Feedback is arguably the holy grail within the world of corporate training and development. It’s often high value, actionable, and comes at a low cost of acquisition. Feedback can give you the opportunity to self correct quickly and effectively is you are not on the right course (whether with customers or partners). The best part is that many people are happy to provide feedback because they know that it can directly impact their own experience, creating a mutually beneficial “win-win” scenario. So given all that, it should come as no surprise that feedback processes can make a serious difference in your learning and development playbook. Here are just a few ways that feedback can make all the difference.
Feedback Enhances Learning
Peer-to-peer education is a powerful tool that the L&D community has been quick to identify. Similarly, peer-to-peer feedback can make an equally powerful difference in how employees and businesses learn. In
this academic article on the subject, it was shown that multi-sourced feedback is useful in its own right. Students assess themselves then actively generate feedback for others as well, enhancing their cognitive engagement and developing lifelong skills that will be valued in any setting where they will appraise and comment on the work performed by others.
Schools have already seen high levels of success with this learning and assessment style, but businesses are also beginning to see how it can make an impact on their own
learning and development processes.
Feedback Creates Engagement
If you’re looking for a way to encourage more team-oriented learning and development processes, incorporating peer-to-peer feedback is an obvious choice. The importance of
employee engagement and development has been front and center in discussions around employee retention, but it’s also worth talking about when developing learning programs. Engaged employees are more receptive to instruction, training, and improvement. Feedback offers a simple and inviting opportunity for engagement.
Feedback is About Communication
The fact is that most employees are looking for more feedback because it helps them improve. Younger worker in particular thrive on open communication with lots of feedback. The L&D community can leverage that hunger for feedback to enhance development and training programs. Learning happens when people share thoughts, and it’s becoming more apparent that discussion, knowledge sharing, and feedback channels can help a team bounce ideas off one another and rise together.
The real lessons to be learned from incorporating feedback into your L&D is that employees learn and businesses benefit when individuals are encouraged to communicate, engage, and learn from feedback. Give them the right opportunities to develop and an open channel for constructive feedback, and you might be surprised how quickly and effectively your team levels up their
skill sets. Don’t shy away from peer-to-peer learning because often it is our compatriots we learn from most effectively. In fact, by creating an environment and a corporate culture where employees can solicit and provide the feedback that will encourage and improve processes, the more likely they will learn and retain those lessons for lasting impact.
Are you looking for more L&D insights?
For more tips on how to incorporate feedback into your learning and development processes,
connect with us at
Clarity Consultants today.
