Feedback

Feedback is one of the most powerful tools for facilitating improvement, both within an organization and in our lives as a whole. Defined as "the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source," feedback evaluates the outcome of our actions or behavior, telling us whether what we did was "good" or "bad," "successful," or "unsuccessful." To appreciate just how powerful and widespread a tool it is, imagine for an instance, life without feedback: Consider speaking to a friend, family member, or colleague who is cold as ice, who shows no reaction whatsoever. We have probably all encountered such a person before, and found interacting with them difficult on many levels. Now imagine if everybody you encountered were like this. Combine this with the lack of in-built feedback mechanisms in tools and systems that we use every day. Entering a wrong password, or filling out a form incorrectly prompts the system we use to do nothing. Zilch, no error message, no popup dialogs. Pressing the unlock button on our car keys invokes no noise or no blinking lights to indicate that the car was successfully unlocked. When giving a presentation at work, everybody just stares blankly ahead without giving any indication of whether or not they are listening.