Why feedback loops are important (to me)

Given we’re at a particularly reflective time of year, I’ve been considering what happened over the last 12 months and whether effort exerted = desired outcome(s).

There were a couple of spots where I felt I was trying to brute force my way to progress with little perceived success. Louise Cato helpfully advised that in a similar situation she found it useful to talk to someone about it to to correct her own beliefs about how well things were going. (And in Louise’s case.. better than she thought)

A couple of weeks ago, I came to a related epiphany whilst writing the Braindump Review. I discovered that I need feedback.. good or bad.. as a motivator to push forward.

In the absence of feedback or any discernible data points, I’m left with my own internal narrative of events. I like that Louise specifically used the word ‘belief’ since I think our perception of the things around us are based upon a set of core beliefs. Unless you’re regularly exposing those beliefs to broad daylight, there’s a danger they remain hidden drivers for all your actions.

So — what’s the learning here?

• *Before* embarking something, big or small, I need to spend a little bit of time defining what success actually looks like so that I know whether I’m moving toward it or if I need to stop and rethink/abort.
• If there’s an easy way to triangulate my internal narrative of how things are going (like talking to people).. do that… regularly.