Personal Development for Communication Technology Pratik Man Singh Pradhan | Module Code: CT1039NI | Week 5 - Lecture

Feedback and its Importance Know your blind spots and unknown abilities

Feedback  Feedback is an essential part of effective learning.  It helps students understand the subject being studied and gives them clear guidance on how to improve their learning  Feedback is a process in which information about the past or the present influences the same phenomenon in the present or future

Types of Feedback  Negative feedback  Positive feedback  Negative feed-forward  Positive feed-forward

Negative Feedback  Negative feedback, or corrective comments about past behaviour.  These are things that didn’t go well.

Positive Feedback  Positive feedback, or affirming comments about past behaviour.  These are things that went well and need to be repeated

Negative Feed Forward  Negative feed forward, or corrective comments about future behaviour.  These are things that don’t need to be repeated next time

Positive Feed Forward  Positive feed-forward, or affirming comments about future behaviour.  These are things that would improve performance in the future

Task-1  Choose one person from your group member. Identify his/her strength and weakness and based on that give feedback.  Time: 5 min

 As you begin to understand the power of balancing both positive and negative input with observations about the past (which can’t be changed) and advice for the future (which can be changed), you have a new concept for the feedback process.

Five Balancing Strategies These strategies will help to use these four types of feedback in a way to help the other person receive and use your insights to improve performance 1. Make sure you use them all 2. Ask the person his/her opinion first 3. Tie it all together 4. More “and” less “but” 5. Focus on the future

Make sure you use them all  Understand the importance of each, and have insights in each area to share.  The starting point must always be usefulness.  Your challenge is to look for examples in all four areas, not make something up or be overly generic

Ask the other person his/her opinion first  Ask questions about all four areas. Do it without it being an interrogation--ask something like,  “How do you think it went?” Or, more specifically, “What did you think went well?”  “What do you wish you had done differently?”  Then ask about the future with questions like, “Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently next time?” “What will you avoid next time?” “What do you plan to make sure you do next time?”

Tie it all together  Connect the dots for people between past performance and how that relates to the future.  This may require generalizing out an idea or behaviour.  Tying together past and future can help keep people from being defensive or spending their energy trying to justify the past--which can’t be changed anyway.

More “and” less “but  When you tie ideas together, do it with “and” not “but.”  “But” erases everything said prior to using the word “but.”  “And” is inclusive and draws people forward emotionally

Focus on Future  While you want the feedback to be balanced, the overall focus needs to be on the future.  Remember no one can change the past  Always end the conversation talking about the future, including their thoughts early and often

Types of feedback  Motivational feedback  Immediate feedback  Evaluative feedback  Descriptive feedback

Motivational feedback  Use praise and is supposed to reward and encourage behaviour  Example, giving candy to children for finishing homework

Immediate feedback  Given as soon as possible after the subjects performance  For example, internet test score results which comes immediately after the test.  Online voting

Responding to feedback  Welcome the feedback  Take negative feedback positively  Never take feedback personally  Show appreciation towards the source of feedback

Section A  Write a short essay [approximately 2 pages] on  “Feedback and its importance”.  Your work should address the following (15 marks) 1. Definition of feedback 2. Comparison of the different types of feedback 3. Critical analysis on the importance of feedback 4. How to respond to feedback

Section A (Continued) 5. Your recommendation and justification for one type of feedback 6. At least one textbook and one web reference 7. Minimum four references 8. Your report should be word-processed and properly formatted 9.. Plagiarism is a serious offence in this university.

Scenario  Let us assume that you are the head of Marketing and Sales department of a Communications Technology based company providing a relevant service/product as proposed by team tutor. Year -1 Year -2 Business Value Y2012 Business Value Y2011 Business Value Y2009 Year 0 Year1 Business Value Y % 60% 80% 60%

Scenario Communications Technology based company can be any company that provides one of the following products: Integrated Services Routers (ISR) Ubiquiti NanoBridge Bluetooth wireless speaker USB Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) Dongle Modem

Your Task Your Job Step 2 You need to acquire feedback from new and existing customers Step 1 Investigate the Problem Step 4 Justify your choice of questions and briefly explain how they can help you in Analysing / improving your current sales situation. Your questionnaire should also be properly formatted.. Step 3 Design a questionnaire (10 questions), related to only one of the above products, which will help you get feedback from customers.

Section B Analyze the Problem Analyze the Problem Design a Questionnaire Design a Questionnaire Justify the Questions Justify the Questions Conclusion

Questionnaire  A questionnaire is a list of written questions that can be completed in one of two basic ways:  Firstly, respondents could be asked to complete the questionnaire with the researcher not present.  This is a postal questionnaire and (loosely) refers to any questionnaire that a respondent completes without the aid of the researcher.

Questionnaire  Secondly, respondents could be asked to complete the questionnaire by verbally responding to questions in the presence of the researcher.  This variation is called a structured interview.

Questionnaire  Although the two variations are similar (a postal questionnaire and a structured interview could contain exactly the same questions), the difference between them is important.  If, for example, we are concerned with protecting the respondent’s anonymity then it might be more appropriate to use a postal questionnaire than a structured interview.

Two basic types of question  Closed-ended (or “closed question”) is a question for which a researcher provides a suitable list of responses (e.g. Yes / No). This produces mainly quantitative data.  Open-ended (or “open question”) is a question where the researcher doesn’t provide the respondent with a set answer from which to choose. Rather, the respondent is asked to answer "in their own words". This produces mainly qualitative data.

Characteristics of good questionnaire  A good questionnaire is one which help directly achieve  the research objectives,  provides complete and accurate information;  is easy for both interviewers and respondents to complete,  is so designed as to make sound analysis and interpretation possible and  is brief.

Nine steps to develop a questionnaire 1. Decide the information required. 2. Define the target respondents. 3. Choose the method(s) of reaching your target respondents. 4. Decide on question content. 5. Develop the question wording. 6. Put questions into a meaningful order and format. 7. Check the length of the questionnaire. 8. Pre-test the questionnaire. 9. Develop the final survey form.

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