Does It Make Sense to Integrate AI into Your Game's Content Production Pipeline?
High-quality feedback can save a company a ton of money and its employees a dozen therapy sessions. Feedback shows how to achieve better results without negative emotions, name-calling, and demotivation.
Why is feedback so important?
In a business environment, feedback is often confused with criticism. In fact, these two terms have nothing in common. Criticism can evoke negative emotions, while feedback can inspire greater achievements, that's why it's so important to share it regardless of your position.
Feedback is fact-based information that opens up many possibilities. It allows us to look at a matter from different angles, stumble upon creative ideas and better solutions, and implement them faster and more effectively than we would without it. Isn't that why we work in teams? That's how we strengthen each other, and I see great value in that. Even in a successful project, there is always something that can be improved and lead to greater results in the future.
Feedback can be a sign that someone wants to build a long-term relationship with you. If you are concerned that your colleague or manager frequently asks for your feedback, it may mean that they are genuinely interested in long and effective collaboration, and feedback can help adjust your work and improve results. Conversely, the absence of feedback may be a good reason to wonder if your services are truly in demand.
The most effective way to evaluate an employee is the 360-degree method. It consists not only of feedback from a supervisor or closest colleague, but also from many other people, both inside and outside the company. This is necessary to provide an unbiased evaluation. For example, your manager sees the results of your work but does not know how you act in the process, whether you have enough hard and soft skills, and whether you are comfortable working with overlapping areas of responsibility.
How to give feedback?
Providing feedback is a true art: you need to constantly remind yourself that it should not be just a rehash of various thoughts - your goal is a win-win situation where you express your opinion and the recipient ultimately gets a clear idea of how to implement new ideas without feeling criticized or disappointed.
Here are a few important points to consider:
- Make sure your feedback is really needed and the recipient is ready to receive it. It's always better to ask first than to give unsolicited advice. For example, you could say: "I have a suggestion on how to improve our results. Would you like to discuss it?" or simply "Do you mind if I give you some feedback?".
- Plan the structure. It's important to avoid personal remarks, provide specific examples, and highlight areas of growth so that it's clear you're not saying everything is bad, but rather pointing out some details that can be improved.
In my environment, it's common to use the classic "sandwich" technique when giving negative feedback. That means we alternate positive points and areas of growth in such a way that both the beginning and end of the conversation are positive, with the helpful suggestions placed in the middle. After all, the goal of feedback is to inspire, not to say everything needs to be redone, which would completely demotivate the person.
That's why we have weekly/monthly reports or sprints. They not only allow us to show progress to management, but also motivate the team to achieve more, show work to be proud of, and demonstrate that there is something to appreciate, even if some mistakes were made. They can happen, and that's completely normal.
The world is not black or white, good or bad. Every team or employee has strengths and weaknesses, as well as areas for growth and development. And it's very important to focus on the positive aspects, as this helps to establish feedback better and easier.
The STAR Method
We often use the STAR model to provide feedback, where:
- "S" and "T" stand for "Situation" and "Task". They need to be explained to provide context.
- "A" stands for "Action". Here you tell how someone else already solved a similar task and what needs to be done to avoid the same mistake or fix the problem.
- "R" stands for "Result". Here you describe what was achieved thanks to the action and why it worked.
Mistakes are part of the process
This model allows us to learn from mistakes and share experiences. In our company, punishment or dismissal for a mistake is unacceptable. We approach each issue individually and draw conclusions. Letting a person go is not the solution. Even if we admit it's easier, every new employee could make the same mistake again. A wiser solution is to figure out the problem together, share the new experience with colleagues, and move forward.
This way the company can grow its best professionals. It's impossible to find a candidate who 100% meets your requirements, but there are still cases where people lose their jobs because of a mistake. For example, a study showed that between 2021 and 2022, 25% of employees were fired due to cybersecurity-related mistakes.
I believe that mistakes are a natural part of the work process. At any stage of your career, you may encounter situations where you lose your bearings or feel uncertain about your decisions, especially if your profession is related to innovation in some way. Patience and exchanging opinions can help. That's how I see effective teamwork in companies of the present and future.