Disaster Response Puerto Rico Project #39930

Feedback training for disaster relief leaders

by Feedback Labs, Inc.

Project Report | Oct 16, 2020
Celebrating feedback superstars

By Meg VanDeusen | Project Leader

Our final 2019-2020 Feedback Fellows celebration!

At Feedback Labs, we are committed to supporting feedback practitioners with the tools and skills they need to build feedback loops at their organizations. One part of this commitment is training frontline practitioners and providing a community of support through the Feedback Fellows program. This month, the 2019-20 cohort of Feedback Fellows completed their fellowship. We are so proud of what they have accomplished, but we are also sad to see them go.

These frontline practitioners come from a range of backgrounds and countries including Colombia, Indonesia, Uganda, South Africa, Afghanistan, Mexico, Yemen, Mali and USA. They are superstars who have and will continue to push feedback to the next level at their organizations and across the world.

Over the course of one year, the 2019-2020 Feedback Fellows have developed a strong commitment and appreciation for feedback and have applied it to their work. When COVID-19 hit, the Fellows responded with resilience and a strong commitment to feedback. On the blog, Doussouba Konate from Mali, Piter Panjaitan from Indonesia, Ilse Garibay from Mexico and Farah Al-Wazeer from Yemen had to share how they responded to the pandemic with feedback loops in mind. Fellows prioritized listening in their projects in addition to their pandemic response - Feedback Fellow Sanjay Fernandes even hosted a LabStorm session to share his work.

On Monday, we had a final virtual celebration to commemorate the closing of the 2019-2020 Fellowship. We are sad to see the fellowship come to an end, and the conversation was heartfelt. Fellows noted that the act of building feedback loops and listening is, at its core, about being human.

Though their time as Feedback Fellowsis over, we know they will continue their journey to make feedback the norm in their respective sectors and countries! This program would not have been possible without the support from our feedback community. Thank you for helping us make feedback an integral part of these leaders' work across the world.

If you know someone who can be an ideal candidate for the Feedback Fellowship program in 2020-2021, please refer them to this link to register and stay updated about the Fellowship application process.

Thank you again for supporting frontline practitioners in their feedback journey!

Meg VanDeusen

Project Leader

Links:

Details on the Feedback Fellowship

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Jun 10, 2020
Moving the Feedback Crash Course Online

By Meg VanDeusen | Project Leader

Puerto Rico attendees design their feedback plans

We believe that understanding the wants and needs of a disaster-affected community is a crucial part of supporting that community. Listening to the people you serve is the first step in identifying an effective response. Listening to adapt service offerings has become even more important during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

At Feedback Labs, we are adapting our programs to prepare our community for the changing circumstances brought by COVID-19. We developed an introduction webinar to feedback in COVID-19 responses which can be viewed here (the password is "feedback101!") and are proud to launch our popular Crash Course program online.

As the world increasingly moves to a digital work environment, we want to ensure a wider audience of feedback practitioners has access to the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to create and sustain meaningful feedback loops. . We are excited to use this opportunity to connect with feedback practitioners across the globe who could not otherwise have joined us at in-person courses.

We believe that our new and improved digital reach will allow us to help more feedback practitioners hone their practice, and will also inspire us to be more forward-thinking and creative with how we conduct our interactive trainings. Expanding Crash Courses to an International audience in 2019 helped us learn what adaptations we could add to make Crash Courses more culturally and linguistically relevant. We are looking forward to more meaningful lessons and changes as we move online.

Thank you for your continued support as we bring Crash Courses online and to a truly global audience of feedback leaders. If you are interested in attending or hosting a Crash Course, let us know here!

Together we can make feedback the norm.

With gratitude,

Meg & the Feedback Labs Team

Puerto Rico attendees discuss feedback loops

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Feb 11, 2020
Feedback Crash Course Goes International

By Meg VanDeusen | Project Leader

Expectations for the course were met

We believe that when leaders invest in feedback, they can make monumental changes at their organizations. The Feedback Crash Course program trains individual feedback champions to be fluent in feedback loops, and then and helps them share their learnings with and implement at their organizations. Through the Crash Course, we train nonprofit and foundation leaders in how to build a feedback practice, and foster a growing community of feedback champions.

Now, we are thrilled to officially announce that with the support of GlobalGiving and advocates like you, the Feedback Crash Course has gone international!

In 2019, we moved our feedback tainings outside of the DC bubble, and hosted Crash Courses in New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico. On January 23, 2020, we completed our first international Crash Course, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The success of this program illustrated the shared experience of listening, across countries and languages. It also helped us learn what adaptations we can make to the course to make it more culturally and linguistically relevant as we continue to venture forward to sharing the Crash Course worldwide.

What happened at the Oaxaca Crash Course? Attendees started by learning the basics of the feedback loop, through interactive activities, a feedback case study, and table conversations. Then, they collaborated to solve a specific feedback-related challenge that they face in their work. By the end of the day, the attending practitioners created a preliminary feedback plan to meet the needs of their organization and earned their certificates as a feedback pioneer.

The Feedback Crash Course in Oaxaca was a huge success. Attendees rated their experience with an NPS score of 88 (on a scale of -100 to 100), citing the clear instruction, dynamic, participatory activities, and learning materials as what brought the theory and practice to life. One attendee noted that the Crash Course was so useful, that they would deem it necessary for Mexican civil society organizations.

Attendees also gave constructive advice for how to make the Crash Course better! One attendee suggested creating a glossary for the existing concepts in the feedback field so that new practitioners can better understand the context. Other attendees expressed their desire for follow-up with courses to do a deeper dive into specific stages of the loop, and to share feedback knowledge with their organizations. We look forward to exploring some of these additions over the coming year.

What’s next? There was a lot of energy following the day of learning. Crash Course attendees started an email group to share their immediate actions and long term feedback plans and hold each other accountable. Now, they have a community of practice to continue to reach out to and learn with on their feedback journey.

Thank you for your continued support as we bring the Crash Course to new locations to train superstar changemakers across the world. Together, we can make feedback the norm!

With gratitude,

Meg & the Feedback Labs Team

Awards for completing the course

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