Recently, my team and I had to come up with solutions to compensate for our learners who didn’t receive a satisfying learning experience. Listening to their harsh feedback was, at one point, very difficult to continue. It's a natural feeling to get a little defensive when we get constructive feedback from others. We always want feedback to become a better version of ourselves, but we got to admit that it’s not an easy process. The path between taking in the feedback and acting upon it is not a short one.

18 learners in one cohort. 18 different perspectives. We cannot satisfy everyone but that shouldn’t become an excuse for not correcting our wrongs. Acting upon feedback right away is not always a good idea either — we also need to have a stance. So what is the right thing to do? I found a better way to approach this is to ask back what caused the learners to say that and how they think the learning experience can improve. The more specific, the better.

• Asking for clarifications on feedback can shorten the path between the act of taking in and acting upon. If there are no further explanations or specifics on the feedback someone just gives you, you should further consider whether the feedback is actually helpful.
• Knowing that the person giving the feedback has a good intent will also help ease you into the process.