Someone recently asked me how to get better at receiving feedback. My response:
I’m not sure I have a lot of very insightful stuff to say, just the “obvious advice”:
Right before receiving the feedback, consciously adopt a constructive mindset. (I usually do something like this: “What comes might hurt, but it won’t be about me as a person in general, just about my behavior, which I can change; I’ll try to breathe and relax if the feedback produces this tightening feeling.”)
If I think that people are being overly negative, I force them to be more constructive by asking questions like “What would you suggest?”, “Interesting. Do you have ideas for how to address this?”, “I agree this is a concern, but I’m not sure how to solve it, do you have a suggestion?”
One thing that usually helps me is asking people whether my work is overall on the right track, and the answer is usually yes, and that makes it easier to take critical feedback. Many people forget to give high-level feedback, but it’s usually quite easy to prompt them to do so.
If something feels threatening, asking others who I know value my contributions for their take usually helps me put things into perspective. E.g., when someone was negative about me, I asked some of my former colleagues whether they think I can do my new job well, and their take was something like “yeah you probably don’t have the type of skill that this person mentions, but I don’t think that skill is key to what you’re trying to do, and this person doesn’t appreciate some of the skills you have, either, so basically they shouldn’t complain as much.”
The Google Docs commenting feature in particular invites micro-feedback rather than general high-level points. When asking for feedback on a Google Doc, I usually include a template like the following at the beginning (I don’t always use all of it):
Epistemic status: …
Giving feedback on this document
I’d greatly appreciate critical feedback, especially about X. Thanks for taking the time, … Your feedback would be most appreciated about:
Do you think is broadly on the right track? Did I overlook important points? Do you think my line of argument makes sense?
Is the structure and form appropriate? Should it be shorter/longer?
In which areas do you think this document needs the most further work?
Agree this is a bad property of Google docs. I wonder how much value we’re losing because of this …
EA wants to be the equivalent of the Scientific Revolution for doing good, but instead of a Republic of Letters we have a Cacophony of Comment Threads. ;)
Someone recently asked me how to get better at receiving feedback. My response:
The Google Docs commenting feature in particular invites micro-feedback rather than general high-level points. When asking for feedback on a Google Doc, I usually include a template like the following at the beginning (I don’t always use all of it):
Agree this is a bad property of Google docs. I wonder how much value we’re losing because of this …
EA wants to be the equivalent of the Scientific Revolution for doing good, but instead of a Republic of Letters we have a Cacophony of Comment Threads. ;)