Feedback is the best way to improve work and avoid mistakes – but what’s the best way to give and receive it?
In August 2020, an IKEA billboard at a flagship store in Bahrain was called out by a Twitter user for a translation error: instead of an Arabic translation of the ad copy – Create your perfect night’s sleep – the translated text actually read, “Same text but in Arabic.”
Everything we write in the course of our workday is a form of communication, and that communication is key to a successful business.
IKEA took it in stride, editing the billboard so it said, “This is what happens when you don’t get good sleep. Enjoy your perfect sleep.”
Their fix was so clever and well received that some Twitter users claimed it was a deliberate marketing move, rather than a simple mistake – and it was a much-discussed topic in Three Whiskey channels for a few days.
While we may never know if IKEA made the gaffe on purpose, a savvy marketer can take away two lessons from the blunder:
1. Proofreading is vital to avoid mistakes.
2. Mistakes, should they happen, aren’t the end of the world.
Feedback: Why You Should Learn to Love It
Everything we write in the course of our workday is a form of communication, and that communication is key to a successful business. We communicate with our colleagues, with our clients and partners, and with our customers and the public – but what we tend to forget is that communication is creation. When we set words to paper, we are creating meaning – and the act of creation is iterative.
That goes for any form of writing – emails, reports, slide decks, etc. And while we may write alone, we can only get so far by ourselves. Feedback is essential to improvement.
Embracing a culture of robust feedback and editing within a business will:
- Help make individual work better.
- Encourage a collaborative atmosphere that enables the sharing of insights and ideas.
- Improve the performance of individuals – and of the business – in the long-term.
Feedback can take several forms. It includes proofreading (both your own work and that of others), providing comments and suggestions, workshopping ideas and products, and what’s often referred to here at Three Whiskey as ‘QA’: quality assurance.
What they all have in common is that they are collaborative, involving the input of several individuals, and focused on improving the work for everyone’s benefit.
Giving Helpful Feedback
We’ve all experienced good feedback and bad feedback. Often, feedback isn’t helpful when it uses emotional statements (“I feel like this doesn’t work”) or doesn’t provide enough information (“I don’t like this”). In comparison, good feedback gives helpful suggestions and helps move the work forward.
If we’re lucky, we’ve also experienced great feedback – the kind that helps solve a problem you knew was there but that you just couldn’t quite crack.
Good feedback gives helpful suggestions and helps move the work forward.
To make sure you’re giving helpful feedback, try the following:
- Start with the positive. This acknowledges the effort the writer’s put in and sets a tone of co-operation.
- Critique the work, not the person. Avoid using the word ‘you’ and talk instead about the work itself.
- Ask questions. When you don’t think something is quite right, ask the writer why they struc-tured it that way, or what their goal was for that section. Understanding why they made the choices they did can help to illuminate why something isn’t working.
- Don’t just say what you like or don’t like. Be clear about what is or is not working for you and offer suggestions on how to improve. For example, “I don’t like this section” can become “This section is repetitive, could it be trimmed down?” Unlike the first, the second comment gives the writer a clear idea of what’s not working and how they might fix it.
- Be specific and factual, and avoid emotional statements.
The Feedback Process: What to Look For
So you’re reviewing a colleague’s work in order to provide feedback – what do you look for?
- Focus first on the big ideas. How does the work read? Is there a clear and consistent message? You want to address any big picture issues before getting into the details.
- Read it twice. Depending on the length of the work, it’s a good idea to read it once through for sense, then read it again for mistakes.
- Think about the audience. If it’s a presentation, will the message be clear to the audience? If it’s a report or an article, is it clear for the reader? Communication is a two-way street, so you always want to keep the audience in mind.
- Watch out for: ambiguity, repetition, dullness, and anything that doesn’t make sense.
- Proofreading should come last. This includes checking for grammar, spelling, sentence struc-ture, tense, formatting inconsistencies, etc.
- Try these techniques:
o Look for one kind of error at a time (such as how lists are formatted, or the spelling of one frequently misspelled word).
o Read it backwards – this is particularly great for catching spelling mistakes.
o Read it out loud. If there’s one tip I have for improving writing that I wish everyone would take on board, it’s this: READ IT OUT LOUD.
Written Vs Verbal Feedback
These days, feedback often comes in the form of written notes and edits on a document, or in an email. While this is great for tracking changes, the reality is that written feedback often feels harsher than verbal feedback.
These days, feedback often comes in the form of written notes and edits on a document, or in an email. While this is great for tracking changes, the reality is that written feedback often feels harsher than verbal feedback.
So consider what kinds of notes you have to give. If you have a lot of big picture feedback, you might want to schedule a time to review it in person or over video call. Remember to ask questions when something isn’t clear – it encourages that sense of collaboration and opens a conversation on how to work together to solve any issues.
If your feedback is on a detailed level – grammatical changes, notes on data, etc. – then written feedback might be the best way to go.
Receiving Feedback
We can’t talk about how to give feedback without talking about to receive feedback.
Hearing what you’ve done wrong can be uncomfortable, especially if you’re not used to it. The good news is that it gets easier – and over time you’ll get better at using it to improve.
Remember:
- Everyone gets too close to their own work, and an outside perspective will help you spot issues you might not be aware of.
- If you pay attention, feedback can teach you to stop repeating the same mistakes.
- It’s natural to be a bit sensitive at first, but keep ‘collaboration’ in mind. Everyone needs feed-back – that’s why professional writers have editors. It’s normal for a novel to go through at least 10 drafts before publication. So you’re not alone!
- Not every piece of feedback needs actioning. Sometimes it’s obvious what you can ignore, and sometimes you may feel pressured to action something simply because it comes from a client or a manager. When it’s your name on the work, you know best what to take on board.
Not sure how you’ll be able to tell what to pay attention to? Consider these less-than-helpful bits of feedback from publishers about famous novels that the writers thankfully ignored:
"First, we must ask, does it have to be a whale? While this is a rather delightful, if somewhat esoteric, plot device, we recommend an antagonist with a more popular visage among the younger readers. For instance, could not the Captain be struggling with a depravity towards young, perhaps voluptuous, maidens?" – Feedback on Moby Dick by Herman Melville
"You’d have a decent book if you’d get rid of that Gatsby character." – Feedback on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"You’d have a decent book if you’d get rid of that Gatsby character." – Feedback on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
One can only assume Melville and Fitzgerald didn’t think twice about throwing that feedback in the bin.
One Last Thing: Don’t Be Afraid of Mistakes
Mistakes are inevitable. After all, we’re only human and making mistakes is important for growth – learning from our errors is the best way to get better at something. So don’t be afraid to make an blunder here and there, and to rely on your colleagues to help you spot it.
And when a mistake slips by unnoticed? You can always think like IKEA and make the most of it.
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash