Introduction to Feedback and Echolocation

Feedback and Echolocation: Navigational Tools for Personal/Professional Growth

Last week, my colleague and friend Toyin Adeniji, Ph.D. SPC?. SASM?. SAFe? 6. ICP-APM. PSM. and I co-presented a session titled 'Feedback That Works: How to Build and Deliver Your Message,' as part of the PI Planning Innovation Week for our Agile Practice. While brainstorming ways to add value to our session, we introduced a unique concept—echolocation—as a parallel to feedback.

Feedback, as defined by Harvard Business Review, is "information about past behaviour that is intended to guide future behaviour." Similarly, MindTools describes feedback as the process of providing individuals with specific information about their performance to help them improve.

The ultimate purpose of good feedback is to help us navigate through blind spots and dark areas of both known and unknown behaviour, advancing us both personally and professionally. This is where the concept of echolocation comes in.

Echolocation, commonly used by certain animals and visually impaired individuals, involves using echoes from sound waves to navigate and understand the environment. Just as feedback provides insight into our actions, echolocation offers real-time information that helps individuals navigate their surroundings.

Stay tuned for the next post where I explore the parallels between feedback and echolocation, and how they can be applied to enhance our personal and professional growth.