Feedback

One of the major qualities of a good leader or manager is the ability to give and receive feedback. This shows up in every management training programme or course. Feedback is said to be a vital tool for improvement; otherwise, you can get carried away and assume you are on the right path. Feedback is also important for any business. It showcases customer satisfaction and what needs to be improved, and it determines if a business will survive. In most cases, giving or receiving feedback is usually not a good experience, especially when it highlights our areas for improvement. The level of comfortability of the receiver and giver depends on a variety of things, such as the temperament of the giver and receiver, the method of delivery, the intention, and the context.

Feedback is also provided in education through classwork, tests, assignments, and exams. This is to confirm that learning has been achieved and highlight areas that need improvement. However, modern education research is showing that these may not be the true tests of learning but rather its application, especially for developing children. Modern education will have to identify the different types of students and how well they learn. This requires a lot of work, patience, and grace, for which a lot of educators lack the willpower.

The first semester of my EMBA at the Lagos Business School has come to an end. I am happy because it shows the progress of the programme. It also shows that time passes whether you do something or not. In terms of learning, I have been able to learn new things from my course mates. However, we all have the same concern. Outside of peer-to-peer learning, are we learning or improving? We have had various classwork, assignments (both individual and group), and projects. In all of these, we don’t have a single piece of feedback from any of the facilitators on what we have done right and what needs improvement.

As most educators do, we have only received scores and do not know why or how the scores were assigned. This is just one out of four courses, and the rest have been really quiet. Since we have courses that require analysis, feedback is the key to improvement, especially for the executive MBA programme. Most executives have had to make lifestyle adjustments to accommodate this adult education; not getting feedback can be frustrating, and some of my colleagues have also voiced their opinion. This goes to show that the majority are willing to have proper learning for an MBA and not just do an MBA for the sake of a certificate. Proper learning can’t be achieved with feedback.

Examinations are starting, and as a cohort, I believe we are going in blind, not knowing if we have learned or improved. We are mostly relying on teamwork and individual study sessions to pull through. We are trusting that these are enough for us to pass and proceed to the next semester. In all these, I believe learning, no matter how little, has been achieved.