Wednesday 1 October 2014

Is your feedback system people-friendly?

The addiction for feedback has always existed among achievers or to-be-achievers (be it an individual or an organization) But, how many of us have taken the "Human Factor" into consideration for the same?
Let me elaborate. Most of our feedback is so skewed towards the extroverts. Would you agree? In Webinars, the person who clicks on the raise-hand button is prioritized over a person who has keyed in his/her question in the chat bar. The person who has commented on a post is taken more seriously than the one who has merely liked something. Did we miss pondering upon the fact that, there are so many silent listeners out there, some of them being our biggest customers? Why did we just assume being loud is a sign of importance?
Needless to say, today our content (be it at a personal level or at an organizational level) is exposed to a varied set of listeners out there - there are the extroverts who respond, debate, challenge and discuss, there are the ambiverts who may prefer to take the discussion offline or online and then we have the introverts, who prefer introspection over an open discussion. When you take feedback how receptive are we to all these people-types? It's not stereotyping i am talking about, it's the inclusiveness that's important. It will make you stand out as an organization.
Here's a practical example of how i used this thought to get feedback for my blog
For the enthusiastic extroverts who love an on the spot open discussions, I have the regular comments section.
For the lovely introverts, i have a silent response section, as i prefer to call it. I do not need you to talk or give me your details. Just tell me how you would categorize my post

For the introverts who do mind speaking up in person, or for the extroverts who do not have time for an open discussion, i have a section to take this off the blog - having them send me a feedback to my mail. A lot of people do respond here.
The bubbly ambiverts are the ones who vacillate on their mode of communication. So, they always have options to choose from. I let their mood do the choosing for them.
I can now firmly say, i have accommodated all kinds of people into my feedback system. Will they now communicate more? I can't tell, after all we are humans overpowered by so many external and internal factors. But, once they want to, have i facilitated them enough? Oh yes! Moreover, this may involve a little more time & effort, but hey! it's worth it. You never know which silent listener can actually change the way you do business and take it to a whole new level.
When organizations take this thought into consideration, i am sure it will act as a strong differentiator in their favor, not to mention how considerate and inclusive they prove to be
Do you think this thought makes sense? Please comment below to share your views on the same. You could also drop me a personal message if that works for you
Thank you for reading!

No comments:

Post a Comment