The Feedback Loop has had a consistent goal for as long as I can remember: Produce new, quality content about feedback and reviews every week. It's a lot of work, and the team has been doing an amazing job of providing that content for the Judge Program. I've been leading the team for about half a year and I've realized I made a mistake: we should have taken a break in December. Between the end of the GP year and the holidays, things just got a little hectic. So the solution? Spring Break! (It's
Author: ericdustinbrown
The 2018 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Showdown!
Back in December, at a Mid-Atlantic leadership conference, the topic at hand was "Reviews and Feedback Culture." From there, it was decided that they would challenge the Northeast to a year long Review Showdown. The very next day, a representative issued the challenge to Io Hughto, RC of the Northeast at the NE Regional Conference. (Ahem, I issued that challenge over Slack DURING our conference. -edb) The challenge is simple. Over the course of the year, judges will write reviews. At the end
Things You May Want to Know About Reviews (Before You Write Your Next Review)
Quite often someone will bring me a concern they have about a review, something that is keeping them from submitting it and providing their feedback. For my first contribution to The Feedback Loop in 2018, I’ve decided that I want to take some time to address some misconceptions and drop some knowledge bombs to help clear the air and get some people’s pens moving. “Who can read reviews?” That’s a good question, in fact the one I received the most while doing some research
Asking for Appreciation
When we discuss feedback in the judge program, usually we talk about coaching (communicating areas for improvement) or evaluation (providing context for how we view the capabilities of others by showing them where we think they rank). We also say asking for feedback, especially ahead of time, is useful in soliciting the type of feedback that you want to receive. This principle applies easily to these two different forms feedback can take. A third type of feedback to consider is one for
Honk the Horn
Recently, while driving, I honked my horn at another driver. It doesn’t really matter when you’re reading this; the previous statement will hold true. We all honk our horns, but this most recent incident made me think a little beeper about honking and how it relates to feedback. Yes, feedback! Here in the US, horn-honking is generally associated with what we would call negative feedback. Recently, I was riding in a car with Erik Aliff. He drove down a slight incline, and due to
Dealing With Failures, Part Three
Mais uma vez, olá a todos! (Once again, hello everyone!) We’ve talked about the nature of the beast. We’ve talked about how to tame the beast. This time, however, we’ll talk about ourselves - mostly, what do we do once we’ve taken control of the impact failure has, and how we use that in the future. This will ensure that not only we succeed instead of fail, but can teach others from our experience. Ask for and accept help Even harder than admitting your mistakes to
Dealing With Failures, Part Two
Olá a todos! (Hello, everyone!) In the first part, we got to learn a little bit more about failures: what they are, where they live, what they eat. Jokes aside, we spoke a bit about personal experiences and the impact it has on ourselves, our team, and ultimately our event and our customers - the players. In this part, we’ll talk a bit more on how to approach and tame the effects of failure. As I said before, failure always has a negative impact. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t
Dealing With Failures, Part One
While very gratifying, the job of a judge isn’t always easy: along with hours of study and preparation, we also have numerous moments where we have to make difficult decisions during tournaments. As prepared as we may be, it’s difficult to anticipate every situation, and as a result, we make mistakes; mistakes that oftentimes cause disappointment for a player, fellow judge, or even accidentally interrupt the flow of the whole tournament. These kinds of situations have a tendency
The Value of Emotional Feedback
In a recent conversation about reviews, a friend gave two reasons why they hadn’t written any recently. “I don’t have any constructive criticism.” “I don’t know that I have anything valuable to say.” These two statements are pervasive within the judge program. They’re also false. When we’re writing our first few reviews as new judges, we’re usually told we must include constructive criticism. Of course, constructive criticism is important and in our early
Mentoring
Mentoring. Mentor. Mentee. If you had to choose only one concept to pair with the judge program, most people would nod their head towards this one. From day one as a judge candidate to judges at highest levels of leadership in the program, it is everywhere. I came to judging from an educational background, so I didn’t really think twice about mentoring since it was already a large part of what I did with my time. But as I started prepping for writing an overview of what mentoring is, I came