Recently I was redesigning some training to make it more interactive. I knew it would be messy.
It was.
When it came time for feedback, we followed our pattern of asking “what worked and what didn’t work.” We waited until the end of a 15-hour day to exchange feedback.
The day ended with ratings from the participants of 9+ on a scale of 1-10, so the mess wasn’t entirely detrimental to their experience.
The objectives had been to:
- Increase interaction
- Serve the more experienced part of the audience
- Create more time to solve issues
When it came time for feedback, we didn’t remind ourselves of these outcomes, so the feedback was more general. It came at a time in the day where my receptivity was waning to low (think of the words “I don’t really care” running through my mind due to fatigue at this point in the day). It also was valid, but missed the mark on whether the intended outcomes were achieved.
It was a good lesson on improving quality of feedback in the future.
To effectively offer and receive feedback, revisiting when it’s delivered (too late in the day) along with the objectives of the day vs. the feedback given would have been more productive.
Lesson learned, now to apply it.