some feedback is not important and some of them is. For an example, a negative feedback coming with the intention of bringing you down is not important, but a negative feedback coming from a real genuine intention is important. That's the thing, feedbacks can be of various types and we need to understand each of them to realise which ones are good and which ones are bad. So anyways I'll talk about what feedbacks are, why are they important and how to create accurate feedback processes.
So what really is a feedback? Google defines feedback as following: "information about reactions to a product, a person's performance of a task, etc. which is used as a basis for improvement."So feedback is simply a reaction to a product, a person's performance of a task which is used as a basis for improvement. It's important to highlight, which is used as a basis for improvement. First of all we need to believe that improvement is possible, and second of all the feedback should come from an honest and authentic person. Not because of their personal judgements that can be wrong and it's important to filter out feedback that's not authentic or the intention is not right.
If Elon says it, there's something to it. Elon out here is saying that it's important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better. Particularly, he's talking about the self feedback loop that we have. We say something, then we say something else, and then realise the something else is better than the something. I know it's way too abstract to talk this way but it's this feedback loop that is important for us to grow. So next time you do something, think about what is it that you can really and genuinely improve on. For an example, personally, I know that when I come home I am really tired of work and I do not want to do anything, so I can probably do something differently to get me motivated to go the gym. Maybe I can prepare my gym clothes a day before, have everything ironed a day before going to the office. For an example, today I went a bit late to the office and that's why I missed the place to charge my car. Why did I go late? Because I was taking a bath for too long, and iron my shirt and pant in the morning. So what if I just iron my clothes a night before, these are all things you will get to know, as you start thinking about your own feedback.
This is warren buffet talking about feedback. We all know how big an investor he is and he is the person who is asking for feedback and then accepting it as a gift. Now naturally, there would be feedback that you don't want to hear, but that's the best feedback in reality. For an example, my brother keeps telling me to groom well, however, I hate hearing that. I feel like it's not that important, but isn't that the most honest and genuine feedback I can get to improve myself. In a similar sense, people who really give you honest feedback are the most important. Whether we believe it or not, we want to be surrounded by people who give us honest feedback rather than saying the feedback behind our backs.
So the next question how do we get more feedback to improve our lives?
1. Ask directly: Whether that's your friends or colleagues, you can always ask people directly on areas that you can improve on. For an example, you might have had a slow sprint at work, you can identify what was the bottleneck yourself or you can ask people to give you the bottleneck that they felt. Maybe you didn't have enough knowledge, maybe you spent a lot of time on some stuff.
2. Anonymous Surveys: Let's say you are owning a restaurant or a business, you can ask clients and customers to fill in anonymous surveys and from there you can generate good amount of feedback on places and things you can improve.
3. Self reflection: You can have a self reflection journal where you find out yourself on the things that you want to improve and what's not working well for you. Based on your own reflections you would be able to judge yourself on the places where you need to improve.
4. Apps and tools: You can literally leverage technology for getting valuable feedback on what exactly you are doing right or wrong. There are many self assessment tools out there, where you can track what you did at what time and how you can improve. There are some habit tracking apps and health metric tracking apps that you can leverage in order to improve.
5. Encourage a feedback culture: In personal relationships or at work, invite open and honest feedback. Don't defend yourself while you get feedback, but rather really reflect on certain things you can genuinely do better.
6. Thank people when they give feedback: This is self explanatory, but thanking people is very much undervalued these days, but an open and honest feedback is something that you can literally work on.
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