How to Leverage the (PRY) Feedback mechanism for Improving Business Effectiveness and Efficiency ~ Future of CIO

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

How to Leverage the (PRY) Feedback mechanism for Improving Business Effectiveness and Efficiency

11:27 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

Feedback is the bridge to effectively connect our lesson-learned from the past to the future performance and potential.

Running businesses today is complex as there are so many variables that determine the success of the organization. Businesses have to keep tuning those important business factors, make continuous improvement. Therefore, feedback and feedforward are important to run a successful business for the long term, because feedback is aimed to move forward, they are important to avoid repeating mistakes of the past. Rather, either individually or collectively, we should learn from the past, and develop towards a better future. But more specifically, how to leverage the PRY feedback mechanism for improving business effectiveness and efficiency.

Feedback on performance//outcomes: Feedback on performance and outcomes help the business management make the timely adjustment for making continuous improvement. Feedback is always about how to improve performance so it is always about the future to keep it relevant. Feedback is information that enables you to improve. It is essential that you get this information. Feedback does not focus on the past - it tells you what is happening so that you can adapt. The idea that feedback is about the past is where the logical error creeps in. KPI dashboards such as the balanced scorecard were developed to try to encourage businesses to review a set of measures that could predict business performance. Feedback is also contextual, if we consider mistakes in the past as being in a different time or context, then we are not certain to obtain the same outcomes even though it seems that we are repeating the same mistakes. Real-time feedback performance systems are functioning well when in control of the person does the job well to manage feedback continuously.

Feedback on Action/Realization/implementation: Feedback needs to be continuous, as close to real-time as possible. The real-time feedback on action/realization/implementation can provide insights that can genuinely help operations teams to drive service over time. Real-time feedback also has the advantage that you can set up satisfaction alerts. Peers, subordinates, co-workers, clients, and vendors all have their various observations. Thus, they can provide great feedback, their respective viewpoints can indicate useful areas for further exploration and confirmation. But they do not always understand the constraints or circumstances under which the subject must operate. Customers’ feedback is invaluable as well, gaining feedback from customers at the point of experience when customers or guests are most engaged with the business and are most inclined to give useful and accurate feedback.

Feedback on Potential: Feedback is not limited and static as opposed to expansive and dynamic. Good feedbacks help to unleash business potential. By leverage feedback mechanism, leadership as a system is wrapped in a culture of openness and emergence, so that 'learning' and the application of new learning bring 'newness' which creates a healthy cycle of continuous feedback, exploration, experience and a more natural process of improvement. If you want to create a great culture to unlock business potential, you need to be responsive to feedback either individually or collectively. The crucial issue is that the content of the feedbacks is oriented towards behavior, and if we agree that behavior is an extension of the individual's mindset and personality, therefore, the topic becomes really touchy to cope with the root cause of issues. From the management perspective, feedback becomes so critical to not only improving business performance but also enable either people or the organization as a whole to maximize their potential.

We are learning from the past, and developing towards a new future. Feedback is the bridge to effectively connect our lesson-learned from the past to the future performance and potential. In a way, we are destined to look forward, and in doing so, seeing both the past and the future in front of us.