Speed and frequency of feedback
I was playing tennis with my partner when a father and his son came to the adjacent court. They had about 100 balls to practice with, so I knew that the father was probably training his son -- about 12 years old -- to play tennis competitively.
The father stood at the net, and returned the balls to his son. What I noticed is that after EVERY shot the son made, the father would yell out a very specific feedback, such as: "Bend your knees!" or "Lean forward!" or "More power!" or "Foot work!" etc.
This gave me an important insight about success: speed and frequency of feedback are critical to rapid improvement!
Speed: the father's feedback came a fraction of a second after the son hit the ball.
Frequency: the father provided specific feedback every 1 or 2 seconds.
So feedback speed and frequency enabled the son to learn extremely fast, and to instantly correct errors in execution.
Now compare the above with the feedback that the normal employee receives, in the form of the annual performance review!
Speed: the feedback comes too late! The employee probably doesn't remember what the feedback is all about!
Frequency: once a year! That's very, er, infrequent!
Some people may say: "Well, employees are not really competing as in professional tennis. They just have a job to do. So why do they have to train and practice so hard?"
Because the Internet exists. Because there are 3 billion new workers who have just joined the global workforce, and are using the Internet to compete for YOUR job.
Three billion workers, that's... 3,000,000,000.
And they are smart, hungry and ambitious. They will do everything you will not do, and they will do it for one fifth of your salary.
That is the reason why EVERYONE needs a coach and needs to get fast and frequent feedback on his/her peformance.
The father stood at the net, and returned the balls to his son. What I noticed is that after EVERY shot the son made, the father would yell out a very specific feedback, such as: "Bend your knees!" or "Lean forward!" or "More power!" or "Foot work!" etc.
This gave me an important insight about success: speed and frequency of feedback are critical to rapid improvement!
Speed: the father's feedback came a fraction of a second after the son hit the ball.
Frequency: the father provided specific feedback every 1 or 2 seconds.
So feedback speed and frequency enabled the son to learn extremely fast, and to instantly correct errors in execution.
Now compare the above with the feedback that the normal employee receives, in the form of the annual performance review!
Speed: the feedback comes too late! The employee probably doesn't remember what the feedback is all about!
Frequency: once a year! That's very, er, infrequent!
Some people may say: "Well, employees are not really competing as in professional tennis. They just have a job to do. So why do they have to train and practice so hard?"
Because the Internet exists. Because there are 3 billion new workers who have just joined the global workforce, and are using the Internet to compete for YOUR job.
Three billion workers, that's... 3,000,000,000.
And they are smart, hungry and ambitious. They will do everything you will not do, and they will do it for one fifth of your salary.
That is the reason why EVERYONE needs a coach and needs to get fast and frequent feedback on his/her peformance.
posted by Super Peter at 11:24 PM
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