It’s not personal, just business - Receiving feedback
Feedback is an inevitable part of being an instructional designer (ID) or digital learning developer (DLD). Quite often multiple rounds of feedback will be required in order to achieve a result all parties are happy with.
Feedback should be constructive, specific and objective, and is often paired with suggestions for development.
But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to hear.
As ID’s / DLD’s, we often pour our heart and soul into each piece of work we create and can feel passionately about the decisions we have made and why, making negative or constructive feedback a bitter pill to swallow sometimes . But before we get into that let’s explore why feedback is necessary in learning design.
It helps to ensure learning objectives are met and content is accurate - Your stakeholders will want to be reassured that the learning you are designing is meeting the intended objectives. Feedback allows them and subject matter experts (SME’s) to flag if vital content has been missed or things are straying off topic. Remember as an ID, you are not likely to be an expert in the topic you are writing about, therefore feedback allows SME’s to pinpoint if content is not accurate or perhaps needs rewording.
It strengthens stakeholder relationships - Your stakeholders are going to be invested in the learning you are creating, therefore asking for feedback shows you value their opinion and input. It also provides an opportunity for stakeholders to see and appreciate the depth of thought which is needed when designing learning.
It allows for your own personal development - Feedback can help you identify areas of improvement in your own practice. For example, you may have received feedback that your storyboard layout is difficult to understand, which is making it hard to read the content. You can then make adjustments accordingly and improve or streamline your process and practice.
It improves the quality of the output - Let’s be honest nothing is ever going to be perfect first time. I’ve read through storyboards before and even after the 3rd or 4th time going through it, have still spotted mistakes or things I wanted to change. The more thorough those giving the feedback are, the more likely any mistakes or areas for improvement, are going to be picked up. That doesn’t mean put your work through endless rounds of feedback, but remembering that when things feel pedantic, it’s all in the name of quality control and producing the most polished output possible.
As a learning professional, you need to be able to accept feedback without it impacting you personally, or becoming defensive. But, the person giving the feedback also has a responsibility too. Let me tell you a quick story…
I held my breath as she picked up the garment, studied it, frowned and then began to rip it apart. No not figuratively. Literally.
I studied a design based degree at uni, it was a subject I loved and was passionate about so I often used the skills I was learning in my lectures, for hobby or passion projects. One example of this was the time I designed and made a dress for my cousin’s wedding. I bought the fabric, designed the pattern and decided to use the facilities at my university to piece it all together. It just so happened that whilst I was trimming the freshly sewn bodice of this dress, my lecturer walked in. Naturally, she asked what I was doing and then wanted to see my progress.
I held my breath as she picked up the garment, studied it, frowned and then began to rip it apart. No not figuratively. Literally.
She told me the stitching was lousy (or words to the effect) and said I needed to do it again.
Nowadays I can look back on this moment and laugh, because ultimately she was right. The stitching was lousy and it probably did need redoing. But at the time it felt like I’d been punched in the gut. This lecturer in question didn’t offer any advice or support to help me improve my technique, heck she didn’t even ask me if I wanted her input. She just walked away.
Another instance, was during an end of project review session. Myself and my peers had to stand up and present a finished garment along with a short PowerPoint talking through our process, design choices, pitfalls etc. I wasn’t too nervous about this, presenting doesn’t often phase me and I was quite proud of what I’d produced.
That was until the first person stood up and began to present their work. Let’s call her Hannah.
As Hannah began her presentation you could see the lecturer’s face begin to form a disappointed scowl. She waited until Hannah had finished presenting, cleared her throat and said, I quote, “that is the worst thing I have ever seen.”
The rest of us in the room fell silent. We frantically glanced at each other not knowing whether to stand and defend Hannah’s honour, or to keep quiet in the hopes it lessened the inevitable ear bashing we were about to receive. The rest of the session followed in a pattern. We each took turns standing up, presenting our work and receiving our very public take down. It was humiliating.
Soon after these incidents, I swiftly left that course (along with a few others) and moved on to something else. In all honesty I probably did take the feedback more personally than I should have done, in the creative arts it’s hard not to become emotionally attached to the work you’re creating. But, it’s safe to say this lecturer’s method of giving feedback was less than ideal, so let’s explore why.
“It is okay to push back on feedback if you feel the person giving the feedback is doing so in a way that is unprofessional or unproductive.”
It wasn’t objective or constructive. By this I mean she told me the ‘what’ (my stitching was lousy), but failed to provide any further detail as to why, or how I could improve. There was no meaningful or constructive follow-up, detailing how I could then go on to improve my stitching. Instead I was left feeling deflated and a bit confused.
She opted for a public, ‘shaming’ style of feedback. Sometimes feedback will be difficult to hear and it’s not always going to be positive. However, providing feedback should always be done in private, regardless of whether it is positive or constructive. Embarrassing individuals in-front of their peers made it incredibly difficult for us to accept the feedback.
Her language was overly critical. Now this doesn’t mean sugar coat things, but feedback should inspire individuals to improve not make them feel terrible or like a failure! Instead of saying ‘that is the worst thing I have ever seen,’ she could have said, ‘there’s definitely some room for improvement, let’s talk through how we can enhance xyz.’
So why is this important? Mainly to point out that it is okay to push back on feedback if you feel the person giving the feedback is doing so in a way that is unprofessional or unproductive. When feedback is delivered in a way as discussed above, it is almost inevitable you will feel defensive and upset and will not receive the feedback well. This then leads to no professional growth for anyone and the project outcome will be impacted too.
But what about your responsibility when it comes to receiving feedback?
Picture this, you’ve gone above and beyond for a client, worked hours on a project and pulled out all the stops to make it amazing. You send over the finished piece to be reviewed and breathe a sigh of relief. A few days later you’re notified that feedback is ready. You begin reading through it and see comments such as ‘can we change this to xyz please,’ ‘I don’t think xyz is working, this needs to be…’ You let out a deflated sigh and snap at your computer ‘but I spent ages on that, what’s wrong with it?!’ Don’t worry we’ve all been there.
As I stated at the beginning of this post, the burden to bare with being passionate about your work is that you will inevitably put a piece of you into it. But it’s important to remember that when it comes to feedback, it’s not personal, just business.
That being said, here’s my top 5 tips for acing the feedback stage of your project.
Prepare yourself mentally - If you know you will be receiving feedback, make sure when you read through the comments you are in the right headspace to accept it and take on board the suggestions. In other words, if you’re in an already foul mood, or someone has already irritated you, maybe go for a walk, clear your head and come back to it later. It can make a big difference in whether those defensive barriers come up or not.
Take control of the how - Think about how you want to receive feedback. What is going to make the process easier for you? Understanding and processing feedback can be really tricky (and frustrating) if you don’t know what it is relating too, so make sure you are clear with your stakeholders the format in which you wish to receive feedback. If you’re an Articulate user, this could look like providing a Review link for them to comment on. During the storyboarding phase I like to provide a separate document asking the stakeholder to provide the slide number, name and their corresponding comment. This then makes it easy for me to understand what they are referring too.
Don’t do it all at once - If time will allow it, review your feedback and make amendments in stages. I’ve definitely had instances of seeing a Review document with 89 comments on and feeling instantly overwhelmed by the amount to change. Reading over comment after comment of constructive feedback can feel a bit deflating, so try and break it up in amongst lighter, less mentally taxing tasks. Hopefully there will be positive feedback in there too, but it’s always good to give your brain (and ego) a bit of break.
Skim for questions - Whilst everything is fresh in your stakeholders’ minds, it’s a good idea to skim through the feedback and make note of any questions you have, or things you need clarifying. This way, you can either arrange a quick call, or send over an email to your stakeholders, giving them time to provide clarification whilst you crack-on with other amendments, or actioning any other feedback.
Feel your feelings - You’re only human and there is going to be instances when feedback is going to feel a bit crap. It’s okay to take a moment to feel sad or disappointed, especially if you weren’t expecting constructive feedback. On the flip side, also take the time to be proud of yourself for the positives too! What’s important is to move past any negative emotions and remember it’s not personal! Take a few minutes to breathe, feel your feelings and even vent to a colleague if you need to. But do not, I repeat do not, instantly jump into defensive mode and begin throwing things back at your stakeholders. This will not end well and will damage your credibility as a professional. Those who are neurodivergent can find receiving constructive feedback particularly difficult (rejection sensitive dysphoria), if this is something you experience be sure to take some time to process the feedback and ask for support from others if needs be, to help keep you grounded.
Don’t forget, you can push back if you feel the feedback is:
Not specific or objective - ask for further and specific details.
Personal - if the feedback is aimed at you and your personality, or is taking shots at your professional ability, it’s okay to call someone out. If it is linked to your behaviour, feedback should be given in a way that can clearly define the behaviour and its impact, and should be based on observation and not speculation.
Unprofessional or overly critical without being constructive - If the language used is unprofessional, demeaning or just plain harsh it’s okay to push back. This could look like overusing jargon or slang, using swear words, or at worst racist, sexist or derogatory phrases in the feedback. Remember, feedback should always offer ways to improve something, so if you receive a comment such as, ‘this sentence needs rewording,’ it’s okay to ask for suggestions as to how.
Just plain wrong! - No just kidding, but you can engage in a discussion with your stakeholders if you feel that something needs to be clarified or the stakeholder would benefit from you sharing your reasoning. For example, I was once asked to remove an interactive element of an eLearning because the course was already too long. I felt it would negatively benefit the learning by doing so, therefore myself and the stakeholder had a discussion and opted to cut content from other parts of the eLearning to reduce the time.
Remember, you as the ID or developer are the expert in learning design, therefore it’s okay to fight your corner sometimes. Just make sure you’re doing it in a way that clearly explains your reasoning and goes beyond ‘well because I think it should be that way.’
Whilst feedback can sometimes be a bit doom and gloom, it can also be a great way to celebrate your successes too. So with the bad, also remember to embrace the good and give yourself a nice big pat on the back! At the end of the day, it’s not personal, just business.
