How to Filter Feedback
Wisdom from the Field #9
In the sports biography A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers, John Feinstein documents one college basketball season with the fiery yet successful coach.
Knight was notorious for dressing down players with profanity-laced, public tirades. Some players left early during Knight’s tenure at Indiana University, citing abuse from the coach. Yet one of Indiana’s best players, Steve Alford, seemed to manage Knight’s criticism as well as anyone.
As Feinstein described it, Alford would simply listen, grit his teeth, and apply what the coach was trying to convey. He had the ability to filter out the negative aspects of the feedback while distilling what Knight was trying to say to help him improve. (Side note: Steve Alford went on to become a successful college basketball coach himself, 30 years and counting.)
De-Personalized Learning
The concept of personalized learning - “meaningful, authentic, and rigorous challenges to demonstrate desired outcomes”1 - continues to be relevant in education, as it should.
And yet, are there times when we become too attached to our work? Might we identify too closely with our roles, which can lead to difficulty in accepting critical feedback when it is communicated?
I know I did as an initial leader. I would send out surveys as part of my professional practice goal, or simply asked for descriptive feedback. For individuals who took advantage of this opportunity to vent their frustrations with my leadership, I would become defensive and take both their unfounded and valid criticisms personally.
Now, while exploring relevant questions and projects to pursue, I will read through feedback knowing that the person giving it may not be effective in expressing their thinking in constructive ways. Or, I will reflect on past experiences to try to understand staff’s current belief systems, plus their potential struggles within our more positive and effective school culture.
In other words, feedback is as much about the giver as it is the taker.
Reflective Questions
When receiving or requesting feedback,
Are you creating questions that will guide the respondents to provide the information you seek?
If you need descriptive/qualitative feedback, what system can you set up to ensure respondents have some accountability in what they communicate?
How will this feedback serve as part of a larger assessment plan, and is not analyzed in isolation so you have the whole story?
What will you do with this information, how will it help you improve, and how will others see their input influence your practice and the school as a whole?
This Wisdom from the Field is also a feature from my new book, Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. Pre-order today!
Zmuda, A., Curtis, G., & Ullman, D. (2015). Learning personalized: The evolution of the contemporary classroom. John Wiley & Sons.