How are you using feedback for ongoing improvement?

A few years ago, I taught my course on Grant Proposal Writing for one of the first times.

At the end of the course, I read over the evaluations from the fifteen students who had enrolled in the course.

Fourteen students loved the course. They commented that they had learned a great deal, appreciated the tools and frameworks to write better grant proposals, and appreciated the positive classroom environment.

But one student, who I’ll call Carlo, had a different experience. On his evaluation form, he wrote that the class was terrible. He hadn’t learned anything. Even worse, it was his perception that I hadn’t taught anything! From his perception, the course had been a vapid waste of time. (Those may not have been his exact words – but you get the idea.)

I was confused. What happened?

I felt validated that almost all of the students felt that the course was on track and had presented great material. And yet I had failed Carlo. He had the same experience as everyone else and emerged without significant learning.

I’ve observed a similar scenario with some nonprofit organizations I work with: Most board or staff members are appreciative of the organization’s work and feel that the organization is on track. But then there’s that one board or staff member who is strongly dissatisfied with aspects of the organization’s performance.

With boards or teams, there’s a couple of steps that I recommend:

First, we need to recognize that there always will be haters! (As I explained to my kids over breakfast when I was sharing with them about Carlo’s experience.) Our work, our culture, our mission, and our style will not be the right fit for every person.

So in the case of board or staff members, there are times when that dissatisfied person needs to step away: The board member who can’t stop talking about how much better the organization was 20 years ago under the previous Executive Director or the staff member who is swimming in a different direction than the rest of the team and is not able to notice which way the current is moving.

The truth is that Carlo was not my ideal student and probably wasn’t ever going to become one. He did not value the class’s interactive, participatory learning environment.

All of that being said, I spent some time reflecting on whether there was some truth in Carlo’s words: How could someone go through my course and feel that they didn’t learn anything?

Carlo’s critique caused me to reflect on different learning styles and do more learning to consider how students were experiencing the course. I realized that Carlo was a “research learner” who preferred to engage with the material independently rather than in small groups or via lecture. I added more material to the course reader that future research learners could engage with also. Since making that change, students have generally been thrilled with the amount of material presented as well as the class structure and ability to participate and interact.

The same principle applies to board or staff teams: Sometimes the one person with the critique has an essential truth that the rest of the organization needs to hear.

This critique might be around racial equity, inclusion, organizational effectiveness, or culture. But that one person who sees and names the challenge may be highlighting something that everyone else needs to pay attention to.

Amazingly enough, research has shown that people who learn from mistakes and failure (as opposed to those who are less open to negative feedback, mistakes and failure) exhibit activity in different parts of their brains! This is connected to having a growth mindset, the idea that everyone can change and grow through application and experience.

As people and organizations, we keep learning and growing when we stay open to positive feedback – as well as the comments that we’re less thrilled to receive. After all, understanding and incorporating that feedback makes us stronger and will shape our offerings for the better. And given the challenges we’re facing, there’s no question that we must embrace a culture of learning on an individual and team level.