The Power Of Feedback

When asked in an interview Elon Musk the most difficult thing, instead of colonisation on Mars or reusing of rockets he said, “One of the biggest challenges in life is making sure you have A Corrective Feedback Loop and maintain the feedback loop even when people wont tell you what you want to hear”.

And corelating to the topic “Power of Feedback” ?So, why is feedback important? For people like you and me, here is a small story - This story will give us a deeper understanding.

Europe 1846

This was one of the darkest time of the European History wherein, a disease called puerperal fever (also known as "childbed fever"). As soon as the mother gives birth to the child they used to die out of something called “Postpartum infections” or “puerperal fever”. Just like Covid nowadays there used to be increase in the deaths of not just the child but also mothers. And doctors all around the world during mid 1850s spent millions of dollars on the research on to find the root cause no one could actually find out what exactly caused this problem. Amidst all this, there was this one German-Hungarian physician called Ignaz Semmelweis.

Semmelweis received his doctor’s degree from Vienna in 1844 was screaming out the solution in every possible manner. In participated in 1848 liberal political revolution to educate people, he also gave a lecture at Medical Society of Vienna entitled “The Origin of Puerperal Fever, but yet people and doctors all around the world just criticised. The entire society called him CRAZY. His ideas were rejected by the medical community and doctors mocked him for his ideas. This humiliation went to an extent where he was admitted in mental asylum and died 14 days later from wound on his right hand caused by the beating by the guards.

Now after decades of research and development and when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory and French microbiologist's researcher, practised and operated using hygienic methods, with great success, then, the world has realised the mistake of not listening to Semmelweis. The answer was simple “WASH YOUR HANDS”. Yes! You heard it right, “Wash Your Hands before entering into the delivery ward”.

As it turn out doctors the doctors who are doing the autopsy in the morning are the same doctors who are doing the delivery in the maternity ward in the afternoon., which is why the disease from dead bodies are getting passed on to the healthy mothers and eventually to the child as well. All they had to do was practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions which actually reduced mortality to below 1%.

Today doctor Ignaz is regarded as early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and also called as the "saviour of mothers".

So, had it been the situation where the doctors who were too proud to admit their flaws, heard Dr. Ignaz, god knows, how many mothers would have been saved and how many children would have lived in that generation. Now, even in 2021 (all thanks to Covid) the first thing we do is “Wash Hands Frequently” which actually saved millions of lives all around the world or maybe actually killed millions for not following it, apparently.

This is the reason very feedback and criticism is very important.

As they called it:- Criticism is a double edged sword if taken the right way, it will lead you to greatness and if not taken the right way it will become the graveyard of your success.

Now, there are 3 kinds of people around you,

1. People who are genuinely interested in you and will help you to grow,
2. People who are hitters who constantly pull you down,
3. People who sugar coat their opinion keeping their image in mind who always wanted to play safe.

Now it is up to our knowledge from whom we are taking this – And it brings us to the important aspect – HOW should one take it to improve? Well, while I was intended to write this article I came across a famous method called “Magical Feedback” which I hear also mentioned in book called “The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle (honestly I have not read the book but I was watching some videos by a famous coach Gregg Popovich).

It is as simple as: you might want to ask your critic-

1. What do you think I did right?
2. What do you think I did wrong?
3. And if you would have done it how would you make it better?

Now the answers from that critic, will give you a clear understanding if it is a ‘Constructive Feedback’ or a ‘Destructive Feedback’.

And finally,

Don’t question the agenda of the critic, just learn from it,

because the end result is a better you, not a better them.