💡 How feedback helps learning (or does it?)

You’re training someone, and they make a mistake. You'll give them feedback, right?

But what if they are performing excellently? Should you stop and give feedback then? Absolutely yes! 🎯


Here is why:

Article originally posted on Linkedin by Evgenia Generalova.

🔹 We assume a person knows they are doing great job. Not guaranteed. Next time they might try a new approach, and you’ll be wondering why oh why.  

 

🔹 Positive feedback ➜ the parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest”) gets activated ➜ great conditions for learning.

 

💙 Anybody who tried coaching would confirm we learn very well when our strengths and successes are cultivated. 💙



And here is how:

📌 To anchor a new behavior, you need to reinforce connections between neurons.

How?

➜ Talk about it. Discuss the task done well, what happened, how the task was performed, what the person was thinking, etc. Jump all over the case to grow those neuron connections.

 

🔹 And what about negative, ooops, I mean constructive, feedback?

Telling people about their mistakes and shortcomings impairs learning. It activates the sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight”), which puts our brain into survival mode. And guess what? Learning is not a priority then.

💙 Not saying to never give constructive feedback, but not when you want people to learn. Be gentle ;) 💙